Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Dutch Man Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Returns His Medal

A Dutch man who risked his life to save a Jew during the Holocaust gave back a medal he received for his actions in order to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Henk Zanoli, 91, returned his medal to the Israeli embassy in The Hague after a member of his family died in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the Haaretz daily reported Friday.

Zanoli and his mother were recognized by the State of Israel and its Holocaust commemoration authority, Yad Vashem, in 2011 for hiding a Jewish child in their home from 1943 to 1945.

A great-niece of Zanoli is a Dutch diplomat whose husband was born in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Last month an Israeli bomb killed several members of his family, Haaretz reported.

“It is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four generations on, our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried out by the State of Israel,” Zanoli wrote in a letter to the embassy explaining his decision to return the medal. “For me to hold on to the honour granted by the State of Israel, under these circumstances, will be both an insult to the memory of my courageous mother who risked her life,” and to relatives in mourning in Gaza, he added.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.