juli 1943 Amsterdam
In 1943, new-born Jewish girl Ruth was rescued from the hands of the Nazis by Pauline van Waasdijk and Hester van Lennep. She was registered as Marijke van Waasdijk. Pauline and Hester saved the lives of about eighty children.
Pauline and Hester belonged to a large group of people who rescued Jewish children from the Hollandsche Schouwburg. In 1942 and 1943, the Germans used this former theatre as a deportation centre for Jews to be taken to Camp Westerbork.
Since the Hollandsche Schouwburg was too small for the large number of people who had been arrested, the children were put in a nursery which was located opposite the Schouwburg, on Plantage Middenlaan. The head was Henriëtte Pimentel, a member of the resistance. The nursery garden was adjacent to that of the College of Education. Together with the director of this school, Johan van Hulst, Pimentel devised a plan to save the children.
With the help of the director of the Hollandsche Schouwburg, German Jew Walter Süskind, they ensured that the children disappeared from the German records. The children were then smuggled out through the College of Education: hidden in bags, suitcases, or between the dirty laundry, or simply walking out, when the guards were not paying attention. About six hundred children were saved in this way.