Marie Verbraken Blomaart

Marie risked her life in the Dutch Resistance, smuggling ration cards and distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets. “We didn’t see ourselves as Resistance,” she said. “We were helping our fellow citizens.” She was arrested after a fellow resistance member, tortured by the Nazis, gave up her name. Arrested, Marie endured solitary confinement in Haaren and near-starvation in Vught. After an unexpected release, she went into hiding during the Hunger Winter. Following liberation, a Dutch soldier smuggled her home under a tarp in a military truck. When people stared, she recalled, “I shouted: I’m free! But they thought I was a soldier’s girl. Not everyone survived—but I did.”

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