Sunday, May 25, 2025

Independence among Independents

"Early September 1944, the government and the Interior Army (the joint resistance forces in The Netherlands, created in September 1944) demanded more cooperation among resistance groups. H.M. van Randwijk, in charge of Vrij Nederland at the time, attempted to wrest the leadership of Groep 2000 from van Tongeren but she refused. She proposed a merger of equals between her group and Vrij Nederland, which van Randwijk found unacceptable. In the end, the First Aid posts in Amsterdam and the fighting squad went to Vrij Nederland. The rest of Groep 2000 remained independent and continued to concentrate its efforts on helping people in hiding.

Van Tongeren's father had taught her the use of secret codes. He had also impressed on her to keep names and addresses hidden and never take notes. Instead, she used coded correspondence to find addresses for people who needed a safe place. She designed a numerical code, which corresponded to the members of Groep 2000, the people in hiding and all addresses. Only she and one other person knew the key to that code. In March 1945, the Germans got hold of the group's entire coded administrative system but they could not decode it. As a result, the hiding places of 4,500 people were never discovered."

"Jacoba van Tongeren" - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacoba_van_Tongeren

No comments: