Diet Eman hid and supported Dutch Jews in WW2 at great personal risk. She passed away on Sept. 3. She also volunteered for many years at a health clinic for the uninsured.
The courage of Diet and others who saved Jews from the Nazis is an inspiration.
[she worked] in a resistance group known as HEIN. Its 16-odd members named themselves for Sietsma, according to Yad Vashem; the moniker was also a Dutch acronym for “helping each other in need.”
The group provided hiding places, money, ration cards and false identification papers to Jews, in addition to assisting downed Allied pilots and other refugees from the Nazi authorities. In all, about 25,000 Jews went into hiding in the Netherlands. Some two-thirds survived, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. WAPO: Diet Eman obituary
Half the members of HEIN were killed by the Nazis, including her fiance.
“I was caught and imprisoned. The cell for one person held five. It had no toilet, no water to get clean. I was in danger all the time but never alone. Every day, I recited verses from Psalms: ‘Though my enemies surround me, You are with me.’
“When they took me for questioning, I refused to admit that I knew German. At the start of the occupation, I had already stopped speaking German. So they had to get a translator. That worked out well, as it gave me time to figure out what to tell them.
“It was a terrible time.” Dutch Resistance Rescuer Recounts Her Story Of Saving Jewish Lives
American society also seemed to be changing for the worse, she said.
“The neo-Nazis started to show up again,” Ms. Eman wrote. “When the war ended we all said, ‘This can never happen again.’ But now polls show that 22 percent of the U.S. population does not believe there was a Holocaust. The story has to be retold so that history does not repeat itself.” WAPO: Diet Eman obituary