Walraven Van Hall

Walraven van Hall (10 February 1906 - 12 February 1945) was a protagonist in financing the Dutch resistance during World War II. He founded the National Support Fund which provided for about one hundred fifty thousand people in hiding.A stockbroker before the war, he, like his fellow resistance members, risked his life on a daily basis to work for the livelihoods of the the families of Dutchwomen and -men who were sabotaging the nazi's by not showing up for work at the national railways, refusing to hand over Dutch naval power and supplying Jews and resistance members in hiding with food, clothing, forged identity papers and illegal newspapers. He and his brother Gijsbert were authorised by the exiled, London-based government to borrow money from their substantial circle of friends and acquaintances in the Dutch banking world. They devised an administration to guarantee the financiers would be reimbursed after the war that the Germans were never able to remove. He was always...