Marion Pritchard

Marion Philippina 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 approximately 150 Dutch Jews, most of them children, throughout the German occupation of the Netherlands. In addition to protecting these people’s lives, she was imprisoned by Nazis, worked in collaboration with the Dutch resistance, and shot dead a known Dutch informer to the Nazis to save Dutch Jewish children.

Early life Pritchard was born Marion Philippina van Binsbergen on 7 November 1920 in Amsterdam and grew up in the Netherlands. She was the daughter of liberal judge Jacob van Binsbergen, who was on the board of regents for the prisons of Amsterdam. Her parents encouraged her to express her feelings and to expect honest answers from them. She recalled going to school with Jews in every class and reported that they were "considered Dutch like everyone else". At age 19, she enrolled in a school for social work in Amsterdam.

German occupation of the Netherlands

The German Army invaded and occupied the Netherlands in May 1940. During her social work studies, Pritchard (then van Binsbergen) was arrested while staying overnight during curfew with friends, who—unbeknownst to her—had been distributing transcripts of Allied radio broadcasts, and was imprisoned for seven months. She described her reaction to witnessing this event: "I was shocked and in tears, and after that I knew my rescue work was more important than anything else I might be doing".

Postwar life After the war, Pritchard worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Germany at displaced-persons camps. Consequently, she met and married Anton "Tony" Pritchard, the head of such a camp in Bavaria and a recently discharged United States Army officer.

Recognition Pritchard received the following recognition for her rescue work: Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981 Wallenberg Medal in 1996 Medal of Valor at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual national tribute dinner in 2009 Display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum