![]() | The Ambiguity of Virtue Subjects: Tijn Gertrude van 1891–1974; World War 1939–1945 -- Jews -- Rescue -- Netherlands; Holocaust Jewish (1939–1945) -- Netherlands; Jews -- Persecutions -- Netherlands -- History -- 20th century; World War 1939–1945 -- Jews -- Netherlands -- Amsterdam; J; In May 1941, Gertrude van Tijn arrived in Lisbon on a mission of mercy from German-occupied Amsterdam. She came with Nazi approval to the capital of neutral Portugal to negotiate the departure from Hitler's Europe of thousands of German and Dutch Jews. Was this middle-aged Jewish woman, burdened with such a terrible responsibility, merely a pawn of the Nazis, or was her journey a genuine opportunity to save large numbers of Jews from the gas chambers? In such impossible circumstances, what is just action, and what is complicity? Bernard Wasserstein is professor of history at the University of Glasgow. The president of the Jewish Historical Society of England. (Bowker Author Biography) |
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