Johan Hendrik Weidner

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Weidner in Schiphol, March 29, 1967

Johan Hendrik Weidner (born October 22, 1912 in Brussels ; † May 21, 1994 in Monterey Park , USA) also called Jean Weidner (French) and John Henry Weidner (American), was a Dutch businessman, diplomat and during the Second World War II founder and head of the Western European Dutch-Paris escape network , which rescued more than 1000 persecuted people from occupied Western Europe.

Early development

Johan Weidner was the oldest of four children born to Dutch parents. He grew up in Collonges sous Salève in France near the Swiss border, where his father taught with the Seventh-day Adventists . He studied law and business administration in Geneva and Paris. In 1935 he opened a shop for importing and exporting textiles in Paris, and three years later a sales point was added in Collonges.

Help to escape in World War II

After the campaign in the west , which ended with the occupation of the Benelux countries and the armistice of Compiègne , he was no longer able to join the Allied troops and so he continued his business from Lyon and Annecy. From there, he and friends set up the Dutch-Paris escape network as a leader in order to bring persecuted people to safety through France and then on impassable mountain paths either to Switzerland or via the Pyrenees to Spain. The network succeeded in getting around 800 Jews, 100 shot down Allied crew members and numerous other people across the borders. The network consisted of up to 300 escape helpers, of whom around 150 were captured, including his sister Gabrielle, who died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp shortly after the liberation by the Red Army . Weidner himself was one of the people most wanted by the Gestapo and was arrested several times. a. by the notorious Klaus Barbie in Lyon, but escaped again and again in an adventurous way.

post war period

Weidner worked as an employee of the Dutch embassy in Paris in the legal prosecution of collaborators and in 1950 left the civil service at his own request. Five years later he emigrated to the United States , where he married his wife Naomi and ran the Weidner Natural Foods grocery chain in Monterey Park, California with her .

Awards

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Weidner, Johan Hendrik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weidner, Jean; Weidner, John Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch entrepreneur and head of the Dutch-Paris escape network
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Brussels , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1994
Place of death Monterey Park , California , United States