Gisela "Isa" Baschwitz, a Dutch Resistance Fighter during WWII along w/brother Hors. She saved her Jewish father Kurt from the concentration camp along with many other Jewish people as she worked tirelessly throughout the war in the underground risking her life in order to save the lives of others. She was in her early 20's during this time, full of vitality and energy and on the side of the righteous endeavor combatting genocide and anti-Semitic fervor in the Netherlands.
Another person she helped to save was Jacques Presser, Netherlands most important Dutch historian on the Jewish subject during and following the Holocaust. His wife was tragically lost during a Razzi raid one day as she went out of her apartment to go to market. She was never to be seen again. From there, Jacques went into deep hiding in the Dutch countryside outside of Amsterdam at various farmhouse locations that were "safehouses." Isa would bring him writing materials and books from his home and the Amsterdam libraries so he could continue his important research and writing during his time in hiding.
Prior to the war, Isa had been living with Jacques Presser and his wife to study the ways of the Jewish home as she was the child of a Jewish father and a Christian mother.
Toward the very end of the war on May 5,1945, Isa did one last very heroic deed as a Dutch Resistance Fighter on the train platform at the Amsterdam main station during a shoot out between German and Dutch troops. By the time it was over there were 17 German troops dead on the platform, and two Dutch soldiers. Isa single-handedly was able to get the German soldiers to lay down their guns that day as the Allied Forces were declaring victory throughout Europe.
Isa was dressed in disguise as a nurse, wearing a crisp white uniform as she marched up and down the platform between the Germans and the Dutch soldiers saying over and over, "The war is over, lay down your guns... " The Germans nervously asked her whose side she was on? She answered them, "The side of peace." They soon decided they would lay their weapons down on the train platform once and for all as there had been enough bloodshed already.
Isa documented her war experiences years later in a book she titled "40 year Anniversary as a Dutch Resistance Fighter," I was able to procure a copy from a Dutch bookstore which she had autographed during her lifetime. She passed away in 2002.
In 1995, Isa was interviewed as part of a documentary for "Anne Frank Remembered" narrated by Glenn Close. That film won the Academy Award that year for best documentary. Isa and her family were close friends of Anne's family. They spent many happy times together before the war. Isa is my fourth cousin through our Jewish book printer ancestors. I am honored to call her my relative and to me she represents what it means to be an everyday hero.
