Betty Bausch-Polak

Betty Bausch-Polak (4 November 1919 – 8 November 2024) was a Dutch Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and an active member of the Dutch Resistance. She traveled internationally to deliver lectures on the perils of racial discrimination and prejudice.

Early life Polak was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Amsterdam, on 4 November 1919. From a young age, she recognized the dangers posed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and actively protested against them. She aspired to migrate to the Palestine Mandate and therefore undertook agricultural training. In 1939, she married Philip de Leeuw, a Jewish economist who was serving as a sec

tion commander of a border battalion in Dinxperlo at the time.

World War II At an early age, she recognized the threat posed by Adolf Hitler and actively opposed it. In 1939, she wed the Jewish economist, Philip de Leeuw. During World War II, they made unsuccessful attempts to escape to England by ship. Subsequently, De Leeuw was executed in retaliation. Her parents, in-laws, and sister perished in different concentration camps.