Seventy five years ago this month, in May 1943, a Dutch Jew who we’ll call Nestor made a clandestine journey from Brussels to Switzerland. Nestor owned a factory in Brussels but spent most of his time helping other Jews escape the Nazis, particularly Jewish children who had been effectively orphaned when their parents were deported “to the east.”

Nestor worked with more than one resistance group, including the Comité of Dutch expats who were hiding Jews in Brussels and later joined Dutch-Paris. He was also the treasurer of the CDJ (Committee for the Defense of Jews), which was also hiding Jews in Brussels. Because they were running out of money in May 1943, his colleagues in the CDJ sent Nestor to Switzerland to ask for support from the international Jewish organizations there, such as the American Joint Distribution Committee.

The problem was, of course, that it wasn’t easy to get into Switzerland and, indeed, Nestor was caught and sent back over the border into France on his first attempt. He had, however, heard rumors about a Mr Meunier in Lyon who helped Dutchmen get to Switzerland. Mr Meunier happened to be John Weidner, whose second in command, who we’ll call Moen, was a Belgian Jew who had worked for the CDJ in Antwerp before fleeing to France. It’s probable that Moen and Nestor knew each other by reputation if not personally.

So Nestor went to Lyon and Weidner got him into Switzerland. This time the Swiss authorities did not realize he was there until after he had left again. Nestor was successful in getting pledges of financial support, but had no way of exchanging Swiss francs into Belgian francs or of transporting the cash to Belgium. He stopped by Lyon on his way back to talk the matter over with Weidner and Moen.

Moen volunteered to make the clandestine journey between the Swiss border and Brussels every two weeks in order to deliver cash to Belgium and bring back dangerous documents such as the lists of the true names and hiding places of Jewish children. He did it for the rest of the war.

When Weidner himself went to Brussels in October 1943 to expand his escape line into what became Dutch-Paris, the first person he talked to was Nestor. He didn’t have to look any further because the Comité of Dutch expats was eager to join forces to rescue the persecuted.