The Holocaust lasted from 1933-1945. Since then, incredible stories of people helping Jews and other persecuted groups survive have continued to be revealed, like the “Japanese Schindler.”
Recently, another amazing Holocaust survival story emerged in Holland. A Christian woman named Jacqueline Meents-Lenstra (who also went by Jacqueline Mintz) saved a baby boy named Efraim (Ephraim) Kochba after his parents, Martha van Coevorden and Ziegfried Fritz, were detained by Nazi forces.
To do so, Meents-Lenstra collaborated with his parents by faking a pregnancy and vowing to care for him if anything should happen to them. For her courage, Meents-Lenstra was honored earlier this month by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, with the Righteous Among the Nations honor. It is Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
“I was deeply moved to receive this wonderful news from Yad Vashem,” Kochba told Y Net News. “On behalf of the entire family, I thank them for closing an 83-year circle. Symbolically, I will celebrate my 83rd birthday next week, and this is the most moving gift I could receive.”
Who was Jacqueline Meents-Lenstra?
Meents-Lenstra was the neighbor of Kochba’s parents. She was married to a Jewish man named Max, who had been detained by Nazi forces and sent to Westerbork transit camp.
Despite being on her own, she agreed to take Kochba. For months, she wore a pillow under her clothes to fake a pregnancy, according to the Jerusalem News Syndicate (JNS). Once Kochba was born in an Amsterdam hospital, she took him home while his biological mother returned to a safehouse.
Meents-Lenstra became a first-time mom and took her adoptive role seriously. She kept a meticulous diary of her life with baby Kochba, documenting photos of major milestones and firsts, and even preserving a lock of his hair. Her husband Max was able to escape and reunite with her and baby Kochba.
The legal battle for baby Kochba
Unfortunately, Kochba would never meet his biological parents. They were killed during the Holocaust. After World War II ended, a legal battle began between his biological uncle and Meents-Lenstra and her husband.
Now 2-years-old, Kochba was initially allowed to stay with his adoptive parents. However, the ruling was overturned and he was taken from them. Sadly, shortly after the ruling, Meents-Lenstra became sick and quickly died of cancer at just 32 years old.
Kochba would go on to live with his uncle and aunt in Israel, never knowing about his adoptive parents.
“Until the age of 13, I called them mother and father because I did not know the story,” Kochba said to JNS.
Kochba reunites with his adoptive father
Years passed. Following Kochba’s military service in Israel, he was determined to reunite with his adoptive father in the Netherlands in 1965.
“It was not a simple meeting. It was charged at times. He had lost first his wife and then me,” he told JNS. During the meeting, Max gave Kochba the diary Meents-Lenstra had kept of his infant years.
“I was so moved because I felt that I had something from that time because as a 2-year-old I did not remember anything,” Kochba said.
Kochba and Max would continue to visit each other until Max’s death. Kochba hopes to connect with his adoptive mother’s family to give them the distinction from Yad Vashem.
“It is theirs. I owe it to them,” he shared with JNS.
