Magnin Elisabeth

Magnin, Elisabeth Arnolda On a dark, cold night in 1944, a female student who was a member of the Utrecht Children’s Committee took nine-year-old Ruth Jurgrau (later Lavie) on the back of her bicycle to Elisabeth Magnin, a high school teacher in the city of Groningen. Elisabeth was already hiding several Jews and looking after their belongings. Among those she was hiding was 68-year-old Helen Posthumus, the former principal of a girl’s school in Amsterdam and a personal friend of Elisabeth’s, who stayed from November 1942 until June 1945. Miss Israels, a seamstress, stayed for seven weeks and Esther Abrahams, who was about 55 years old, remained for a month. Ruth, who went under the name Liesje Versteeg, lived with Elisabeth from the beginning of March until the end of April 1944. The only problematic person was 31-year-old Max, who stayed for seven weeks during the summer of 1944 but had to be sent to another address after he started in with the maid and made noise when Elisabeth was pretending to be alone in the house. Those who were able to pay towards their upkeep did so. Ruth, according to Elisabeth, paid with her sunny nature and happy disposition. Elisabeth’s mother, who did not live with her, knew what her daughter was doing, and while she approved, feared for her and would have preferred that she not be involved with the Resistance. When asked after the war why she sheltered Jews, Elisabeth said: “I did it because I loved life and because I would not allow the Germans to decide for me whom I could or could not befriend.” On February 27, 1973, Yad Vashem recognized Elisabeth Arnolda Magnin as Righteous Among the Nations.