Marion Pritchard

Marion Pritchard, (née van Binsbergen; 7 November 1920 – 11 December 2016) was a Dutch-American social worker and psychoanalyst, who distinguished herself as a savior of Jews in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Pritchard helped save 150 Dutch Jews, most of them children, throughout the German Occupation. In addition to protecting these people's lives, she was imprisoned by Nazis, worked in collaboration with the Dutch resistance, and shot and killed a Dutch Nazi.

Marion Pritchard grew up in the Netherlands, the daughter of liberal judge Jacob van Binsbergen. At age 19, she enrolled in the school of social studies in Amsterdam. During her studies, she was arrested on suspicion of contact with the Dutch resistance movement and was imprisoned for seven months.

In the spring of 1942, Pritchard witnessed children, ages 2 to 8, being taken away by Nazis. On her reaction to what she saw, Pritchard said, "I was shocked and in tears, and after that I knew my rescue work was more important than anything else I might be doing."

Pritchard first began her work as part of the Dutch underground, bringing food, clothing and papers to those in hiding from the Nazis. Marion then took on more dangerous activities when she was tasked with delivering a package to a home in the northern part of the country. Along the journey, she was given a baby girl by a stranger. Upon reaching her destination, she found out that the people she was supposed to deliver the package to had been arrested. She then took shelter with a man and his wife, originally not part of the operation, who agreed to take care of her and the baby.

Having met and married her husband, Tony, who had served in the US Army in the European Theatre, Marion moved to the United States and raised three sons. She worked as a child psychoanalyst and social worker, and spent many years in rural small-town Vermont. When Vermont passed controversial civil union legislation, she experienced harassment for her support of gay rights.

In 1981, she was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

She died in December 2016 from cerebral arteriosclerosis, survived by her three sons, many nieces, nephews, grandchildren, great-nieces and nephews, and one great-grandson. She is predeceased by her husband, her brother, and her second great-grandson.

• Medal of Valor at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual national tribute dinner in 2009
• Wallenberg Medal in 1996
• Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981

• Sandomir, Richard (2016-12-23). "Marion Pritchard, Who Risked Her Life to Rescue Jews From Nazis, Dies at 96". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-27.