Majoor Bosshardt

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Majoor Bosshardt
Bust in Terneuzen

Majoor Bosshardt (born June 8, 1913 in Utrecht , † June 25, 2007 in Amsterdam ; actually Alida Margaretha Bosshardt ) was a Dutch Salvation Army officer who was elected one of the greatest Dutch women of all time in a vote in the Netherlands in 2004.

Life

After attending the Regentess School and the girls' school in Utrecht, Bosshardt worked in her uncle's cloth trade from 1927. In 1932 she became a member of the Salvation Army and attended the organization's training school in Amstelveen . From 1934 she worked in the children's home “De Zonnehoek” on the artificially created island of Rapenburg near Amsterdam.

Despite the ban on the Salvation Army by the Germans during the occupation , Bosshard was able, among other things, to help many Jewish children in “De Zonnehoek” and to get them food during the hungry winters. She was once betrayed and arrested by the Germans, but managed to escape custody.

After the Second World War , she first came to the main headquarters of the Dutch Salvation Army in Amsterdam, where she noticed that the organization was hardly active in the red light district of Walletjes . To counteract this, she organized the “Goodwill Center” there from 1948 and annual Christmas parties with the prostitutes, which slowly made her a well-known person and finally appeared on Dutch television for the first time in 1959 (“Anders dan Andere”) . Bosshard achieved extraordinary fame in 1965 when he accompanied the then Princess Beatrix, who was dressed in Salvation Army uniform, through the Amsterdam red light district, which was an important topic of conversation in the Netherlands for a long time. She was later made a lieutenant colonel but remained known to the Dutch as Majoor Bosshardt.

She retired in 1978, but made several appearances on Dutch television to further advance the concerns of the Salvation Army. Whenever she had time, she continued to support those seeking help. Since the end of November 2005, she has barely been able to leave her house because of an illness. She has received many honors during her life; u. a. she received several medals from the Dutch royal family as well as the founding order, the highest honor of the Salvation Army. In the vote for “ De Grootste Nederlander ” in 2004, she was voted 16th.

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personal data
SURNAME Bosshardt, Majoor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bosshardt, Alida Margaretha (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch officer in the Salvation Army
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2007
Place of death Amsterdam