Aunt Truus

Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer (1965)

Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer , known as Aunt Truus (born April 21, 1896 in Alkmaar , Netherlands , † August 30, 1978 in Amsterdam ) saved more than 10,000 Jewish and “non-Aryan” children during the Nazi era with her child transports, according to Yad Vashem “Children.

Life

Little is known about the private person of Geertruida Wijsmuller. Geertruida, who was called Truus for short , married the banker JF Wijsmuller. The marriage remained childless. It is reported from her that she was a resolute and not on the mouth, at the same time modest and unpretentious woman, who feared nothing and nobody and under her rough skin had a particularly soft heart for children. So they gave her two nicknames: Aunt Truus and Stoomwals (in German the steam roller ).

In the 1930s, Wijsmuller began to work for the Dutch Committee for Jewish Affairs (Comité voor Bijzondere Joodse Belangen) and initially dealt with the transport of food and medicines to various distressed areas in Europe. She worked with Recha Freier from Berlin to rescue Jewish children. After the situation of the Jewish and “non-Aryan” population in Nazi Germany had worsened, she traveled to Vienna several times from November 1938 and did not give up until she was received by Adolf Eichmann , who was the “ central office for Jewish emigration ”and from whom she finally received at the beginning of December the promise that 600 children would be allowed to leave for England within five days if she could organize the transport within this period of time. After she succeeded and on December 11, 1938 the Kindertransport could take place via the Netherlands to Great Britain, others followed, and finally more than 10,000 children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia had been brought to Great Britain until the action on September 1, 1939 - the beginning of the Second World War - came to an end. By then, Wijsmuller had organized 74 transports. She continued to help Jews and other persecuted people during the war. She traveled to Scandinavia, Belgium and France, organized trips, protected the persecuted and took part in relief operations.

After the war, Wijsmuller became a member of the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy VVD ( Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ) and was a member of the Amsterdam municipal council from 1945 to 1966 . In doing so, she was primarily involved in the field of work with the handicapped and advocated the creation of jobs for the handicapped in particular.

Bronze bust of Aunt Truus on the Bachplein in Amsterdam

In 1950 her book "Geen tijd voor tranen" (No time for tears - not published in German) was published, which describes the history of the Kindertransporte and their auxiliary work during the war.

For her fearless rescue work during the Second World War as well as her political activities in the post-war period, Wijsmuller received various awards, was "Officier in de Orde of Oranje-Nassau" and an honorary citizen of Amsterdam; She received the Reconnaissance from the French government and the honorary title Righteous Among the Nations from the Yad Vashem Memorial . As a souvenir of their work, the Truus Wijsmuller Association was founded in Almere in 1980 , a foundation for mentally handicapped children and young people. In 1978 her bronze bust was set up in Amsterdam's Bachplein . In many Dutch towns, streets, squares and paths are named after her. On June 15, 2011, an asteroid was named after her: (15296) Tantetruus .

plant

• T. Wijsmuller-Meijer: Geen tijd voor tranen. (“No time for tears”), Van Kampen & Zoon, Amsterdam 1964.

literature

• B. van der Weijde, HM van der Weijde-Oudenaarden: Vrouwen op een bordje. (“Women's names on street signs”), Bijvoet, Leiden 1993, ISBN 90-6932-007-X .
• Mies Bouhuys, Boris Klatser: Om nooit te vergeten - Amsterdamse monuments and commemorative cones ter herinnering aan de Tweede Wereldoorlog. (“Against forgetting - Amsterdam memorial stones and plaques in memory of the Second World War”), Produktie Uitgeverij Thoth, 1995, ISBN 90-6868-124-9 .
• Miriam Keesing: The Children of Tante Truus , Het Parool, May 1, 2010, accessed February 16, 2016

Web links

Commons : Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• University of Essen, Department of Protestant Theology: Report on Wijsmuller's meeting with Adolf Eichmann and further background information on the Kindertransporte.
• Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogs Documentatie. (Dutch Institute for War Documentation)
• Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer on Yad Vashem
• Story of Ilse Bauer from Isenburger Heim. “Aunt Truus”, guardian angel for 10,000 Jewish children . Offenbach-Post , December 27, 2018. About a film project by Pamela Sturhoofd and Jessica van Tijn (work in progress). They found a total of 20 "Truus' Children" still alive

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chana Arnon: Jews Rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. (PDF; 233 kB)
2. ↑ Remembrance of the Kindertransport on September 1, 1939 at the inauguration of the monument in Hoek van Holland in November 2011
3. ^ L. de Jong: Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Staatsuitgeverij, Amsterdam / Den Haag 1969, part 1, p. 489.
4. ^ Amsterdam, monument op het Bachplein.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.