Gerritdina Benders-Letteboer

A native of Bloemendaal, he would go on to become an active member of the Dutch Resistance during World War II while continuing his work as a teacher at the Amsterdams Lyceum.

At the time of his arrest, Johan Benders had a list in his pocket with the coded names and addresses of 18 Jewish people he had helped hide; Gerritdina Benders-Letteboer was five months pregnant and the mother of two young daughters.

[10][12][11][13] Charged with stealing from the registrar's office at his school, Johan Benders was incarcerated at the Amstelveenseweg prison, and housed in a cell with Dutch poet Gerrit Kouwenaar.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation notes that Johan Benders was a hero to the end, having never revealed the names or addresses of the Jewish people he had helped to save.

After searching for and finding Lore Polak, who had escaped from the concentration camp where she had been deported, she returned her to the safety of her home, and then sought out another of her husband’s former students, Jan Doedens, and brought her into hiding to prevent her deployment via the Arbeitseinsatz, which forced Dutch citizens to work as slave laborers.

[12] Following the war, Gerritdina Benders-Letteboer began to build a new life not just for herself and her daughters, but also for one of the girls she had sheltered from Nazi persecution and deportation – Lore Polak, who had discovered that her entire family had been murdered during the Holocaust.