Tina Strobos
Encyclopedia
Tina Strobos is a retired (May 2009) physician
and child psychiatrist who, while a medical student during World War II
living in Amsterdam
, helped shelter more than 100 Jewish refugee
s as part of the Dutch resistance
during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. In 2009, Strobos was honored for her work by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of New York
.
's house at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdram. The refugees stayed on the upper floors and attic of the family's boarding house, where there was also a secret compartment for hiding two or three people. She hid an Orthodox couple with five children and helped others, including a prominent Impressionist, Martin Monnickendam (1874–1943).
Strobos also carried news and ration stamps to Jews hiding on farms outside the city, as well as radios and firearms for the Dutch resistance. She was seized or questioned nine times by the Gestapo.
Her grandmother had a radio transmitter hidden in the house which was used to send clandestine messages from the underground to Britain. After the war, she emigrated to the United States. Strobos said of her grandmother, "She is the only person I know who scared the Gestapo."
In a 2009 interview Strobos said "It's just the right thing to do. I believe in heroism, and when you're young, you want to do dangerous things." In recent decades, she has spoken out against the torture of terrorists, which she said was ineffective as well as cruel.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and child psychiatrist who, while a medical student during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
living in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, helped shelter more than 100 Jewish refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s as part of the Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. In 2009, Strobos was honored for her work by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Background
Strobos comes from a family of socialist atheists who took in Belgian and Austrian refugees during and after World War I. Strobos was well-educated and fluent in German. At one time Strobos had a Jewish fiance, Abraham Paris, whom she did not marry and who went on to become a particle physicist.Holocaust
Strobos, together with her mother and grandmother, sheltered over 100 Jewish refugees—four or five at a time—at their boarding house at 282 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, only a ten-minute walk from Anne FrankAnne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
's house at 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdram. The refugees stayed on the upper floors and attic of the family's boarding house, where there was also a secret compartment for hiding two or three people. She hid an Orthodox couple with five children and helped others, including a prominent Impressionist, Martin Monnickendam (1874–1943).
Strobos also carried news and ration stamps to Jews hiding on farms outside the city, as well as radios and firearms for the Dutch resistance. She was seized or questioned nine times by the Gestapo.
Her grandmother had a radio transmitter hidden in the house which was used to send clandestine messages from the underground to Britain. After the war, she emigrated to the United States. Strobos said of her grandmother, "She is the only person I know who scared the Gestapo."
In a 2009 interview Strobos said "It's just the right thing to do. I believe in heroism, and when you're young, you want to do dangerous things." In recent decades, she has spoken out against the torture of terrorists, which she said was ineffective as well as cruel.