Marion Pritchard

Marion Pritchard, born November 7, 1920 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, describes her apolitical family; her brother; her family’s Jewish friends; how her father was upset with the Dutch government because they didn’t just open their borders to refugees; her work finding foster homes for Jewish children and also hiding Jews; how her family did not know all of what she was doing, which was for their safety; the widespread antisemitism in Holland; being imprisoned for six months in a jail in Amsterdam after being caught with friends who put out an anti-Nazi newssheet; being threatened and intimidated, but not physically abused; leaving Holland in 1945 to work with the United Nations in displaced persons camps in Germany; becoming active with Zionists trying get to Israel; going to the United States in 1947; her thoughts on Elie Wiesel; her husband, who was a liberator at Buchenwald; and her belief that you must do the right thing if you can find out what the right thing is. Marion Pritchard (1920-2016) was born Marion Philippina van Binsbergern on November 7, 1920 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her father was a judge in Amsterdam and her mother was English. She was a student at the Amsterdam School for Social Work when Germany invaded and occupied the Netherlands in May 1940. Marion was arrested and briefly imprisoned in 1942 after German police raided a student gathering where they were listening to allied broadcasts. In late 1942 she moved to Huizen, Netherlands and hid a Jewish family, Fred Polak and his three children after his wife, Edwina Louisa Moor, was arrested for her involvement with the Resistance. After the war, Marion moved to Germany to work with UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration). She worked in social services at the Föhrenwald and Windsheim displaced persons camps. She met Anton Pritchard (Tony), a form... er American Army officer who was also volunteering with UNRRA, and they married in Germany in 1947. They moved to the United States and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. They had three sons. She later worked in Boston as a social worker. Marion was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981 for her work to aid as many as 150 people during and immediately after the Holocaust. Show more Altruism. Antisemitism--Netherlands. Christians--Netherlands. Hiding places--Netherlands--Amsterdam. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Netherlands--Personal narratives. Jews--Netherlands--Amsterdam. Jews--Persecutions--Netherlands. Refugee camps--Germany. Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Refugees. World War, 1939-1945--Women. Zionists. Women--Personal narratives. Magda Trocme, born in 1901, describes her rescue activities during WWII in the French village of Le Chambon sur Lignon; Philip Hallie’s book, “Lest innocent blood be shed,” which describes the French village Le Chambon as a safe haven for Jewish escapees; working with the Quakers; one of their first rescued Jews, Hanna Hirsch, and the quasi-underground arrangement for refugees, so that she eventually ended up in Switzerland and then Queens, New York after the war; how the French people got involved with rescue activities and inspired others to help; the daily routine during the war and the large numbers of refugees who were sharing their house; the difficulty in explaining the rescue activities to their children so that the refugees wouldn’t be discovered and how it was a matter of constant problem-solving and resisting in small ways; being very aware of the danger they were in but never considering not helping; her husband’s arrest because he was the organizer of the rescue activities and most responsible; her husband’s release after the war was over; leaving Le Chambon in 1960 and moving first to Versailles and later to Geneva, where her husband was a minister; and visiting Yad Vas