Is Marion Pranchard A Hero

A hero is not always a person with a mask and a cape. A hero is someone who goes out of their way to save or help others, no matter what the consequence may be. Someone who risks something, like their life, just for another, even if they don’t know them. For example, Marion Pritchard helped save many Jewish children and adults during the terrifying years of the Holocaust. She lied, cheated, stole, kidnapped, and even killed to save the lives of people she didn’t know. She put her life on the line for complete strangers. Someone might ask why. She knew it was the right thing to do, even though she knew she could have gotten killed for what she was doing. Heroes are not always someone with super powers. Marion Pritchard should be considered a hero because of all the things she had done for other people.

Marion Pritchard was a normal woman growing up in Amsterdam, Holland. Her father was a liberal judge and her mother was a homemaker. She only had one younger brother at the time and he was only a kid. Her father and mother showed and taught Marion throughout her life to be very respectful and considerate of others. Marion helped others

whenever she had the chance while growing up. She did what was right and stood up for herself and others. During the Holocaust her parents lessons were put to the test.
It was the spring of 1942 when Marion Pritchard, twenty-two at the time, witnessed Nazis hauling young Jewish kids into a truck as if they were bags of trash. “She was paralysed with fear as she watched German soldiers seize the children by their limbs and hair and throw [them] into the back of a truck.” (Odessa) These actions infuriated Marion and she vowed that she would save as many Jewish lives as she could. From that day on, Marion started to help out Jews anytime she could. She used to be one of the many people who just watched. “‘I just stood there,’ she added, ‘I’m one of those people who sat there and watched it happen.’” (Sandomir). She didn’t like the fact that she was just watching and doing nothing, so she decided to act.
Later she met a father of three children, the Polak family. They were Jewish and in need of being hidden to be kept from getting captured. If they got captured the Polak family would have been separated and thrown into a concentration camp where they would have suffered. A close friend of the Polak’s had asked Marion for help, and of course, she did. She sheltered them and his children for nearly three years. One day, three Nazi officers and Dutch Nazi policemen came to Marion’s house because they were told by neighbors that she had been hiding a Jewish family. At first they found nothing so they left, after the Nazi officer's left, Polaks two young children came out of their hiding spot to retrieve the sleeping powder for the baby and to stretch when suddenly one of the Dutch Policeman returned. Pritchard tried to get everyone back in the hiding place before the Dutch policeman could see them, but she was too late. The policeman saw them and was about to capture them when Marion made a deadly decision to grab a gun and shoot the policeman. She did this only to protect the Polaks. She later buried the evidence. “‘I would do it again, under the same circumstances,’ she told an interviewer years later, ‘but it still bothers me.’” (Langer). Marion never got arrested and got away with the murder.
She did many things for people that could have gotten her killed. She would register Jewish kids as her own until she was able to find them a safe place to live. She made many fake identification papers to make sure they couldn’t be taken. Everything that Marion did was strictly confidential and she never told anyone exactly what she was doing. She spent lots of her time finding hiding places, homes, food, medicine, ration cards and fake identification papers for Jews. Throughout the years of the Holocaust she saved as many as one hundred and fifty Jews. She never regretted anything she had done, only that she wished she had done more, like many others who risked their lives during the Holocaust. Marion Pritchard never thought she’d be able to do anything like what she did. “She insisted that she couldn’t have done her work without the assistance, overt or implied, of neighbors, friends and other members of the resistance.” (www.washingtonpost.com) Marion Pritchard was a hero, and still is to many people. Even though she never thought her herself as one, she was one to everyone she saved, she is still considered a hero by many others today.
Some people might not see Marion Pritchard as a hero for many reasons. They might think she isn’t a hero because there were many other people who did the same thing as Marion. Someone might even say she didn’t do as much as others did to help save Jews, or they might think that what Marion did was simply courageous, but not heroic. Maybe even the fact that she had killed someone might make people see her as a criminal instead of a hero. Despite the fact that she had killed someone, even though she did it to help save another, what Marion did was very heroic. Everyone who helped save Jews during the Holocaust can’t all be heroes. Or can they? There’s not a limit of how many heroes are allowed. What those few people did during the Holocaust made them all heros.
Marion Pritchard is a hero. She risked her life for others. What she did was not something she was forced into, she willingly put herself out there to help as many people as she possibly could. She sheltered kids and made sure they were safe from any dangers. She did many things that could have killed her. Marion Pritchard is a hero in many people’s eyes. Marion Pritchard saved the lives of many people, and without her willingness to help, many of those kids and adults probably would died horrible deaths. Marion Pritchard’s fearless acts are what saved the lives of many people.

Works Cited
Langer, Emily.

“Marion Pritchard, Dutch Rescuer of Jewish Children during the Holocaust, Dies at 96.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 20 Dec. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/marion-pritchard-dutch-rescuer-of-jewish-children-during-the-holocaust-dies-at-96/2016/12/20/d5ca50e0-c61b-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?utm_term=.fea81a97f298. Accessed: March 12th, 2018

Odessa, Rebecca. “The Woman Who Killed To Save Jews From The Nazis.” The Wisdom Daily, 2 Jan. 2017, thewisdomdaily.com/woman-killed-save-jews-nazis/. Accessed: March 12th, 2018

Sandomir, Richard. “Marion Pritchard, Who Risked Her Life to Rescue Jews From Nazis, Dies at 96.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Dec. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/europe/marion-pritchard-rescuer-of-jews.html. Accessed: March 12th,

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