Käthe Flachs
(Catherina M.J.)

∗ 08-03-1911 Valkenburg (L) † 27-10-1999 ’s-Gravenhage (88)
- Unorganized resistance - Aid to Jews - Valkenburg - Survivors - Women in the resistance -

On June 23th, 1942, Käthe Flachs and her Jewish friend Eva Cok-De Wilde took a bike ride to Vaals. Afterwards, Eva was arrested by Godert van Rennes, a Valkenburg police officer and fanatical member of the NSB. According to Käthe, she cycled to the police station with Eva, with Rennes close behind.
From Käthe’s testimony after the war: On the evening of her arrest, I went to Rennes to try to get her released because of her children. Rennes was unmoved and said that as a Jewish woman she had no permission to perform. He asked me if I knew where the children were. Knowing this, I pretended not to know. Fearing that if Rennes would find out their address he would also arrest the children, I took them from Bunde, where they were in hiding, to Amsterdam the next day. [1][2]
Those children were Moos and Herman.
By now, only this random resistance from her is known, but after all she risked her life and saved the lives of the children.

Footnotes

NL-HaNA, CABR, 2.09.09, inv. 95412, dossier 5179 – Godert van Rennes, getuigenis Catharina Flachs uit Valkenburg.

Käthe Flachs(Catherina M.J.)

Käthe Flachs
(Catherina M.J.)