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Andree Geulen

Andree was born in Brussels, in Belgium, in 1921. She was a rebellious teenager who loved to argue about politics. When the Spanish Civil War broke out,
she collected food and other items to be sent to help children caught up in the conflict. Despite this, she was not a confident person, lacking self-assurance.

Belgium was invaded by the Nazis in 1940, when Andree was 18. A few months later, Andree was
teaching in school when she noticed that something strange was happening – children were disappearing from her class. When she asked about this, she discovered that they were Jewish children who had been taken away by the Nazis. Carefully, she used her earlier political connections to find 2 women who were trying to help Jewish children escape the clutches of the Nazis. Andree wanted to help.

The women told her quite plainly that, if she did help, she would have to take young children away from their parents and make a perilous journey with them to another part of the country. She would have to change her name, obtain false identity papers and risk being deported to Germany and imprisoned, at the very least. It was a daunting task, but Andrée was determined to help.

The women had a copy of the same list of Jews in Brussels which the Gestapo were using to round them up. It became a macabre ‘race’, as Andree tried to rescue children and hide them safely before they were taken away.

Sometimes parents found it almost impossible to give up a child to Andree. Most people could not imagine the ultimate fate of Jews way and did not always appreciate
the danger. However, for more than two and a half years, Andree was able to continue this work. When a child was placed safely, his or her name was crossed off the list. Almost 1000 names are recorded as having been rescued. A handful of
parents were still alive at the end of the war and came to Andree to help locate their children. Unfortunately, most children were orphaned, losing not only their parents, brothers and sisters, but usually all the rest of their family as well.

Although Andree spent the war continually in fear, and constantly anxious, she grew very self reliant and confident. As she put it herself, ‘I grew up very fast’.

• Andree Geulen (pdf)