Henriëtte Pimentel

Henriëtte Henriquez Pimentel
Born	17 April 1876 Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Died	17 September 1943
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation(s)	Resistance fighter, teacher, nurse
Parents	Nathan Henriquez Pimentel (father) Rachel Oppenheimer (mother)

Henriëtte Henriquez Pimentel (17 April 1876 – 17 September 1943) was a Dutch teacher and trained nurse who during the

Born in Amsterdam on 17 April 1876, Henriëtte Henriquez Pimentel was the youngest daughter of the diamond cutter Nathan Henriquez Pimentel (1837–1893) and Rachel Oppenheimer (1841–1929). She was of Portuguese-Jewish descent.^[3] Together with her seven siblings, she was brought up in a well family. After following a teacher's training course, in the 1920s she worked as a governess and a kindergarten teacher in Bussum. As she had also trained as a nurse, in 1926 she was appointed director of the Vereeniging Zuigelingen-Inrichting en Kindertehuis (Crèche and Kindergarten Institute) in Amsterdam. Founded with support from a Jewish legacy, it was a large, well-fitted modern establishment on the Plantage Middenlaan which accommodated up to a hundred infants and toddlers who were cared for by a team of mainly Jewish staff.^[2][4]

In 1941, as a result of the German occupation, Pimentel was forced to dismiss her non-Jewish colleagues. By autumn 1942, the crèche had become a hostel accommodating Jewish children whose parents were taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg on the other side of the street. Once a theatre, it had been converted into a centre for Jews scheduled for deportation to the Westerbork transit camp.^[2]

The children in the crèche were also to be sent to Westerbork. In collaboration with

The Nazis arrived at the crèche on 23 July 1943, removing all the remaining children and all the staff. Pimentel was sent first to Westerbork, then to Auschwitz where she was murdered around 17 September 1943.[2]

References

External links

• Photographs of the crèche from Vrej Nederland