Ode to Willy Brouwer Swarts en Willy Walvisch-Brouwer | They were real heroes

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My grandmother, Willy Brewer-Swarts, had a large family with five children. She was a small woman, but not afraid of the devil. In May 1940, there was a raid on her house in Amsterdam East to look for her husband (he was union president and in hiding at the time). The Germans turned the house inside out, including the sugar bowl. My grandmother said sneeringly, “Yes, it's really in there!”

When the persecution of Jews took on serious proportions, a resistance group managed to find my grandparents asking if they would take in people in hiding. Time after time they agreed; at one point there were 10 people in hiding in their house. My grandmother organized everything: she arranged for food through different addresses (otherwise it would get noticed), and for cooking. That was quite a job, especially in the hunger winter. And she also guarded the whole atmosphere in a house with so many people all living in suspense. She was the hub of the house and was called “Mammy” by everyone, by all the people in hiding and also by the members of the resistance group. For years after the war.

My mother, Willy Walvisch-Brouwer, 21 at the beginning of the war, was the oldest daughter. She too became involved in the resistance. She became a courier in the combat group 'Nico van Dijk'. Her pseudonym was “Willy. She helped to forge identity cards and later, when the deportations of Jews began, to search for hiding addresses. She took people away to their hiding addresses and visited them there to give them encouragement. Willy formed the connection to the world for the people in hiding. It was dangerous work.

My grandmother and my mother did not consider themselves heroes. No tough stories about acts of resistance. In fact, they both told very little about it.

But I always wondered what it was like for my grandmother to have to live in such tension. Her family was vulnerable because of the presence of people in hiding.

What was it like for my mother, still such a young woman during the war, to join a resistance group? Was she afraid? It was extremely dangerous, because treachery lurked everywhere. Would I have dared? I don't know.

These two women saved lives. They were true heroes.

In 1984, Prince Bernard awarded them both with the Resistance Memorial Cross.

Simone Walvisch

Amsterdam, December 17, 2024