Joke Folmer
{{Short description|Dutch resistance member (1923–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joke Folmer
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Johanna Maria Folmer
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|7|9|df=y}}
| birth_place = Hoofddorp, Netherlands
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|12|11|1923|7|9|df=y}}
| death_place = Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands
| monuments =
| residence =
| nationality = Dutch
| occupation = Resistance member
| known_for =
| relatives =
| awards =
}}
Johanna Maria "Joke" Folmer (9 July 1923 – 11 December 2022) was a Dutch resistance member during World War II.{{cite web|url=https://nos.nl/artikel/2456122-verzetsstrijder-joke-folmer-99-overleden |title=Verzetsstrijder Joke Folmer (99) overleden|work=NOS|date=12 December 2022|access-date=12 December 2022|language=nl}}{{cite web|date=|title=Overlijdensbericht Joke Folmer|url=https://mensenlinq.nl/overlijdensberichten/joke-folmer-9392917/|access-date=24 December 2022|work=Mensenlinq|language=nl}}
Life
Shortly after her birth, Folmer moved with her parents to the Dutch East Indies where she lived until the age of 16. At the time of the 1940 German invasion of the Netherlands she was seventeen years old and attended the lyceum in Zeist. By delivering homework to a Jewish friend, she came into contact with the Dutch resistance. She became a courier for the Fiat Libertas group. She smuggled over three hundred people across the border, including 120 Allied pilots.{{cite web|url=https://www.omropfryslan.nl/nl/nieuws/1145738/joke-folmer-boodschappenmeisje-van-het-verzet |title=Joke Folmer, boodschappenmeisje van het verzet|work=Omrop Fryslan|date=1 May 2022|access-date=13 December 2022|language=nl}}
In September 1943 the group was betrayed. Folmer was sentenced to death and imprisoned in, among others, the Oranjehotel, the prison in Utrecht and Herzogenbusch concentration camp. Her execution was prevented by the evacuation of the camp on Dolle Dinsdag. As a Nacht und Nebel prisoner, she went to multiple German prisons. Because she was moved so often, her death sentence papers were never at the prison she was in. She was liberated in Waldheim by the Russians on 6 May 1945. Her return journey to the Netherlands is described in the book The Walls Came Tumbling Down by Jet Roosenburg.{{cite web|url=https://www.ewmagazine.nl/nederland/achtergrond/2021/09/joke-folmer-ik-heb-veertien-maanden-gewacht-op-mijn-executie-244400w/ |title=Joke Folmer: 'Ik heb veertien maanden gewacht op mijn executie'|work=EW Magazine|date=20 September 2022|access-date=13 December 2022|language=nl}}
After the war, she and Nel Lind organized reunions in which British and Canadian air force veterans traveled the escape routes from the Netherlands to the Swiss or Spanish borders.
Folmer died in Schiermonnikoog on 11 December 2022, at the age of 99.
Awards
File:Medal_of_Freedom_stripe_gullpalme.svg with golden palm]]
- {{flagicon|USA}} Medal of Freedom with golden palm (1946)
::After the death of Peter van den Hurk in 2014 , Folmer was the only living Dutch bearer of the Medal of Freedom with golden palm.
- {{flagicon|GBR}} George Medal (1947)
- {{flagicon|NED}} Bronze Lion (1951)
- {{flagicon|NED}} Resistance Memorial Cross
- {{flagicon|NED}} Medal of honor Schiermonnikoog (2020){{cite web|url=https://www.rtvnoord.nl/nieuws/712749/verzetsheldin-joke-folmer-96-ontvangt-erepenning-schiermonnikoog |title=Verzetsheldin Joke Folmer (96) ontvangt erepenning Schiermonnikoog|work=RTV Noord|date=12 June 2020|access-date=12 June 2020|language=nl}}
Legacy
In 2020 Omrop Fryslan made a documentary of 2 episodes about her.
References
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Category:Dutch resistance members
Category:Female resistance members of World War II
Category:People from Haarlemmermeer
Category:Recipients of the Medal of Freedom
Category:Recipients of the George Medal