Korts Marie

Korts, Marie Marie Korts was born in Germany but moved to Amsterdam, where she found employment as a maid with the Polak family in 1922. The Polaks had two young children at the time, a one-year-old and a two-year-old. When Mrs. Polak died in 1924, Marie continued in her position as housekeeper and also began to take care of the children. When the war broke out and the Germans prohibited non-Jews from serving in Jewish homes, Marie had no choice but to move to a pro-Nazi German family in Amsterdam. However, she maintained her ties with the Polaks and visited them nearly every day, supplying them with food and helping them hide their valuables. Through her work with the German family, Marie had access to important information such as dates of razzias and attacks on the Dutch anti-German hit squads. Marie developed ties with the underground and passed the information onto her friends in the Resistance, Hannie Schaft* and Truus Menger*. When the Polaks’ daughter, Philine, went into hiding after her father was deported, Marie kept in close touch with her and provided her with food and moral support until the end of the war. After the war, Philine’s brother returned from the United States, where he had served in the army, and discovered that his sister was living with Marie. From then on, he and his sister regarded Marie as their mother. On June 30, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Marie Korts as Righteous Among the Nations.