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Truus Wijsmuller, the woman who saved 10,000 Jewish children with her "big mouth," looks somewhat forlorn. Truus Wijsmuller, immortalized as a former city council member, rendered in bronze on a hardstone pedestal at Bachplein in Amsterdam South. In no way does this small statue do justice as a memorial to this remarkable Amsterdam woman.
Mrs. Truus Wijsmuller was more than just a city council member. She was more than just an administrator of the former Orphanage on Kalverstraat. Just as she was more than just a co-founder of the Anne Frank Foundation. Truus Wijsmuller was the rescuer of 10,000 children during wartime.
Immediately following Kristallnacht on the night of November 9-10, 1938, where several hundred German Jews were murdered, hundreds of synagogues in Nazi Germany were destroyed, thousands of shops and businesses owned by Jews were looted, and thirty thousand Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, numerous German Jewish refugees stood at the Dutch border. But the borders were closed. In this way, the Netherlands sought to maintain its neutrality with regard to Germany.
Truus Wijsmuller sets off on a journey. The first of many trips in the following months takes Truus to Vienna. She manages to reach SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, tasked with resolving the so-called 'Jewish problem' and regarded as one of the main architects of the Holocaust.
Truus demands from Eichmann that he allow her to take Jewish children with her to England, thereby rescuing them from the clutches of the persecution. Eichmann tries to bluff Wijsmuller. "You may take six hundred children. But they must leave Austria within two days."
Truus does not waver. With her organizational talent and determination, she arranges transportation, residence permits, and accommodations for the children through her contacts. Two days later, the first 'Kindertransport' of six hundred children from Nazi Germany, across 'closed to refugees' Netherlands, to free Great Britain becomes a reality. Six hundred Jewish children are saved from imminent destruction.
Truus continues her work. Immediately after the first transport, she sets out again. Desperate parents in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, foreseeing impending destruction, entrust their young children to this stranger. One train after another brings transports to Hoek van Holland, where the children board ships bound for Great Britain. Homeless Jewish orphan children turned away from orphanages in Nazi Germany are picked up off the streets by Truus and taken with her.
Her efforts continue until September 1, 1939. On that day, Germany invades Poland and the Allies declare war on Germany. The borders close. Until that moment, together with Jewish refugee committees in Germany and Great Britain, Truus Wijsmuller has saved around 10,000 Jewish children. Most children could travel directly to Great Britain. A few were forced to stay in the Netherlands because they were either below or above the age for which the British would issue a residence permit.
Or they were children whose papers were not in order because Truus had taken more children than would be admitted. Nothing stopped her from saving as many children as possible from the looming destruction, as long as they could leave Germany.
Even with closed borders, Truus does not remain idle. She now travels to France. She transports children from as-yet-unoccupied Europe through Spain to Great Britain. It is a race against time..
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