Molen van der Gesina

Molen van der, Gesina Hermina Johanna Law student Gesina van der Molen, who was raised as a strictly religious Protestant, refused to sign a declaration that she was “Aryan” at the beginning of the war. Born in Baflo, Groningen, she was active in the Dutch Christian Women’s Movement and later became a professor of international law. As one of the first editors of the underground newspaper Vrij Nederland, Gesina was arrested together with her friend on June 28, 1942, in their summer house in Noordwijk, South Holland. The police appeared to be unaware of the extent of their involvement and the two women were released on July 25. In 1943, Gesina left the paper and set up a Protestant Resistance publication, Trouw. As a member of the examining board of teacher training colleges, Gesina was present at the final examinations at the Protestant Teachers College next door to the Jewish crèche, which was opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam, where arrested Jews were held before they were taken to Westerbork, while their hildren were placed in the so-called creche. When Johan W. van Hulst*, the director of the Teachers College, showed her how Jewish children could be smuggled out, she said, “Now I understand why God brought me here.” During the exam period, Gesina moved 12 children into hiding, using contacts at the newspaper and her colleague, Hester Baracs-van Lennep*. She and her friend also sheltered children in need of a temporary refuge at a summer house in Vlodrop, Limburg. After the war Gesina van der Moelen headed the governmental institution 1940-1945, that dealt with war orphans, including many Jewish children. Her role was controversial, since she strongly opposed returning Jewish children who had been hidden by non-Jewish families to their family or Jewish organizations, and supported the view that they should continue to be educated as Dutch Christians. Despite this post-war attitude, she was recognized as Righteous because during the Holocaust she had repeatedly risked her life in order to save Jewish children from deportation and death. On October 29, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Professor Gesina Hermina Johanna van der Molen as Righteous Among the Nations.