Pritchard, who rescued Dutch Jews during Holocaust, dies

[inanna]

Source: Associated Press

Dec 21, 12:36 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A woman credited with saving dozens of Jews in the Netherlands during the Holocaust has died at 96.

Marion Pritchard's son Arnold Pritchard said Wednesday by telephone that his mother died Dec. 11 from cerebral arteriosclerosis in Washington.

In 1981, the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel recognized Pritchard as "righteous among the nations," a title for gentiles who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

Pritchard was said to have aided as many as 150 people, including many children, but she insisted that she couldn't have done it without help from others.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBIT_PRITCHARD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Mc Mike]

1. Thank you Ms. Pritchard. Thank you Yad Vashem memorial.

Love to, respect and sorrow for, Ms. Pritchard's family.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I just read the obit in the Washington Post and was looking for a link so I could post it.

Thanks.

Marion Pritchard, Dutch rescuer of Jewish children during the Holocaust, dies at 96

By Emily Langer

@emilylangerWP

December 20 at 7:26 PM

Marion Pritchard, a Dutch social work student who was credited with saving dozens of Jews during the Holocaust, spiriting some to safe houses, hiding others under floorboards, and, in one case, executing a Nazi before he could arrest a family of four, died Dec. 11 in Washington. She was 96. ... The cause was cerebral arteriosclerosis, according to her family.

Mrs. Pritchard was recognized in 1981 by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, as one of the “righteous among the nations” — those gentiles who, seeking no reward, risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Nazi dragnet that claimed 6 million lives during World War II. ... She was said to have fed, clothed, hidden or otherwise aided as many as 150 people, many of them children. She insisted that she could not have done her work without the assistance, overt or implied, of neighbors, friends and other members of the resistance. She observed, her son Arnold Pritchard recalled, that only rarely if ever during the Holocaust could one person single-handedly save the life of another.
....

For nearly three years, Mrs. Pritchard cared for a Jewish man, Fred Polak, and his two young sons and infant daughter, taking up residence in the country home of an acquaintance where they were hidden. In case of a Nazi roundup, they perfected a routine by which the father and his children could slip beneath the floorboards within 17 seconds. They gave the baby sleeping pills to prevent her from crying.

One day, three Germans and a Dutch policeman came to search the house and left, having failed to detect the hideaway. Shortly thereafter, the Dutchman, who nonetheless suspected that something was awry, returned and discovered the hideout. Before he could make an arrest, Mrs. Pritchard grabbed a small revolver that she had kept for such an emergency and fatally shot him. ... “I would do it again, under the same circumstances,” she told an interviewer years later, “but it still bothers me.”

[JudyM]

4. Wow, that is GUTS. Totally risked her life.

Should've been more global recognition of her heroism in addition to Yad Vashem. RIP and thank you so much, Ms Pritchard.

[inanna]

6. Thanks so much for posting this!

[Sunlei]

3. Much love to all "righteous among the nations"

[COLGATE4]

5. Absolutely Righteous among Nations

Righteous among nations indeed. Well deserved. I wish there had been more Mrs. Pritchards.