Jacqueline Meents-Lenstra honored for saving Jewish baby during Holocaust

Jacqueline Meents-Lenstra has been honored by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, with the Righteous Among the Nations award for saving a Jewish baby during the Holocaust.

Eighty-three years ago in the Netherlands, Meents-Lenstra collaborated with the parents of baby Efraim (Ephraim) Kochba to ensure his survival after they were detained by Nazi forces. To protect the infant, Meents-Lenstra faked a pregnancy by wearing a pillow under her clothes for several months. After Kochba was born in an Amsterdam hospital, she took him into her care while his biological mother moved to a safehouse.

Meents-Lenstra, who was married to a Jewish man named Max, raised Kochba as her own and maintained a detailed diary of his upbringing. Her husband eventually escaped detention and reunited with the family. Kochba expressed deep gratitude for the recognition, noting that the honor symbolically closes an 83-year circle as he approaches his own 83rd birthday.