Truus Wijsmuller isn't a name most people have heard of, but this unknown savior rescued thousands of Jewish children from Europe. Now, two Dutch women want to make sure her memory lives on
Vienna, December 1938.
A
42-year-old woman from the Netherlands named Geertruida Wijsmuller arrives at the Central Office for Jewish Emigration and asks to speak with the man in charge. At first, she is rebuffed. Nazi Lieutenant Adolf Eichmann is a busy man. But Geertruida — or Truus, as she is called by her friends — is not afraid of powerful people.
Eichmann finally grants her an interview, which begins with him saying, “I’m not accustomed to dealing with women.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I left my husband at home,” Truus replies. “You’ll have to deal with me.”
Truus, in fact, has a deal for Eichmann: The Nazis want to make Austria Judenfrei, and in 1938 the goal is not to kill all the Jews but to force them to emigrate from Nazi-controlled lands — after stripping them of all their wealth and property. Truus will help Eichmann do the first part. She will arrange for Jewish children to be transported to England.
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