Distant Memories: The Life of Dutch Holocaust Hero Marion van Binsbergen

Marion Philippina Pritchard (née van Binsbergen; 7 November 1920 – 11 December 2016) was a Dutch-American social worker and psychoanalyst, who distinguished herself as a savior of Jews in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Pritchard helped save approximately 150 Dutch Jews, most of them children, throughout the German occupation of the Netherlands. In addition to protecting these people’s lives, she was imprisoned by Nazis, worked in collaboration with the Dutch resistance, and shot dead a known Dutch informer to the Nazis to save Dutch Jewish children. After the war, Pritchard worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Germany at displaced-persons camps. Consequently, she met and married Anton "Tony" Pritchard, the head of such a camp in Bavaria and a recently discharged United States Army officer. The Pritchards then moved to the United States in 1947. The couple had three sons and Marion later became a psychoanalyst. She died at age 96 in December 2016 from cerebral arteriosclerosis in Washington, D.C.

In his study of rescuers, Ervin Staub states, “Goodness, like evil, often begins in small steps. Heroes evolve; they aren’t born. Very often the rescuers made only a small commitment at the start—to hide someone for a day or two. But once they had taken that step, they began to see themselves differently, as someone who helps. What starts as mere willingness becomes intense involvement.” So what inspired Marion van Binsbergen's willingness to help Jews? Well, while riding her bicycle to school one day in 1942 in the Netherlands, Marion came upon a group of Nazi soldiers liquidating a Jewish children's home and watched helplessly as they violently threw young children into a truck.

This encounter transformed the life of the young Dutch woman forever, leading her to become an active resister to the Nazi regime and ultimately save the lives of 150 Jewish children during World War II. Over three years, she risked her life numerous times by hiding Jewish refugees, arranging falsified identification papers, finding non-Jewish homes to take in Jewish children, and performing what was known as the "mission of disgrace" by falsely registering herself as the unwed mother of newborn babies to conceal their Jewish identity. "Most of us were brought up to tell [the] truth, to obey the secular law and the Ten Commandments," Marion reflected in a 1996 lecture about her wartime experiences. "By 1945, I had lied, stolen, cheated, deceived and even killed." What began as mere willingness became intense involvement for Marion, especially when she was forced to kill a Dutch Nazi policeman who had shown up at her house searching for hidden Jews.

Marion's story, hidden history that has remained long forgotten, is the story of a young compassionate Dutch woman determined to do what was right & a foreign government set on the complete systematic annihilation of Europe's Jewish population.

For the rest of Marion's story, please check out the audio link provided for EPISODE TWENTY-TWO (and final episode of SEASON 2) of our podcast, Hidden History: An Odyssey Through Time

 

LISTEN NOW: Distant Memories: The Life of Dutch Holocaust Hero Marion van Binsbergen

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Images and Documents

Marion van Binsbergen poses with Jewish infant, Erica Polak, whom she is hiding, 1944 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Another pose of Marion van Binsbergen with Jewish infant, Erica Polak, whom she is hiding, 1944 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Fred Polak with his children Erica & Lex, 1944, Amsterdam (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Fred Polak with his daughter Erica, 1944, Amsterdam (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Tom Polak (left) and his brother Lex, pre-1939, Amsterdam. The two boys were hidden, along with their father and sister, by Marion van Binsbergen during the Holocaust (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Lientje Brilleslijper, her common law German husband Eberhard and daughter Kathinka, Amsterdam, August 1945. Lientje Brilleslijper, a Dutch Jewish woman, and her common law German husband hid Jews during the war. On July 12, 1944, they were arrested by the SS while their child was left in the house under guard. The following day Marion van Binsbergen rescued their daughter Kathinka and hid her. Kathinka and her parents were reunited after the war (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Marion van Binsbergen in her United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration uniform, Amsterdam, 1946 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Marion van Binsbergen Pritchard in the Windsheim displaced persons' camp, 1946-1948 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Three UNRRA workers sit on top of a car in the Windsheim displaced persons' camp, Marion is on the right, 1946-48 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

UNRRA staff of the Windsheim displaced persons' camp sit outdoors on the steps to a building, 1946-48. Tony Pritchard is on the far right and Marion is 2nd from the left (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Tony Pritchard addresses the crowd as head of the Windsheim DP camp while his wife Marion (who was not Jewish) provided simultaneous translation into Yiddish. Marion could also speak in English, Dutch and German, 1947-48 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Wedding portrait of Marion van Binsbergen in the Windsheim displaced persons' camp, April 1947 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Photos of Marion and Tony Pritchard as they celebrate their wedding in the Windsheim displaced persons' camp, Germany, April 1947 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

A cake prepared and decorated by residents of the Windsheim displaced persons' camp in celebration of the marriage of Tony and Marion Pritchard, April 1947 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Kathinka, the daughter of Lien Brilleslijper who Marion saved from the Germans, East Berlin, 1987 (courtesy of Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust).

Marion Pritchard, 1988, Vermont (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Pritchard).

Marion and Tony Pritchard, 1988 (courtesy of Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust).

Marion Pritchard accepts the Medal of Valor at the Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Dinner in Los Angeles, May 5, 2009 (courtesy of the Simon Wiesenthal Center).

Featured Videos

In this clip, from Marion's testimony to the USC Shoah Foundation in 1998, she describes how she killed a Nazi in order to save the lives of the Jewish family she was hiding:

In this clip, from Marion's testimony to the USC Shoah Foundation in 1998, she remembers the use of anti-Jewish propaganda when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. She speaks on how the Nazis used education tools to separate the rest of the population from the Jews:

Reading Material

 

GERMAN INVASION OF THE NETHERLANDS

On May 10, 1940, the German army invaded the Netherlands. It was the start of five days of fighting that resulted in the occupation of the Netherlands. Why did Nazi Germany attack the Netherlands? How did the Dutch population respond? What happened in those five days?

Learn more below:

JEWISH RESISTANCE

Nazi-sponsored persecution and mass murder fueled resistance to the Germans in the Third Reich itself and throughout occupied Europe. Although Jews were the Nazis' primary victims, they too resisted Nazi oppression in a variety of ways, both collectively and as individuals.

Learn more below:

Resources

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Comments

Donna Mendoza
a year ago

Great job John,she was such a amazing and wonderful woman for all that she did and risk her life