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Dutch Film Recalls Resistance Fighter Who Saved Hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust
(JTA) Cnaan Liphshiz - Dutch resistance fighter Walraven van Hall save hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust while inflicting painful damage on the Nazi war machine before his execution by German soldiers in 1945. Van Hall's bravery is recalled in "The Resistance Banker," which won the Netherlands' national award for best film in 2018. Van Hall and his brother, Gijsbert, were members of a prominent banking family who for three years bankrolled the Dutch resistance, supplying it with the equivalent of $500 million and helping to make it one of Europe's fiercest and most effective resistance groups . Van Hall and his brother stole the equivalent of $250 million from Nazi-controlled coffers and borrowed an additional $250 million from other bankers to carry out attacks, smuggle Allied pilots to safety, and provide financial support to at least 8,000 Jews in hiding during World War II. The Germans had no idea who van Hall was to the bitter end. He was shot along with several other suspected resistance fighters in retaliation for a Nazi officer's assassination. Gijsbert van Hall, the elder brother, later became mayor of Amsterdam. Israel recognized Walraven van Hall in 1978 as a Righteous Among the Nations - a non-Jew who risked his life to save Jews during the Holocaust.