WW II Hero Honored with Amsterdam Bridge Name

When in Amsterdam....look at the names on our bridges. Amsterdam has over 2000 bridges. Many have been named after prominent people from Amsterdam.

On September 2, 2012, Bridge 234 was named the Pieter Meerburg Bridge. This bridge is located on the Nieuwe Keizesgracht near the Portuguese Synagogue and the Jewish Historic Museum.

Pieter Meerburg

Pieter Meerburg is credited with saving the lives of 350 Amsterdam children during the Nazi occupation. Meerburg was a student in Amsterdam during the Second World War. He organized Amsterdam Jewish children to be smuggled to safety and adopt a new identity.

The organization Pieter led was called the Amsterdam Student Group. Composed entirely of volunteers, the students, men and women, would pretend the Jewish babies were their own. They were assisted by an Amsterdam pediatrician Dr. Fiedeldij Dop. The doctor would cycle around to families whom were close to deportation and ask them entrust their infants to Meerburg.

When demand exceeded the number of safe houses Meerburg talked local business owners into providing sanctuary for the young Amsterdammers.

Bridge 234 now the Meerburg Bridge

Meerburg was titled "Righteous Among Nations" by the Israel association for Holocaust Remembrance in 1974. Pieter Meeburg died in 2010.

When in Amsterdam....look at our bridge names. There is a story at every bridge.