Born on 1 September 1909 in
Ambt Almelo, a former municipality in the
Netherlands province of
Overijssel, Gerritdina Letteboer was a daughter of Almelo natives Johan Letteboer (1881–1927) and Janna (Eshuis) Letteboer (born 29 December 1883). She and her sister, Johanna Letteboer (1908–1957), grew up in Almelo. Gerritdina Letteboer opted to begin her own family when she wed
Johan Benders (1907–1943) sometime during the mid to late 1930s. A native of Bloemendaal, he would go on to become an active member of the Dutch Resistance during World War II while continuing his work as a teacher at the
Amsterdams Lyceum. They settled in
Amstelveen in the Netherlands province of
North Holland, and greeted the arrival of their first child in 1939.
World War II Gerritdina Benders-Letteboer and her husband, Johan Benders, became active members of the Dutch Resistance in response to the
invasion and occupation of the Netherlands by Germany in May 1940, and the expulsion of Jewish students from the Amsterdams Lyceum as part of a series of
persecution laws enacted against Dutch Jewish citizens. Teaching student Tineke Guilonard and other older members of his classes how to forge identity papers and food ration cards for Jewish people to help them avoid this persecution, Johan Benders also encouraged his wife to turn their home into a hiding place for Jewish men, women and children. Among those finding refuge at the Benders’ home were two of Benders’ former pupils, Rosalie and Katie Wijnberg, Jewish sisters who had left their parents’ home in the
Dutch East Indies to reside with an aunt in the Netherlands, and suddenly found themselves at risk of persecution and deportation. They remained at the Benders’ home through the Netherlands’ Liberation. That same year (1943), a neighbor who was a Nazi sympathizer alerted Dutch and German officials to the Benders’ resistance activities. In response, the
Geheime Staatspolizei (known more commonly as the "Gestapo") raided the Benders’ home on 4 April 1943, arrested Johan Benders, Lore Polak and Katie Wijnberg, and jailed them. At the time of his arrest, Johan Benders had a list in his pocket with the coded names and addresses of 18 Jewish people he had helped hide; Gerritdina Benders-Letteboer was five months pregnant and the mother of two young daughters. Gerritdina Benders-Letteboer died in Amstelveen, North Holland, Netherlands on 13 March 1980. ==Awards==