Dutch educator Johan van Hulst (right) and some of the Jewish children he was determined to rescue (left).
In my book Chalkboard Champions, I asked the question, “What can a teacher do, what is a teacher expected to do, in highly charged periods of social change, political upheaval, or times of war?” This question can be answered with the inspirational story of Johan van Hulst. He was a Dutch teacher and principal who risked his life to rescue hundreds of Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II.
Johan was born on January 28, 1911, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His father was a furniture upholsterer, and his mother was a homemaker. While a young man, Johan studied psychology and pedagogy at the Vrije University in Amsterdam. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1929, and then two Master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. During his studies, Johan worked as a school teacher and university lecturer.
In 1942, Johan became the director of the Reformed Teacher Training College, a Protestant seminary in Amsterdam. The college was located across the street from the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a former theater that had been set up to house Jewish children until they could be transported to Nazi concentration camps. In 1943, Johan worked with the Dutch Resistance and students from the University of Amsterdam to rescue as many of the Jewish children as they could. The children were smuggled across the street to the Training College, and then into a temporary safe house that shared a back yard garden with the school. Then, with the assistance of student teachers and local university students, the intrepid educator hoisted the children over the hedge separating the neighboring back yards of the safe house and the school. Later the children would be hidden in bags, sacks, or laundry baskets and spirited out of their hiding place into the care of rescue families. Because of these efforts, Johan and his co-conspirators saved the lives over 600 Jewish children.
After the war, Johan was elected to the Dutch Senate, where he served from 1956 to 1981. He was also elected to the European Parliament, where he served throughout the 1960s.
For his humanitarian work during the war, in 1973 Johan was recognized by Israel with the distinction of the Righteous Among the Nations, a title given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust. But despite Johan’s heroic achievements, the courageous educator often said he always felt ashamed that he did not do more.
This valiant chalkboard champion passed away last month on March 22, 2018. He was 107 years old. In 2016, the former Reformed Teacher Training College where Johan worked was transformed into the Dutch National Holocaust Museum.
You can read more about Johan van Hulst at Van Hulst Obituary or at his entry for Yad Vashem.
