Over de stijl van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Judi Mendels -- short biography (Dutch)

excerpt (my translation):

At the outbreak of the war in 1940, Judica Mendels sat on a committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, which prepared a publication of the complete correspondence of nature expert Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. She was the only one who could decipher his handwriting.

Thanks to this work and her father's prominent position in society, Mendels escaped deportation for a long time during the war years. On the intercession of the secretary-general of the Interior Mendels was put together with hundreds of other Jews in 1943 at the castle De Schaffelaar in Barneveld, because of their 'social indispensability'. As a 'Barnevelder' she received a temporary postponement of transport. On 29 September 1943 she was transferred to the Westerbork transit camp with the other Barnevelders. Mendels found a job as a cleaning lady.