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Jews in the Dutch Resistance in World War II
(JTA) Cnaan Liphshiz - Dutch resistance fighter Selma van de Perre, 97, writes in her new book, My Name is Selma, "Countless Jews worked with non-Jews together in the resistance - much more than we knew during the war. Often, it was assumed that Jews who escaped deportation immediately went into hiding but that wasn't always the case." Though resistance leaders knew she was Jewish, her fellow fighters were never told. Van de Perre joined the resistance at the age of 20. Posing as a nurse to avoid deportation, she arranged a safe house for herself, her mother and 15-year-old sister. Her father was sent to a concentration camp, where he was killed. Eventually her mother and sister also were deported and killed. The Netherlands had the highest death rate among Jews in Nazi-occupied Western Europe, a figure reached in no small part due to the collaboration of local "Jew hunters," who were paid for each Jew they delivered to the Nazis.