The Woman With a Toothbrush Who Saved 10,000 Children from the Nazis

In December 1938, the streets of Vienna were littered with broken glass from Jewish shops destroyed during Kristallnacht. Jewish families lived in constant fear, and the future looked terrifying for their children. Into this chaos stepped Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer, a Dutch social worker married to a banker, who could not have children of her own. Since 1933, she had been helping Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany, often using bold and risky methods to get them to safety.SEE MORE…

On December 2, 1938, Truus was sent to Vienna to negotiate with Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official in charge of forced Jewish emigration. Eichmann offered her an extraordinary opportunity: she could save 600 Jewish children from Austria within just five days. Confident she would fail, he saw it as an impossible task—but Truus saw it as a door she had to walk through.

Over the next five days, she organized every detail: finding families willing to release their children, preparing necessary documents, coordinating trains, and ensuring the children would be received safely in Britain and the Netherlands. In a time when every step carried danger, Truus relied on her courage, intelligence, and sometimes small bribes to overcome Nazi bureaucracy and checkpoints.

Her efforts became one of the first major Kindertransports, saving hundreds of children at a time, often in groups of up to 150. She traveled constantly across Germany and Central Europe, providing food, medicine, and forged documents for those still at risk. From December 1938 to May 1940, Truus personally organized 74 documented transports, saving approximately 10,000 Jewish children from almost certain death.

After the war, Truus continued serving the community and was honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. She never sought fame, and for decades her story remained little known outside the Netherlands. Yet her legacy is unforgettable: the courage and determination of a woman who, with a toothbrush and a bag packed for any emergency, changed the lives of thousands of children and gave them a chance to survive.