Schippers - Westerweel Group: Non-Conformist Resistance Against Nazi Germany: A Joint Rescue Effort of Dutch Idealists and Dutch-German Zionists

Hans Schippers

Westerweel Group: Non-Conformist Resistance Against Nazi Germany

New Perspectives on Modern Jewish History

Edited by
Cornelia Wilhelm

Volume 11

This book is the revised version of the Dutch edition:

De Westerweelgroep en de Palestinapioniers.

Nonconformistisch verzet in de Tweede Wereldoorlog

2015 Hans Schippers & Uitgeverij Verloren

www.verloren.nl

The publication of this book was made possible by:

Stichting Democratie en Media, Amsterdam

The Municipality of Rotterdam,

Gravin van Bylandt Stichting, The Hague.

Translator: R.J. Salfrais, Amsterdam

Editor: Jeanne Bovenberg-Meyers

ISBN 978-3-11-058000-6

e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-058270-3

e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-058014-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018963877

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;

detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Cover image: Group of Palestine pioneers in Barcelona in September 1944 (private collection).

www.degruyter.com

Abbreviations

During my masters thesis research in 1973 into the history of the left-wing socialist Mapam party, I happened to meet several former members of the Westerweel group in kibbutz Yakum. I was familiar with the name Westerweel group from the publications of Prof. J. Presser and Prof. L. de Jong as one of the few resistance organizations in the Netherlands in which Jews and non-Jews worked together during the Second World War. However, the stories told to me by several former members of the groupabout the hiding operations, escapes from Westerbork and journeys over the Pyrenees to Spainwere new to me and extremely fascinating.

Their stories, moreover, were not triumphant, but rather subdued and permeated with the realization that many comrades had fallen into German hands. The non-Jewish helpers were always mentioned with respect. Without them, going into hiding and carrying out the activities that followed later would not have been possible.

In Yakum, I was also encouraged, as a prospective historian, to consider researching this subject after my graduation. I agreed that this would indeed be interesting, but as we know, practical matters often stand in the way of the realization of such resolutions. Forty years later, here is the book.

The main reason for describing the history of the Westerweel group is its unique character. The groups members and helpers, Jewish and non-Jewish had different social backgrounds and political orientations. A second reason is that there was no fully researched monograph about the Westerweel groups activities when I started work on this book. I wanted to correct this omission.