I watched “The Resistance Banker” last night, the acclaimed Dutch film about the banker who financed the Dutch resistance during World War II. My parents emigrated from Holland to the United States after the war to escape a continent torn apart by an anti-Semitic ideology... 1/8
My mother’s father had a key position in the Dutch central bank but was fired when the Nazis seized control. He had married my grandmother, who was Jewish, despite his parents’ protests. She was forced to wear the Jewish star and most of her family perished in the Holocaust…2/8
My grandmother three times was rounded up for concentration camps but my grandfather’s quick thinking and ingenuity saved her. My mother, a teenager, was forced by Germans to watch resistance fighters being shot by a firing squad; a similar scene is in the movie…3/8
My father’s father ran the Dutch steel company and was placed in a concentration camp because he refused to cooperate with the Nazis. When soldiers came to take my teenage father to Germany for forced conscription, he escaped by leaping from a second floor window….4/8
The distraction was necessary because my aunt and uncle were hiding Jewish children in the house. For their work during the war, Israel has recognized them as "Righteous Among The Nations." ….5/8
These are all small acts compared to the extraordinary work of Walraven van Hall, the hero of the movie. But my parents’ experiences shows how every person can find the strength in themselves to counter intolerance and hate…6/8
Before my mother passed away three years ago, she was increasingly worried about the growing racial and religious divisions in her adopted country. She knew the signs. She regretted she had not done enough to help combat it…7/8
The last words she wrote: “I have taken advantage of all the good things this country has to offer, while being unaware of the many problems that we still face.” 8/8
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