Tina Strobos: Dutch Rescuer

“There may be a time when we are powerless to prevent injustice,
but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” 
Elie Wiesel

Tina Strobos, born Tineke Buchter, was a nineteen-year-old medical student, living with her mother in Amsterdam, when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. They provided refuge for persecuted people, including Jews, in their home. Tina forged documents and served as a courier for the Dutch Resistance. In 1989, Tina and her mother (posthumously) were officially recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

“It was our natural duty to help them (the Jews) and hide them. I wouldn’t want to live in a society where nobody cared a damn.” And my mother (Marie Schotte) said: “You know we can get killed” and I said, “Well, I would rather be killed than live in a Nazi society.” They never mentioned it again. Speaking in 2009, Tina explained why she participated in the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation and hid Jews in her attic thereby helping them evade deportation to the death camps: “I never believed in God, but I believed in the sacredness of life.”

Tina Strobos’ work exemplifies the courage and moral convictions of ordinary citizens during extraordinary times. Her legacy continues to inspire those studying rescue and resistance movements, humanitarian efforts and moral rectitude in the face of oppression. Through her bravery, she not only saved lives, but she also showed the power and force of individual action in the midst of a brutal occupation. Once the decision to help had been made, and the rescue had begun, a different self – a “rescuer” and in her case “resistance self” emerged, to do what had to be done and to keep this new person from becoming overwhelmed by new responsibilities and pressures. The rescuer/resistance self had to, in order to operate effectively, be secret and have all efforts and activities remain clandestine. Her courage was continually tested but as long as people needed her, she would be there – risking everything to insure their survival.

Background/Early Life

Tina Strobos was born Tineke Büchter on May 19,1920, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in her maternal grandparents’ house. In 1914 WWI broke out and the Netherlands remained neutral as it had been since 1830, and around this time Tina’s mother, Marie Schotte, fell in love with one of the employees of the family cork factory, Alphonse Büchter. He was sent to the Dutch East Indies, where the Schotte family had started a new cork factory. Although she wanted to be with him, Marie had to go to the United States also for family business. Prior to leaving, she had attended night school so she could get a job as a secretary with a Dutch family in New York. She could type and speak fluent German, French and English. After the war, Marie traveled to the Dutch East Indies where Alphonse was working and they were married February 15, 1919, in Batavia, and went to Japan for their honeymoon. Marie was totally fascinated with every aspect of Japanese culture. Unfortunately, they had to cut short their honeymoon and return to Batavia because of problems with the factory. Since no women were allowed on the freighter her husband took back, Marie was forced to remain in Japan several months for the next passenger boat. When the passenger ship arrived, and Marie was reunited with Alphonse in October 1919 in Batavia, she couldn’t wait to tell him the good news, she was pregnant. They decided to return to the Netherlands immediately where she could give birth. Tina was born on May 18, 1920, but Alphonse gave her birthdate as May 19^th in honor of his own father Jan Büchter.

Marie embarked on her own career as a businesswoman. The months in Japan had inspired her and she decided to sell Japanese embroidery, porcelain, jade and kimonos in the main shopping street in Amsterdam. She had purchased most of these items during her stay in Japan and had arranged for everything to be shipped to the Netherlands. She earned a large sum of money in a short time which reinforced her self-confidence.

In 1925 Tina and her parents moved in with Tina’s widowed grandmother, Maria Abrahams, whom she dearly loved. Since the house was so large it became a kind of salon des arts a gathering place for actors, writers, painters, publishers and journalists. As socialist atheists and liberals, the Buchters had many friends and acquaintances from among the different groups, including the Jewish community. Tina remembers that even in the 1930’s, they had miners’ children staying at “282.” So,  this offering of lodging was long a tradition in the family. Tina’s mother was the secretary of the women’s peace movement and helped German and Austrian refugees also for as long as Tina could remember.

Starting at the age of six, Tina was sent to the Montessori School. The theory behind the school was that children should have the freedom to make their own choices and be allowed to act independently for optimal development. Tina’s father demanded Tina’s beloved grandmother Maria Abrahams, whom she was so close to, move out of house “282.” Maria found an apartment in the south of the city, a 45-minute walk away from her daughter and granddaughter.

By the time Tina turned ten (1930), her mother began to rent rooms in the large house to earn money. She also began sheltering children who had fled Germany due to the starvation there. After Hitler seized power in 1933, the number of refugees increased rapidly. Jews, communists, socialists, and other unwanted citizens fled Germany and found temporary accommodations at “282.”  After Tina’s father left and she saw how much her mother did to help others, she not only admired her for her acts of selflessness, but also for her vast cultural and linguistic knowledge.

World War II Actions

In September 1932, Tina attended the newly established Montessori Lyceum and then continued her education at the Barlaeus Gymnasium.   She was nineteen, just nine days shy of turning twenty, when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940.  She was a medical student at the University of Amsterdam, living with her mother and a maid at “282.” On May 13^th the Dutch government, including Queen Wilhelmina, left for London. On May 14^th the Nazis bombed Rotterdam’s city center causing 1,000 casualties and threatened to do the same with other big cities like Amsterdam and Utrecht. The Dutch army with their antiquated weapons dating back to before World War I stood no chance against a modern German army equipped with planes, tanks, machine guns and paratroopers. On May 15^th the Netherlands surrendered. It was now an occupied country under the leadership of Hitler-appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

On May 16, 1940, Henri Polak (1868-1943) and his wife, Milly, knocked on Tina and Marie’s door at “282” requesting a hiding place; Polak had been a friend of Marie’s father Willem Schotte until Willem died in 1925. Like Willem, he was anticlerical and a freethinker. The Nazis targeted him, since he was the first CEO of the General Diamond Workers’ Union of the Netherlands and founder of the Dutch  Social Democratic Workers’ Party,  a Jew, a Marxist and a trade unionist. Polak was also a journalist who wrote articles in a newspaper called Het Volk (The People). He was highly respected for his emphasis on building order, education respectability among union members, improving of wages, shortening work hours and improving cultural activities of union members, many of whom were previously marginalized  in Dutch society and lived in the “Jordaan” (the working class district of Amsterdam).

Tina and her mother jumped into action. They thought it would be safer for the Polaks to go to Tina’s grandmother’s apartment. Maria Abrahams had a spare room and being over 80, was probably above suspicion. Polak and his wife stayed with Tina’s grandmother for several weeks in 1940 and they then moved on. Six weeks later he was arrested and imprisoned, and ultimately died in 1943 of pneumonia, after he was unexpectedly released by the NSB (the Dutch Nazi Party). Milly was deported to Westerbork transit camp, where she died in 1943.

Tina then joined a resistance group. They were involved with peaceful activities such as placing people in hiding and making passports, ID cards, etc. This organization would call on Tina and her friends to deliver Jews and Jewish children to safe addresses. She remembers spending a great deal of time each week on her bicycle that no longer had rubber tires (the Nazis had confiscated all the rubber tires in the Netherlands for the war effort) to bring passports to people in hiding in the north and providing them with printed food stamps and helping them to stay connected to their family members who were hidden elsewhere.

“282” became a kind of transit station. The goal was to shelter Jews and move them from one sympathetic house to another.  They couldn’t keep most people for more than a few days because the house was raided so often. Furthermore, it wasn’t very safe because Tina and her mother were involved in too many activities. They had a forbidden radio that they listened to, hid  people, forged numerous kinds of documents, stored contraband, and held underground medical classes

Between 1942 and the end of 1944, the Gestapo (the Nazi Secret Police) visited Tina and her mother’s home eight times, and Tina was arrested nine times. In the autumn of 1940, Marie Schotte secretly began preparing her house so she could not only continue taking in boarders, but also assist people in hiding. The attic was only accessible by means of a loose ladder. This space was primarily used for washing and hanging the laundry to dry. Behind a tapestry on the first floor, a second house bell – an alarm bell – was installed. Tina and her mother could press that bell when the Gestapo were at the door downstairs. The people in hiding on the 2^nd and 3rd floors could then quickly take cover.

One day a man with a toolbox came to the door and announced he was a carpenter. He said he had been sent by the Resistance to build a hiding place. Tina’s mother looked at her daughter and asked if she knew who this man was. “Of course not, but if we can’t trust him, whom can we trust?” So, they agreed to let him in and showed him the entire house and the attic. That was how Tina found out she was part of a second network of Resistance fighters. The carpenter built an attic within our attic – almost inaccessible. He fashioned a wall that closed off a gable. The gable window provided an escape route. The wall was so skillfully made that when Tina’s son and his family returned to “282” in the 1970s, they could not find the entrance to the hideaway without their mother’s assistance.

Each time the Gestapo made a raid, which lasted about three hours each time, they banged on all the interior walls, but they never discovered anything. It was the perfect lair but could cram three people into it at most. The Gestapo would also poke bayonets through walls, remove pictures wherever they were hanging, and roll up carpets. They never found anyone, nor did they discover the weapons, radios or documents hidden elsewhere in the house.

Tina also would help bring her boarders to the next hiding place when she received coded messages from the Resistance that a new address was made available. She would provide new I.D. cards and passports. Several times she would help people travel to the Belgian border on her bicycle that had only the metal rims. Marie also played a role in organizing the house as a transit station for the Jewish families they sheltered. She monitored supplies, prepared food, and managed the home with precision. They developed a system of covert signals, a simple bell, a coded knock, a phrase to issue the safety of those hidden in their attic.

Tina found herself involved in one of the most dangerous aspects of the Resistance – document forgery. She began creating false passports, ration cards, and I.D. documents, all essential for the Jewish families and Resistance members in hiding. These forged documents were lifelines often the only thing between safety and arrest. Tina knew the Nazis would kill her if she were caught. Yet the urgency of her work gave her the strength to continue. One of the most nerve-wracking parts of her work was transporting false passports to different safe houses scattered throughout the countryside. Tina would ride her bike for miles, the document hidden in the lining of her coat. Each check point was a potential death sentence. She quickly learned to assess the officers at each station. When to act friendly, when to be disinterested or when to appear innocently naïve. Her charm often diffused tense encounters allowing her to pass with a quick nod. One night she was questioned about her journey. With a calm smile she said she had been visiting a sick relative, holding her breath as they inspected her belongings. After what seemed an eternity, they waived her off – oblivious to the documents hidden in her coat.

“282” became a machine of well-coordinated Resistance activity; some stayed only one night, others lingered for weeks waiting for safe passage to a new location. Tina always found herself comforting terrified families, helping them cope with the anxieties and the uncertainty of hiding. Her compassion brought comfort even if only for a short while. The Gestapo loomed heavily over every aspect of Tina’s life.

From 6:00 – 8:00 PM every evening, everyone would listen to the BBC broadcasts which started with the strokes of Big Ben in the background. Listening to foreign broadcasts and even Dutch ones was strictly forbidden and would, if discovered, lead to severe punishment and even being shot on the spot. Often the neighbors and Jews in hiding within walking distance would come and listen as well. So, Tina and Marie agreed that those coming from the outside would ring the doorbell with the Morse code V for Victory (3 short rings and one long one) the first notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Nevertheless, Tina and her mother were very fearful.  When Churchill or the Queen of the Netherlands spoke on the BBC, as many as 35 or 40 people would come over after dark then run back to their respective hiding places before curfew at 8:00 PM.

End of the War

After that time, her Sachbearbeiter, a young man and a protégé of Himmler, fell in love with her. To save her own life, she agreed to work for the Gestapo. She was taken to a hairdresser where her hair was bleached. She was also given a new identity. Housed in a spacious room in a Gestapo officer’s house, she was put to work. She maintained that she never betrayed anyone while working as a double agent. She managed at a certain point to contact another underground group to whom she told her true story. They began feeding her information that she could then bring back to her Gestapo “boyfriend.” The stress of being a double agent took its toll. By sheer luck, after several months of living under stressful conditions, she was able to escape using her former contacts because her parents, who were hidden elsewhere, knew Tina’s mother. She found her way to “282,” still dressed in the same summer clothes and sandals she had worn when she had gotten arrested in the summer of 1943.

Erika suffered from terrible backache as a result of rough treatment during questioning when she was arrested by the Sachbearbeiter. When she arrived at “282” she could barely walk. She posed a high risk for Tina and her mother. She couldn’t be transferred to another safe place after a few days like the other hiders, and she was extremely dangerous because the Gestapo were looking for her. Ordinarily, Tina, the medical student, attended to all illnesses among the “guests.” Taking great risk, Tina decided to discuss Erika’s backache with the doctor with whom she worked. On his advice, Tina took Erika to a Catholic hospital in Amsterdam for an operation.

Erika entered the hospital under a false name and false papers and had the surgery illegally. This surgery was new in the Netherlands, the surgeon who performed the operation had never done this procedure before, he had just read articles about it in his medical journals. The doctors did their best at great risk to their own lives to help those in hiding. Tina put her own life – and that of her mother at great risk as well. Erika was in the hospital for more than six weeks. During this time, Tina visited her frequently in between all the other work she had to do. By the time Erika was discharged, the Netherlands had been liberated and her days of hiding were over.

Tina knew that the legacy of resistance, the lives saved, the friendships formed, and the hopes sustained, would endure – as each act of bravery solidified her place in history as a beacon of humanity amidst unimaginable hardship. By 1945 and the liberation of the Netherlands, Tina emerged from years of secrecy and sacrifice. Her commitment to others was unwavering. She was determined to make a positive impact on a world scarred by violence, trauma and loss. Her work was deeply influenced by the strength and endurance she observed in those she sheltered and to whom she was dedicated.

Post-War Life: Recognition and Legacy

Because of the war, Tina had fallen behind with her medical studies and still had a number of exams to take.  While at the University of Amsterdam she met a fellow medical student, Robert Strobos. He had a similar background as Tina’s. He was brought up in an atheist, liberal household. Unlike Tina, however, he was not active in the resistance, but he did not collaborate with the Nazis either. He just wanted to concentrate on his studies, but since he, too, had refused to sign the declaration of loyalty that Hitler had demanded, he went into hiding and studied medicine illegally during the war years.

After she obtained her M.D. degree in December 1947, Tina only wanted one thing after the war: to get away from the Netherlands. “It’s a weird form of patriotism,” she said. She needed to forget the war, the five long years of occupation, the sound of German boots on the streets and the evil songs of the German soldiers. Several of Tina’s close friends were leaving the country. In December, 1946 she left “282” and started a new life with Robert in an old warehouse apartment. On April 30, 1947, they married. In September 1949, Tina and Robert with their son Semon, headed for London. Robert became a fellow at the Department of Neurology in one of the hospitals there and qualified for a Fulbright scholarship. Tina found a job where orphans with mental disorders were housed. The director there was Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud whom Tina greatly admired. Tina studied psychiatry under her tutelage from 1949-1951. In March 1951 Robert received a Fulbright from Columbia University. They moved to Westchester County where she undertook a residency at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. They felt at home finally in New York.

In 1952, their second son, Jur, was born. In 1958, Tina received a part of her father’s inheritance. It was enough for them to buy a house in Larchmont, N.Y. On June 10, 1960, they became naturalized American citizens. A third child was born, but the marriage suffered. Tina and Robert divorced in 1964. In 1967, she married a renowned economist of Jewish descent, Walter Chudson. He had an interesting job working for the United Nationals Industrial Development organization. They settled in Larchmont, New York and stayed together until his death in 2002.

Tina built a career as a family psychiatrist with a special focus on working with the mentally impaired. She received the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal for her work in 1998. Her work was always immensely important to her.  In addition, Tina spoke with both educators and students about her rescue and resistance work in the Netherlands through the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, New York.

In 1970, twenty-five years after the end of World War II, Tina and her mother Marie had begun to reminisce more and more about that period of their lives. Tina and her mother had spoken to each other only once during the war about what they were doing and its dangers. “We’re hiding people. There are posters all over the city announcing the death penalty for helping or hiding Jews. Do you know we can be killed?” Marie said to her daughter. “Yes,” Tina replied. They never discussed the matter again. “We knew we couldn’t just stand by while Jewish people were killed,” Tina later stated.

Marie had gone to a nursing home, but “282,” the house that sheltered so many people during the war, remained in the family. In 1972, Tina wrote to her mother that it was so remarkable how many ideas about social justice and the struggle of the underdog she had learned from her and now was using in her own work. On November 25, 1973, her mother passed away. A small advertisement appeared in the newspaper stating that Marie Schotte’s body had been donated to science. There were no obituaries. Even in death Marie Schotte was modest.

After the war Tina said she felt guilty for many years that she hadn’t done enough. She knew people who needed shelter, and she couldn’t find it for them. Some things she did she felt she had done wrong. She said: “I wouldn’t call what I did a sacrifice because we believed so strongly that we were doing the right thing. Today, I simply feel that if there are altruists and egoists, I’d like to be counted as one of the good guys.”  

In 1989 Tina Strobos and her mother, Marie Schotte (posthumously), were officially recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem (the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel) for being actively involved in saving Jews from the threat of death or deportation and for having risked their own lives and liberty in their attempt to save Jews. The motive for rescue was to protect and save Jews from the Holocaust. Tina, working with her mother and her maternal grandmother, Maria Abrahams, saved more than 100 during the war. Tina denied any heroism.

“It was only decent,” she said. “I never believed in God, but I do believe in the sacredness of life.” She said that she didn’t care whether they believed or didn’t believe in God or that they were Jewish but cared that they were being treated inhumanely. She believed that all life is sacred and that now that the Nazis were killing millions of Jewish people, she could not bear it.

In 2009, Tina was honored for her rescue work by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, New York with its Courage to Care Award.  When asked in interviews why she had risked her life to save others, Tina said: “It’s the right thing to do. Your conscience tells you to do it. I believe in heroism, and when you’re young you want to do dangerous things.” Tina retired from her private practice in 2009 at the age of 89. She passed away in 2012 at the age of 91.

In a study of rescuers Ervin Staub states “goodness, like evil, often begins in small steps. Heroes evolve; they aren’t born. Very often the rescuers made only a small commitment at the start – to hide someone for a day or two. But once they had taken that step, they began to see themselves differently, as someone who helps. What starts as mere willingness becomes intense involvement.” Daniel Goleman “Great altruists: Science ponders soul of goodness” NY Times March 5, 1985 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/05/science/great-altruists-science-ponders-soul-of-goodness.html       

Books on the Holocaust in the Netherlands 

Batkin, Sanford L and David Tabatsky. The Boy Behind the Door: (how Salomon Kool Escaped the Nazis).  Jersey City: Ktav,  2009

Benda-Beckmann, Bastiaan Robert von. After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond. Lewes: Unicorn Publishing Group LLP,  2023.

Briejer, Nicholas John. The Sweet Dell : The True Story of One Family's Fight to Save Jews in Nazi-occupied Holland. Tacoma, Washington: Pilgrim Spirit Communications, 2015.

Brounstein, Marty. Two Among the Righteous Few: A Story of Courage in the Holocaust. Mustang, Oklahoma: Tate Publishing & Enterprises, 2011. 

Bruyn, Jeroen De.  The Last Secret of The Secret Annex: The Untold Story of Anne Frank, Her Silent Protector, and a Family Betrayal.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023.

de Vries, Tjitte. The Landau Brothers: A Jewish Family of Chocolate Makers in Amsterdam before and after the Holocaust. Amsterdam: TjitteDeVries Books, 2023.

Enzer, Hyman Aaron and Soltatf-Enzer, Sandra. Anne Frank: Reflections on Her Life and Legacy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.

Flim, Bert Jan.  Saving the Children: History of the Organized Effort to Rescue Jewish Children in the Netherlands 1942-1945.  Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press, 2005.

Folman, Ari.  Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation. New York:  Pantheon Books,  2018.

Frank, Anne.  Diary of Anne Frank: Critical Edition. Garden City: Doubleday, 2003

Frank, Anne. Tales from the Secret Annex: A Collection of Short Stories, Fables, and Lesser Known Writings. New York: Bantam Books, 1994.

Franklin, Ruth.  The Many Lives of Anne Frank. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025.

Geismar, Daphne.  Invisible Years: A Family’s Collected Account of Separation and Survival during the Holocaust in the Netherlands. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher,  2020.

Gies, Miep. Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family. New York: Simon and Schuster 1987.

Hillesum, Etty. An Interrupted Life And Letters from Westerbork. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.

 Kok, René.  The Persecution of the Jews in Photographs: The Netherlands 1940-1945. Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2019.

Kugler, Victor.  Victor Kugler: The Man Who Hid Anne Frank. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing,  2008.

Lee,  Carol Ann.  Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust. New York:  Puffin Books,  2008.

Lindwer, Willy. The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank. New York:  Pantheon Books, 1991.

Moore, Bob. Victims & Survivors: the Nazi Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands 40-45. London: Arnold, 1997. 

Müller,  Melissa. Anne Frank: The Biography. New York: Henry Holt,  1998.

Pick-Goslar, Hannah.  My Friend Anne Frank: the Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2023. 

Presser Jacob. Ashes in the Wind: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry. London: Souvenir Press, 1968.

Prose, Francine.  Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife. New York: Harper,  2009.

Rol, Ruud Van Der. Anne Frank, Beyond the Diary: a Photographic Remembrance. New York, Viking Press, 1993.

Schipper, Agnes. Sabine's Odyssey : A Hidden Child and her Dutch Rescuers. Amsterdam:  Amsterdam Publishers, 2022.

Schloss, Eva Geiringer. After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival by the Stepsister of Anne Frank. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2013.

Schloss, Eva Geiringer.   Eva’s Story: A Survivors Tale by the Stepsister of Anne Frank.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. 

Schloss, Eva Geiringer.  The Promise: True Story of a Family in the Holocaust.  New York: Penguin Group, 2006.

 Siegal, Nina. The Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It. Waterville:  Thorndike Press, 2023.

Sullivan, Rosemary. The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. New York: Harper Perennial, 2023.

Ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. New York, Bantam Books, 1971.

Ullman, Leo S. 796 Days: Hiding as a Child in Occupied Amsterdam during WWII and then Coming to America.  Margate, New Jersey: Comteq Publishing,  2015.

van Galen,  Dick Last and Rolf Wolfwinkel.  Anne Frank and After: Dutch Holocaust Literature in a Historical Perspective. Amsterdam:  Amsterdam University Press, 1996.

Van Iperen, Roxane. The Sisters of Auschwitz: The True Story of Two Jewish Sisters' Resistance in the Heart of Nazi Territory.  New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2021. 

Wind, Eddy de. Last Stop Auschwitz: My Story of Survival From Within the Camp. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2020.