Jaap Penraat

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Jaap Penraat (Amsterdam, April 11, 1918 - Catskill, June 25, 2006) was a Dutch resistance fighter during the Second World War.

Penraat was interior designer, architect and sculpturer of tiles and statues. He started his resistance activities by forging identity papers for Jews. Later he smuggled 406 Jewish people to safety from The Netherlands via France to Spain by convincing the Nazis they were slave laborers for the Atlantic Wall, on France's Atlantic coast. He was tortured by the Nazis but revealed nothing about his operations. After Jaap's release, he continued his activities.

In 1958 Penraat moved to the United States. Yad Vashem, the official Israeli memorial to victims of the Holocaust, awarded him the designation of "Righteous Amongst the Nations", and put him on its honor roll on June 11, 1988.

[edit] References

• Forging Freedom - A true story of heroism during the Holocaust, by Hudson Talbott. New York, 2000.

[edit] External links

• New York Times "Jaap Penraat Dies at 88; Saved Hundreds in Holocaust" July 2, 2006 (registration required)
• Jerusalem Post

• Find A Grave profile