MUS writes biography of The Hague resistance heroine
Professor Wim Willems of the Centre for Modern Urban Studies (MUS), together with Anne van Mourik, is researching the life of Ru Paré, the woman who saved 52 Jewish children during World War II.
Henrica Maria - Ru - Paré (1896-1972) was born in Druten, Gelderland, and moved to The Hague in 1919 to enroll in the Royal Academy of Art. She moved in artistic circles that included the painter Christiaan de Moor, writer-journalist Josine Reuling and elocutionist Albert Vogel. During World War II, she helped to hide Jewish children and a number of adults throughout the Netherlands, aided by her life partner ‘Aunt Do’. After the war, the artist Paré always remained in touch with the children in the Netherlands and also particularly those in Israel whose lives she had saved.
Triptych
Anne van Mourik recently wrote a page on Wikipedia about Paré. The biography Willems and Van Mourik intend to write as a result of their findings will appear as a triptych: Ru Paré as an artist, as a resistance heroine and as a personality in The Hague society. An interview with Willems about the search for Ru Paré appeared recently in De Gelderlander.