Joop Westerweel

Joop Westerweel.

Joop Westerweel (January 25, 1899, Zutphen – August 11, 1944, Vught)[1] was a schoolteacher[2] and a Christian anarchist[3] who became a Dutch World War II resistance leader, the head of the Westerweel Group.

Westerweel along with Joachim Simon and other Jewish and colleagues, helped save in the region of 200 to 300 Jewish lives by organizing an escape route, smuggling Jews through Belgium, France and on into neutral Switzerland and Spain. He was arrested on March 10, 1944, after leading a group of Jewish children to safety in Spain, whilst on his way back to the Netherlands at the Dutch/Belgian border. He was executed at Herzogenbusch concentration camp in August 1944.[1]

Righteous Among the Nations

On June 16, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Johan Gerard Westerweel and his wife, Wilhelmina Dora Westerweel-Bosdriesz, as Righteous Among the Nations.

References

  1. 1 2 Presser, Jacques (1998). Ashes in the Wind: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry. Wayne State University Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-8143-2036-5.
  2. ↑ Johan (Joop) Westerweel | "Their Fate Will Be My Fate Too…" Teachers Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust An online exhibition by Yad Vashem. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Warren I. Cohen: Profiles in Humanity: The Battle for Peace, Freedom, Equality, and Human Rights ; Chapter 10; page 158


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