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Amsterdam Museum en Huis Willet-Holthuysen bekroond met Michelin sterren

30 April 2025

Ode to Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer | Attention to your important work

By Karin van Paassen18 december 2024
Pasfoto van Truus Wijsmuller Meijer, gebruikt voor een Duits laissez passer van 12 april 1940, collectie NIOD

This text was translated using AI and may contain errors. If you have suggestions or comments, please contact us at info.ode@amsterdammuseum.nl.

 

Hereby I would like to mention you, Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer (1896-1978), as an important woman for thousands of Jewish children and adults for whom you were life-saving during the war years. You were one of the negotiators with Nazi Adolf Eichman and English Prime Minister Chamberlaine to bring Jewish children to safety. You arranged for 10,000 Jewish children, mostly from Eastern Europe, to be brought to England through the Hook of Holland. In memory of this “Kindertransport,” a monument was placed in Hoek van Holland in 2011, and I also called attention to your important work with a group of people, at the time the monument was placed. We developed the website Voetstappen naar een nieuwleven (Footsteps to a new life), on which you were also written about. I admire your courage and decisiveness!

There is a statue of you in Amsterdam:

Gedenkteken met portret van Truus Wijsmuller Meijer, op het Bachplein Amsterdam Zuid, Kunstenaar Herman Janzen, foto Cees Camel (2020)

Memorial with portrait of Truus Wijsmuller Meijer, at Bachplein Amsterdam Zuid, Artist Herman Janzen, photo Cees Camel (2020)

On the pedestal is the following text: G. Wijsmuller-Meijer Member Municipal Council of Amsterdam 1945-1966 Bellatrix Vigilans Beatrix. (Strijdbaar, Volhardend, Gelukbrenden)

Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer was a city council member for the V.V.D. and a board member of many social institutions. She was known for her many works in the social field. During the war years she saved the lives of thousands of Jewish children. 
The statue stood from 1965 in the Beatrixoord in the Oosterpark. When that was disbanded, she took her own statue home. There she kept it until her death. In 1978, the statue was placed at Bachplein, where she had met with Jewish Amsterdammers who needed her help during the war.

Period

1896– 1978

About

Ode by Karin van Paassen to Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer .

Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer was incredibly important in saving 10,000 Jewish children during the war years!

Truus Wijsmuller bij haar borstbeeld, 1965, fotograaf: Ron Kroon (ANEFO), collectie Nationaal Archief

Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer

Geertruida (Truus) Wijsmuller-Meijer (Alkmaar, April 21, 1896 – Zandvoort, August 30, 1978) was a Dutch resistance fighter who helped Jewish children and adults escape to safety before and during World War II.

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