JOHAN WESTERWEEL

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Johan (Joop) Westerweel was a Dutch schoolteacher who discovered a passion to help Jewish refugees from Germany during World War II. Westerweel strongly believed in and fought for justice. He helped many refugees and others find freedom through the “Westerweel group.” 

 

While working at a Montessori school in Rotterdam, Westerweel met several Jewish refugees from Germany and discovered their plight under the Nazi regime. Westerweel had been hiding several refugees in his home when he came across an organization whose mission was to prepare young people for a life in agricultural work in Palestine. The organization had a training farm near Amsterdam. About 50 of the organization’s trainees and staff were going to be deported to concentration camps when Westerweel formed a plan to temporarily hide them with various families, which became known as the Westerweel group. Westerweel directed the process, sending a group of underground activists to help the staff and students get to neutral areas like Switzerland and Spain so that they could continue on to Israel. 

 

Westerweel was arrested by the Nazis in 1944 and sent to a concentration camp. He was tortured and abused for not giving up the names of his associates. He was executed a month after entering the camp.