B’nai B’rith and KKL-JNF to honor Jewish rescuers who risked lives for fellow Jews during Holocaust

Four posthumous awards will be granted to Jewish rescuers from France, Holland, and Poland for their heroic efforts to save fellow Jews from Nazi persecution.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 18, 2026, 3:57 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Israel Hayom

The Preservation of Heroism Through Institutional Recognition

The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) are preparing for their 24th joint Holocaust commemoration, a ceremony distinguished as the only global event dedicated to Jews who rescued other Jews. Scheduled for April 14 at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the gathering focuses on counteracting the historical myth that Jewish populations remained passive during the systematic genocide of World War II. According to organizers, the event will feature high-level speakers, including the Netherlands Ambassador to Israel and the father of Aner Shapira, an October 7 hero, creating a narrative link between historical and modern Jewish resilience. The presentation of the Jewish Rescuers Citation to four posthumous recipients aims to formally integrate these stories of defiance into the broader record of wartime history.

Strategic Defiance at the Gouda Youth Farm

Among the newly honored is Shoshana Jansje Litten Serlui, a Dutch-born rescuer whose tactical ingenuity saved an entire group of students at a Zionist training farm. When Nazi occupation forces ordered deportations in 1940, Litten Serlui collaborated with medical professionals to create a false dysentery outbreak, successfully placing the farm under a medical quarantine that delayed Nazi intervention. According to family and historical records, she spent the following years coordinating with the Westerweel underground to forge identity cards that omitted Jewish identifiers and distributed food stamps essential for survival. Though she successfully hid her son and facilitated the escape of her trainees to safe houses, she was eventually arrested and perished in April 1945 during a death march from the Zwodau camp.

The Underground Logistics of Document Forgery

The operational success of Jewish rescue networks often relied on individuals like Ellen-Ellie Waterman, whose specialty lay in the production of high-quality forged documents and the maintenance of physical shelters. Starting in 1941, Waterman worked alongside non-Jewish underground members to secure hiding places for students and families, eventually assuming an alias to register apartments for those in concealment. When male underground operatives were restricted by Nazi travel bans in 1944, Waterman increased her workload, managing...