Selma van de Perre, Dutch Jew Who Resisted Nazis, Dies at 103
“It is impossible not to marvel at her steadiness and courage,” one reviewer wrote after reading her memoir.
Selma van de Perre, a valiant Jewish secretary who during World War II covertly transported suitcases bulging with cash, seditious newsletters, identity cards and ration books to Dutch resistance agents, even penetrating Nazi headquarters in Paris, died on Oct. 20 in London. She was 103.
Ms. van de Perre was 17 when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. In only four days, they subjugated a nation of fewer than nine million people, from which they deported more Jews — both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total Jewish population — than from any other Western European country.
Ms. van de Perre avoided deportation — to work camps or worse — first by feigning illness, then by masquerading as a nurse, and finally by being recruited by a Jewish furrier in Amsterdam to make gloves for the German Army. She joined the Dutch resistance, adopted aliases and dyed her hair blond to help her pass as a non-Jew.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/world/europe/selma-van-de-perre-dead.html
Selma van de Perre, Jewish Dutch resistance agent who survived Ravensbrück
Operating under an Aryan alias, with her hair bleached blonde, she stole documents from a German officer and infiltrated Paris headquarters
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/11/07/selma-van-de-perre-jewish-dutch-resistance-agent-nazis/?msockid=366a6c6641a4651c1cec7af84051642f