Jacoba van Tongeren
Dutch resistance fighter in WW II
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Key Takeaways
- Jacoba van Tongeren (14 October 1903, in Tjimahi near Bandung, Dutch East Indies – 15 September 1967, in Bergen, Netherlands) was a resistance fighter, the founder and leader of Group 2000, a resistance group during the Second World War.
- In 1990, Yad Vashem honoured Jacoba van Tongeren as Righteous Among the Nations.
- In her younger years, her father would raise her and this would have a bearing on the rest of her life.
- As a child, she would live together with her father in a moveable home for army officers in the tropical rainforest, close to the bridge under construction.
- Part of that involved inculcating military norms and values, such as great discipline and sense of responsibility.
Jacoba van Tongeren (14 October 1903, in Tjimahi near Bandung, Dutch East Indies – 15 September 1967, in Bergen, Netherlands) was a resistance fighter, the founder and leader of Group 2000, a resistance group during the Second World War. Jacoba van Tongeren is the only woman to have created and led a resistance group during the war. In 1990, Yad Vashem honoured Jacoba van Tongeren as Righteous Among the Nations.
Early life
Jacoba van Tongeren was the daughter of Hermannus van Tongeren and Jeanne Holle. In her younger years, her father would raise her and this would have a bearing on the rest of her life. Her father was an engineer in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and as such responsible for building railway bridges in Sumatra, in the former Dutch East Indies. As a child, she would live together with her father in a moveable home for army officers in the tropical rainforest, close to the bridge under construction. She never went to primary school but received what we can call a ‘military education’ from her father. Part of that involved inculcating military norms and values, such as great discipline and sense of responsibility.
In 1916, the van Tongeren family returned to The Netherlands and from 1916 to 1922 Jacoba went to the Dutch Reformed Gymnasium in Amsterdam. This was a difficult time of social readjustment: after all, she had never lived in a family before, never had been to school and never been with peers. Still, these were the years that she made a good connection with her brother, Herman van Tongeren.
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