Tina Strobos
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Tina Strobos (; May 19, 1920 – February 27, 2012) was a Dutch physician and
psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
from Amsterdam, known for her resistance work during
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 ...
. While a young medical student, she worked with her mother and grandmother to rescue more than 100 Jewish
refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
s as part of the
Dutch resistance The Dutch resistance () to the History of the Netherlands (1939–1945), German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized as non-violent. The primary organizers were the Communist Party of the Netherlands, C ...
during the
Nazi occupation of the Netherlands Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of '' Fall Gelb'' (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal f ...
. Strobos provided her house as a hiding place for Jews on the run, using a secret attic compartment and warning bell system to keep them safe from sudden police raids. In addition, Strobos smuggled guns and radios for the resistance and forged passports to help refugees escape the country. Despite being arrested and interrogated nine times by the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
, she never betrayed the whereabouts of a Jew. After the war, Strobos completed her medical degree and became a psychiatrist. She studied under
Anna Freud Anna Freud CBE ( ; ; 3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father a ...
in England. Strobos later emigrated to the United States to study psychiatry under a
Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
, and she subsequently settled in New York. She married twice and had three children. Strobos built a career as a family psychiatrist, receiving the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal in 1998 for her medical work, and finally retired from active practice in 2009. In 1989, Strobos was honored as
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
by
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
for her rescue work. In 2009, she was recognized for her efforts by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of New York City.


Early life

Tina Strobos was born Tineke Buchter on May 19, 1920, 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 ...
. Her parents, Marie Schotte and Alphonse Buchter, were
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
and fluent in four languages. Schotte supported the women's peace movement. Strobos' maternal grandfather founded a freethinking movement, and her maternal grandmother had been part of the labor movement in the late nineteenth century. The family had a history of offering shelter to those in need: Strobos' parents had previously taken in refugees from earlier conflicts, while Strobos' grandmother had sheltered Belgian refugees during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. When Strobos was ten years old, her parents divorced. She lived with her mother. By the age of sixteen, Strobos had decided she wanted to become a psychiatrist. At university, she began studying medicine, but her studies were interrupted after Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940.


World War II resistance work

When the Germans invaded the
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 ...
in May 1940, Strobos was living with her mother and their maid in Amsterdam. She was about to turn twenty. University students were ordered to sign an oath of loyalty to
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, but Strobos and her classmates refused to sign. The medical school was subsequently shut down, and Strobos and many other students joined the underground movement.


Safehouse and secret compartment

Strobos began her rescue work by hiding her best friend, a Jewish girl named Tirtsah Van Amerongen. Family friend Henri Polak—a socialist writer and labor leader—also decided to go into hiding, and Strobos' grandmother agreed to help him. Working with her mother and grandmother throughout the war, Strobos rescued over 100 Jewish refugees by hiding them four or five at a time in the family's boarding house at 282 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. The house had once been a city school and had three floors. Once Strobos and her mother started hiding refugees, a carpenter from the Dutch underground arrived at their house and constructed a small hiding place in the attic. The secret compartment was located inside a
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
. Although the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
raided the house eight times, they never found this secret compartment. Strobos and her mother had a warning bell system installed in the house, which they used to warn refugees on the upper floors of unexpected Gestapo visits. If the Jews had no time to hide in the secret compartment, they could escape through the window to an adjoining building. The family was also assisted by an anonymous ally at the Gestapo headquarters, who sometimes phoned them to warn of an impending Nazi raid. They never learned the identity of this ally. Although some Jews stayed at their house for extended periods, Strobos and her mother mostly used their house as a temporary safe space, sheltering Jews for a short time until they could be moved to a safer refuge. Some refugees were smuggled to Spain, Switzerland, or the Dutch countryside. Strobos and her mother often visited the people that they had arranged hiding places for, cycling miles out into the countryside to provide isolated refugees with valuable news and conversation. Among the refugees Strobos helped was impressionist painter Martin Monnickendam, who painted her portrait and gifted it to her. She kept the painting well into her old age. The Strobos residence was only a ten-minute walk away from
Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...
's hiding place at 263
Prinsengracht The Prinsengracht is a -long canal that runs parallel to the Keizersgracht in the center of Amsterdam. The canal, named after the Prince of Orange, is the fourth of the four main canals belonging to the Grachtengordel, canal belt. History Const ...
, Amsterdam. Although Strobos never met the Frank family, she later expressed her vexation at the fact that the Franks had not had an escape route built into their refuge: "If I knew they were there, I would have gotten them out of the country."


Gestapo interrogations

During the war, Strobos was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo nine times. During these encounters, Strobos was seized by her wrists and thrown against a wall, and she was once knocked unconscious. She never once betrayed the whereabouts of any Jews. To pass interrogations safely, Strobos learned certain tactics. Despite being fluent in German, she always asked for an
interpreter Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...
to buy extra time to compose herself. When a Nazi officer commented on her legs, Strobos gained more courage: "I realized that he was just a man and he was interested in my legs. So that gave me a sense of power. I got cocky. I could say 'I didn't know he was a Jew' in a stronger, more convincing way."


Abraham Pais

During the early years of the war, Strobos was engaged to Abraham "Bram" Pais, a young Jewish
particle physicist Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and ...
. She and her mother found hiding places for Pais and many of his relatives. Although they ended their engagement in 1943, Strobos and Pais remained friends. In February 1945, Pais was hiding in an apartment with three Jewish friends: Tirtsah Van Amerongen, her sister Jeanne, and Jeanne's husband, Lion Nordheim. One of Pais' ex-girlfriends betrayed them, and all were arrested. When Strobos heard the news, she found the Gestapo official in charge and persuaded him to let Tirtsah and Jeanne go free, but she could not do the same for Lion. Rescuing Pais required a more complicated plan. Strobos had in her possession a letter from well-known physicist
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
, who had previously invited Pais to study with him in
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. Strobos took this letter directly to a high-ranking German official and asked him to free Pais, describing him as "a young genius in physics" who would go on to do great things. After making some phone calls, the official ordered Pais to be released. Pais later became a noted nuclear physicist and biographer, recording the life stories of
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
and
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
.


Other resistance activities

Strobos and her mother also hid critical members of the Dutch underground movement, including resistance leader Johan Brouwer. Brouwer's resistance group Binnenlandse Strydkrachten did militant work such as smuggling weapons and building bombs. At the beginning of her work for the Dutch resistance, Strobos smuggled weapons, radios, and explosives, traveling up to fifty miles with the contraband hidden in her bicycle basket. She brought news and
ration stamp Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particul ...
s to Jews hiding on farms outside the city, as well as radios and firearms for the Dutch resistance. Sometimes, Strobos hid large boxes of guns in her house. As the resistance movement became increasingly violent, Strobos shifted her focus toward helping Jews escape. She also worked with the less militant Landelyke Organizatie (Country Organization) to shelter refugees and forge passports. To forge paperwork to help Jews flee the country, Strobos stole identity cards from non-Jewish people at social gatherings, and replaced the photos and fingerprints with those of her Jewish refugees. She sometimes resorted to other measures to get the papers she needed: Strobos asked pickpockets to steal identity cards from travelers at train stations, and in 1941, she stole passports from the coat pockets of guests at her aunt's funeral. Strobos' maternal grandmother, Marie Schotte Abrahams, had a radio transmitter hidden in her house, which was used to send encoded messages from the Dutch underground to the BBC in Britain. She kept this radio despite the Germans declaring a death penalty for any Dutch citizen guilty of hiding radio equipment. On one occasion, when a Nazi visited Abrahams's house and tried to interrogate her, she grasped his arm, looked him in the eye, and asked, "Did I not see you looting a Persian rug out of the Mendlessohns' apartment next door a few nights ago?" The Nazi officer collected his things and left quickly. Strobos later said of her grandmother: "She is the only person I know who scared the Gestapo." Despite the closure of universities, Strobos continued to study medicine during the war. She sometimes offered her house as a meeting place for underground medical classes, hosting up to eighteen students every week. The local hospital allowed small groups of students to study
pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
. She was taking her
pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...
exam at her professor's house in May 1945 and was interrupted when the Canadian Army arrived to liberate the Netherlands officially, and everyone raced outside to watch the tanks and soldiers come through the city gates.


Post-war career and honors

After the war ended, Strobos obtained her medical degree from the
University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...
in 1946 and went on to study psychiatry in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England with
Anna Freud Anna Freud CBE ( ; ; 3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father a ...
. During the 1950s, Strobos went to
Valhalla, New York Valhalla ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name wa ...
, to undertake a residency in psychiatry and neurology at Westchester Medical Center. She studied child psychiatry with the support of a
Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
. Strobos built a career as a family psychiatrist, with a special focus on working with the mentally impaired. She received the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal for her work as a medical professional in 1998, and finally retired from active practice in 2009. In 1989, Strobos and her mother, Marie Schotte, were officially recognized as
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
by
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
. In 2009, Strobos was honored for her rescue work by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. When asked in interviews about why she had risked her life to save others, Strobos said, "It's the right thing to do... Your conscience tells you to do it. I believe in heroism, and when you're young, you want to do dangerous things."


Family and personal life

Strobos' first husband was Robert Strobos, a
neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...
. They traveled to the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
in 1947, where Tina worked as a practicing psychiatrist for two years. After divorcing Robert in 1964, Tina Strobos later married economist Walter Chudson in 1967. Chudson was an American Jew who worked for the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
. Strobos and Chudson settled down in
Larchmont, New York Larchmont is a Village (New York), village located within the Town (New York), Town of Mamaroneck (town), New York, Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. Larchmont is a suburb of New York City, located approximately northeast of Midt ...
, and they stayed together until his death in 2002. Strobos had two sons and one daughter from her first marriage, and two stepchildren from her second marriage. Her two sons became a physician and a paramedic, while her daughter became a psychoanalyst. At the time of her death, Strobos had seven grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.


Death

Strobos died of cancer, aged 91, on February 27, 2012, in
Rye, New York Rye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, within the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. It received its charter as a city in 1942, making it the most recent such charter in the state. Its area of ...
.


References


External links

* Visiting Tina Strobos' Amsterdam House—video clip. {{DEFAULTSORT:Strobos, Tina 1920 births 2012 deaths 21st-century Dutch women Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Dutch emigrants to the United States Dutch psychiatrists Resistance members from Amsterdam Dutch Righteous Among the Nations Physicians from Amsterdam University of Amsterdam alumni Dutch women psychiatrists Female resistance members of World War II Female anti-fascists 20th-century Dutch physicians 20th-century Dutch women physicians