Hanneke Ippisch-Eikema

Biography

Eikema, the daughter of a Protestant minister who was himself involved with the resistance, was born in Benningbroek and grew up in Zaandam. After she saw one of her classmates and the classmate's family get arrested and deported, she began ferrying Jewish children to safety in Friesland (by train, and on the , the Enkhuizen-Stavoren ferry), under the nickname "Ellie". She joined the resistance proper in 1944 and, now named "Miep", became the personal courier for Walraven van Hall, leader and banker of the movement, entrusted with carrying large amounts of money and arranging meetings of senior resistance members. Later the family (by then with four children) moved to Montana, and Eikema divorced her Swedish husband and married an American, Les Ippisch. She began a bed and breakfast, and gave lectures and wrote about her war experiences. the title (Sky) was derived from the view of the sky from her prison window on the Amstelveenseweg. She died at age 87 of Alzheimer's disease, in Missoula, Montana.