Mies Boissevain-van Lennep

Adrienne Minette (Mies) Boissevain-van Lennep (September 21, 1896 – February 18, 1965) was a Dutch feminist who was active in the Resistance before being arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp.

With her husband Jan and their five children, she lived in Amsterdam, where she was active in the feminist movement through such organizations as the Society for Women's Interests and Equal Citizenship (Vereeniging voor Vrouwenbelangen en Gelijk Staatsburgerschap).

[1] During World War II, Boissevain-van Lennep and her family took part in efforts to house and protect Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.

[1] The house where the Boissevain-van Lennep family had moved at the end of 1939 gradually became a center of resistance and sabotage activities.

[1] By then her husband Jan was dead, having spent more than three years in various concentration camps (including Amersfoort, Herzogenbusch, and Sachsenhausen) before dying in Buchenwald.

Mies Boissevain during her detention in WWII
A national liberation skirt with a National Institute registration stamp, 1947. This skirt is embroidered with the dates of successive Liberation Day celebrations at which it was worn.