Women of Resistance: Helena Kuipers-Rietberg

A woman of great faith, Helena Theodora Kuipers-Rietberg, was born May 26, 1893 into a Dutch Reformed family. Her parents were successful grain merchants and millers who were somewhat progressive in their belief system in that they allowed Helena to attend secondary school (unusual for girls at the time). After graduation she went to work in the family business. In 1921, she married Pieter Heijo Kuipers whom she’d met in school. The two had plans to move to the Dutch East Indies where Pieter had secured a job, but Helena’s father convinced Pieter to buy into the grain company as a partner.

Life was good. The couple had five children, and Helena was active in several women’s organizations, many associated with the church. In 1932, she cofounded Gereformeerde Vrouwenbeweging, an organization of Dutch Reformed women, in 1937 she joined the board of the Bond van Gereformeerde Vrouwenvereenigingen in Nederland, an organization which united all Dutch Reformed women's organizations in the country.

Despite the Netherlands declaration of neutrality, Germany invaded on May 10, 1940. Almost immediately Helena began to speak out against the Nazis during meetings and social gatherings stating that Nazi philosophies threatened Christian standards and values. According to one source her first resistance activities was to prevent Dutch young men from enlisting in the NAD, a national socialist organization which provided six months training for the men ages 18-23 to work in Eastern Europe. To avoid enlistment the young men had to go into hiding, and Helena used her extensive contacts throughout the country to find places for them.

Helena and Pieter then got involved in helping downed Allied pilots and escaped POWs get out of the country. Additionally, they distributed illegal newspapers. By early 1942 persecution of Jewish individuals had escalated, and the Kuipers began helping them to go into hiding.

At some point in the autumn of 1942, Helena and Pieter met Pastor Frederick Slomp who also opposed

the Nazis and spoke against them in his sermons. In an interview well after the war, Slomp shared a conversation he had with Helena during which she said, “We should establish and organization so that we can provided hiding places. My idea now is that you should do this. You should cross the country in order to make people enthusiastic about it.” When Slomp spoke of the danger, Helena’s response was: “Would it be so bad if you were killed while thousands of boys were rescued?”

Helena again used her extensive network to co-found Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (National Organization for Aid to People in Hiding – LO). She coordinated the implementation of local cells that held meetings that were supposedly Bible study groups. When laws changed in 1943 mandating that ration cards had to be picked up personally, the LO held raids on distribution offices to obtain the cards. The National Aid Fund was created, to which she personally contributed and ensured money was distributed fairly. She was also responsible for managing “de Beurs,” a central hub for exchanging intelligence on available hiding addresses, host families, urgent relocations, and matching onderduikers with safe havens.

In May 1944, Helena and Pieter received word they were under suspicion, and their house was to be raided. The couple took their children and escaped, then went into hiding. However, Helena was anxious to get back to her activities and arranged for a false identity card. The courier was arrested on the way to meet her, and under torture gave up their location. She and Pieter were arrested August 18, 1944. Thinking she would get off easier as a woman, they decided she would take all the blame, claiming he knew nothing of the activities. He was released, and Helena was sent to Camp Vught, then later transported to Ravensbruck where she passed away on December 27, 1944.

Known as the Mother of the LO, in 1946 Helena was posthumously awarded the Verzetskruis (Resistance Cross), and in 1954 a monument was erected in her hometown of Winterswijk.

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Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances

and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state, immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors, and drinks copious amounts of tea.

Dutch Dawn

Will they survive the 500-mile journey to freedom?

Isak Westgard is only six missions short to be rotated stateside. Then the unthinkable happens, and he crashes in the occupied Netherlands where the chances of him making it back to England are slim to none. The beautiful and tough-as-nails resistance courier begs to differ and claims she hasn’t lost anyone yet. The problem is the longer they’re together, the less he wants to escape.

Annaliese Claase has escorted her fair share of refugees and downed Allied pilots to safety - too numerous to remember. Until now. There’s something different about the Norwegian-American lieutenant, and it’s more than his good looks. Can she get him out of the country before losing her heart?

 
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Sources:
https://ww2gravestone.com/people/helena-theodora-kuipers-rietberg-resistance-name-aunt-riek/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/2694/Helena-Kuipers-Rietberg.htm
https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/80/foundation-of-the-national-organisation-to-help-those-in-hiding/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Kuipers-Rietberg
https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/131995/Information-Panel-Resistance-Fighter-Helena-Theodora-Kuipers-Rietberg.htm
https://grokipedia.com/page/helena_kuipers_rietberg

Photo Credits:
Helena Kuipers-Rietberg: By Unknown photographer - NIOD, Public Domain. De Bovenweg 37 in Bennekom, where Helena was arrested: By Evert100 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Frederick Slomp: Beeldbank WO2

Ravensbruck: US Holocaust Museum

The Dutch Resistance During WWII

As they had done during the first world war, at the onset of World War II, the Netherlands declared neutrality. However, on May 10, 1940, Germany bombed Rotterdam, then simultaneously invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg without a formal declaration of war. The royal family fled to London, and the Dutch army fell almost immediately. Five days later the country signed a surrender document.

Martial law was implemented for a short time while the royal family was invited to return, so Germany set up an occupation government. Their approach, referred to as “velvet glove” by several scholars, was to keep repression and economic extraction low in the hope to appease the Dutch people. Reports indicate that there was a high level of collaboration, either by choice or by force.

The day after the invasion the Communist Party of the Netherlands met to organize resistance including

the distribution of leaflets and publication of De Waarheid (The Truth). They also participated in the 1941 February Strike, a country-wide labor strike. Other organized resistance bubbled up slowly, but individuals hid Jews and onderduikers (literally undergrounders-those looking to avoid deportation or avoid arrest), and forged or stole ration and identity cards.

Eventually, the following organizations were founded:

• Raad van Verzet (Council of Resistance): Founded after the strikes in 1943, this group attempted to coordinate all armed resistance. Unsuccessful, they became a separate organization, conducting their own raids, sabotage, and assassinations.
• Naationaal Comite: All initially founded to act as a coordinator of activities, this group was fairly small and composed of high-standing businessmen who gathered, analyzed, and passed on intelligence.
• Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (National Organization for Helping People in Hiding): Founded in 1942 by Helena Kuipers-Rietberg and Frits Slomp, this highly successful group created an extensive illegal social services network to hide and provide financial support to people in hiding. This group also provided couriers to lead refugees and downed airmen out of the country.
• Landelikje Knokploeg (National Assault Group-literally brawl crew or goon squad): This organization performed sabotage, raids to steal ration cards, and assassinations. There were more than 2,700 members.
• CS-6 (Thought to be named for the address where it was founded): Considered a radical group, CS-6 only had about forty members, but committed at least twenty assassinations, if not more. They targeted high-ranking Dutch collaborators and traitors.
• The Naationaal Steunfunds (National Financial Aid): This group’s primary role was to collect and distribute funds for aid to the onderduikers as well as coordinate relief activities.

Both Reformed and Catholic churches conducted resistance activities: condemning Nazi laws and actions, denounced anti-Semitism, made funds available, and secreted Jews, refugees, downed airmen, and others within their walls.

Britain’s Special Operations Executive also aided the resistance with mixed success. Agents were parachuted into the Netherlands to recruit and train resisters. SOE also provided weapons. Unfortunately, the office in England failed to realize that one of the networks had been infiltrated and over fifty agents were captured and eleven RAF planes shot down over the course of about eighteen months.

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Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and

women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Her friend talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, blonde leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3YHgUb0

Sources:
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000709432.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_resistance

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/dutch-citizens-resist-nazi-occupation-1940-1945
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-6/dutch-resistance-ambushes-ss-officer-unwittingly
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/jewish-resistance-amsterdam
The Dutch Resistance Revealed by Jos Scharrer, Pen and Sword Military Publishers, 2018

Photos:

Windmill: Pixabay/ Adam Bortnowski

Newspaper: Pixabay/Andrys Stienstra

Church: Pixabay/Kevin Seibel