Lydia Riezouw (4 October 1923 – 9 December 2005), also known as Lydia van Nobelen-Riezouw, was a Dutch photographer and

resistance fighter A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Biography

Lydia Riezouw was born on 4 October 1923 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. She lived almost her life, including during the war, in her parents home at Plantage Kerklaan 9 in Amsterdam. She was not Jewish. In 1942, Riezouw took five photographs from her room of the Jewish prisoners being held in the Hollandsche Schouwburg (English: ''Dutch Theatre'' or ''Hollandic Theatre''), they were recently captured to be transported to concentration camps in Germany. The back garden of her parents home bordered the courtyard of the Hollandsche Schouwburg and in 1942, Riezouw saw her Jewish friend, Greetje Velleman, from the window of her house. The prisoners were allowed to get some fresh air outside and Riezouw photographs Velleman and the other people in the courtyard. She also plays records on the gramophone for them. Greetje is one of the first Jews to be imprisoned in the Hollandsche Schouwburg; and age seventeen Velleman was murdered in

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

on 30 September 1942. Those photographs from 1942 by Riezouw were later shown at exhibitions worldwide, and are part of the collection at the

NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies ( Dutch: ''NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies'') is an organisation in the Netherlands which maintains archives and carries out historical studies into the Second ...

. Lydia Riezouw died in 2005 at the Slotervaart Nursing Home in Amsterdam, where she lived the last years of her life. She was cremated in Amsterdam.

Exhibitions

* 1996, "The Illegal Camera: Photography in the Netherlands During the German Occupation, 1940–1945", group exhibition,

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

, New York City, New York

References

External links

* Video
Interview with Riezouw
(before 2005)
Riezouw photo from 1942
via Beeldbank WO2 (Image Bank WW2),

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riezouw, Lydia 1923 births 2005 deaths Artists from Amsterdam Dutch people of World War II Dutch photographers Resistance members from Amsterdam Women in World War II

Biography

Exhibitions

See also

References

External links