Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Dutch Resistance Member Diet Eman Meets King and Queen of the Netherlands
Dutch Resistance Member Diet Eman Meets King and Queen of the Netherlands
Mar 16, 2025 11:58 PM

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands visited Frederik Meijer Gardens and the Medical Mile in Grand Rapids on June 2, marking the third time in history that Dutch royalty stepped foot in Michigan.

The occasion, which served as an opportunity for Michigan and the Netherlands to express gratitude for their strong economic ties and trade relations, and to continue this cooperation, also proved special in another way.

As part of the day’s festivities, the King and Queen were introduced to Diet Eman, a 95-year old resident of Grand Rapids, and a leading member of the Dutch Resistance in WWII. I had the great honor of panying Diet during the day’s events, which included a presentation of a ballet about her life, “It Is Well,” performed by Turning Pointe School of Dance.

At age 95, Diet possesses a unique amount of energy and grace, which is coupled with an equally unique history of courage and sacrifice. As a 20-year old bank teller living in the Netherlands during WWII, she and a group of ordinary Dutch citizens sought to protect Jews during the Nazi’s occupation of the country.

At the beginning of the war, Diet and her fiancé, Hein Sietsma, possessed an almost prophetic sense of the atrocities that would occur under Adolf Hitler’s reign. They had read his book, Mein Kampf and sensed that his messages of hate were not just hollow proclamations. Diet and Hein also had Jewish friends, and witnessed the early stages of Hitler’s plan to exterminate the Jews, his “final solution.”

They, along with fellow members of the Dutch Resistance, simply acted upon their convictions and faith, recognizing that as time went on the actions against the Jewish people were worsening, culminating in deportations to concentration camps and often death. Dutch Resistance activities included the highly intricate and dangerous work of finding and providing housing for Jews, fabricating identification cards, and stealing food ration cards from German government offices in the Netherlands, so Jews could obtain food.

In the midst of these efforts, Diet was arrested and sent to Vught concentration camp in the Netherlands. After a long period of questioning, she was remarkably pronounced innocent and was released. Undaunted, she continued resistance efforts until the Netherlands’ liberation from Nazi control in May 1945. Unfortunately, her fiancé, Hein, did not get to experience this joyous day; he was sent to Dachau concentration camp in Germany and killed for his involvement in the resistance.

For her tireless work to uphold the dignity of the person in the face of Nazi tyranny, Diet was recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in 1998. She was also awarded a medal from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands for her work in the resistance, which she proudly wore at this recent visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima in Grand Rapids.

This year’s 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and the end of WWII present a prime opportunity to reflect on the Holocaust, and those who bravely stood up against the Nazi regime to preserve life and uphold human dignity.

It is incredible for those of us in Grand Rapids to learn that we have one of these heroes in our own backyard. Diet continues to grace people locally and internationally with her example of service, poise, and humility. Being in her presence as she was recognized by the King and Queen for her courageous efforts, and seeing her joy was an incredible privilege.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Those progressive conservatives
Very often in political discourse, the labels liberal/progressive are juxtaposed with conservative/traditional (or variants thereof). But there are numerous instances where these terms e misleading, not only due to various connotations associated with them, but because the denotation of each word may not adequately describe the position on either side. Take the educational choice movement, for example. To the extent that this multifaceted phenomenon can be called a unified “movement,” its defining characteristic might well be identified as the upsetting...
When to make law
A good question and discussion over at WorldMagBlog: “Should everything that’s immoral be illegal, regulated, or punished? If so, by which kind of government (include family and church as kinds of governments)? Can you give an example of a behavior that’s immoral but shouldn’t be regulated by the state?” My answer: Here’s what Aquinas has to say on this (in part), and I think it has a lot of merit in determining when and in what situations conduct should be...
Grocery store wars
Cuke Skywalker vs. Darth Tater The popularity of the Star Wars franchise (and Episode III Revenge of the Sith) has been fertile ground (pun intended) for various political satire mentary. For a mildly entertaining take on Star Wars from the Organic Trade Association, attacking “the dark side of the farm…more chemical than vegetable, twisted and evil,” visit “Grocery Store Wars.” Check out the Acton Institute’s Environmental Newsletter on Genetically Modified Foods. ...
Prayer for the nation
Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. –U.S. Book of Common Prayer, “For the...
WARC wackiness
Contained in this year’s Christian Reformed Church 2005 Agenda for Synod, which will be held June 11-18, is a report from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches recent General Council in Accra, Ghana (pp. 257-63). The agenda states, “A reading of this document will make it clear that, while all participants appreciated mon Christian concern regarding issues of poverty and the oppressive structures that contribute to it, not all delegates fortable with either the decision-making process or the ideological positions...
Of mice and men: What it means to be human
Jordan Ballor writes about the ethical and moral implications of creating genetic chimeras. ments on a recent New York Times editorial promoting chimera research, calling their thinking “scientific pragmatism” and criticizing the general lack of understanding of both human nature and anthropology. “The creation of new kinds of chimeras, using manipulation at the cellular and sub-cellular level, raises the stakes considerably,” writes Ballor about the level of public controversy involved with chimera research thus far. Pursuing further research without adhering...
A death dealing global economy?
The approaching G8 summit in Scotland has led the World Council of Churches to renew its call for a debt-free world. That is, debt-free if you are one of those developing nations that have been victimized by “increasingly unconscionable levels of inequity,” according to Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, general secretary. There is nothing in Rev. Kobia’s letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that is new — the WCC has been lobbying for debt cancellation for years. And it is...
The battle of ideas
The Road to Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek This OpinionJournal article, “Investing in the Right Ideas,” by James Piereson, surveys a brief history of philanthropy in the 20th century. Piereson describes three phases of conservative philanthropy, initiated by F. A. Hayek in the 40’s and 50’s. He writes, “The seminal influence on these funders was F.A. Hayek’s ‘The Road to Serfdom,’ published in London in 1944 and in the U.S. the following year. This slender volume, an articulate call to...
A new New History Textbook
Following up on my post yesterday about the controversial Japanese history textbook that glosses over Japan’s past wartime aggressions, a new textbook is plete which will act as a supplement to current Japanese history textbooks with a much plete picture of what happened around the time of World War II. The new textbook is a joint project by scholars and historians from Japan, China, and Korea. While the first controversial textbook was published by a nationalistic organization and tended to...
Celebrating chimeras
Here’s a different, deeply flawed, and downright chilling take on the creation of genetic chimeras: David P. Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, es them as a sign of the “continuity” between humans and other creatures. Barash attacks “religious fundamentalists” who draw “the line at the emergence of human beings from other ‘lower’ life forms. It is a line that exists only in the minds of those who proclaim that the human species, unlike all others, possesses...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved