Banker Who Secretly Financed the Dutch Resistance: Walraven van Hall
Recently Added
•
11m
Walraven van Hall was a Dutch banker who became one of the most important financiers of the resistance during the Second World War. Known as the “Banker of the Resistance,” he helped establish the National Support Fund, which financed people in hiding, supported hundreds of Jews, aided resistance groups, funded sabotage, and helped rescue Allied pilots.
Using ingenious financial schemes, including secretly replacing millions of guilders in Dutch treasury notes with forged copies, Van Hall helped distribute more than 83 million guilders to the resistance.
Betrayal led to his arrest in January 1945. The Nazis never discovered the true scale of his underground activities. On 12 February 1945, the 39-year-old banker was killed in retaliation for the death of a police officer. After the war, he was honored for his resistance work and recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
Up Next in Recently Added
-
Former Soviets Who Joined Nazi SS and...
The Kaminski Brigade was one of the most notorious collaborationist formations created from Soviet citizens during the Second World War. Emerging in German-occupied Soviet territory, RONA grew from a local militia into a force of thousands, including former Soviet prisoners of war.
The brigade f...
-
Nazi Gestapo Chief Known as the Butch...
Klaus Barbie became one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals in occupied France. As Gestapo chief in Lyon, he earned the name “Butcher of Lyon” for his brutal persecution and torture of members of the French Resistance and the deportation of thousands of Jews.
Among his victims was legendary...
-
German Edelweiss Division Murdered 15...
In the summer of 1943, German troops of the 1st Mountain Division “Edelweiss” descended on the Greek village of Mousiotitsa in Epirus. During two attacks, soldiers looted and burned homes and murdered 153 villagers, including 63 children. The massacre was part of a wider campaign of brutal repris...
