The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

Marion Pritchard, a Dutch social work student
who was credited with saving dozens of Jews
during the Holocaust, spirit-
ing some to safe houses,
hiding others under floor-
boards, and, in one case,
executing a Nazi before he
could arrest a family of four,
died Dec. 11 in Washington.
She was 96.
The cause was cerebral
Marion
arteriosclerosis, according to
Pritchard
her family.
Pritchard was recognized in 1981 by Yad
Vashem as “righteous among the nations” — a
gentile who risked her life to rescue Jews from
the Nazis.
She was said to have fed, clothed, hidden or
otherwise aided as many as 150 people, many
of them children. Erica Polak, a Dutch psy-
chologist, was an infant girl who survived the
war in the countryside shelter with her father
and brothers, thanks to Pritchard’s efforts. “My
whole family is so grateful to her,” she wrote in
an email after her rescuer died, “no words will
ever be enough to describe that deep gratitude
we feel.”

*

INSPIRATIONAL JEWISH
AUTHOR SHOT TO DEATH
OUTSIDE HOME IN ISTANBUL

Turkish Jewish author Beki
Ikala Erikli was murdered
while she stood outside
her apartment building in
Istanbul on Dec. 15.
Her killer, his motive
unclear, has not been
caught. Police were said to
Beki Ikala Erikli be investigating the murder,
according to reports in the
Times of Israel.
Erikli, a former marketing director for
Procter and Gamble in Europe, wrote several
inspirational books, including Living With
the Angels, Power of the Angels and Angels
at Work, which, according to her LinkedIn
profile, sold hundreds of thousands of cop-
ies. She described herself on the career site as
“spiritual teacher devoted to enabling every-
one to connect to their inner voice, intuition
or angels and thereby helping them find their
life purpose.”
According to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth,
Turkey’s Jewish community expressed concern
that the motive might be related to anti-Sem-
itism, a prospect the Turkish police were said
to be investigating.

*

Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90

STUDENT WHO SAVED
HUNDREDS FROM THE
HOLOCAUST DIES

A Palestinian youth is pictured during a graduation
ceremony for a military-style summer camp organized
by the Hamas terror group in August 2015.

HAMAS PLOT THWARTED

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.
org) Israel recently thwarted a
Hamas plot to carry out a series of
suicide bombings in major Israeli
cities and shooting attacks across
Judea and Samaria, the Shin Bet
security agency announced Dec.
22.
A joint Shin Bet, Israel Defense
Forces and police operation
uncovered a Nablus-based Hamas
network of 20 operatives who
were planning the attacks. Many
of those arrested had served pris-
on sentences in Israel for security
offenses. All the suspects have
implicated themselves in the plot,

the Shin Bet said.
The network had set up an
explosives lab where bombs and
suicide vests were being manufac-
tured. The group also purchased
assault rifles and recruited four
suicide bombers who were intend-
ing to target crowded areas in
Jerusalem and Haifa as well as
several major bus stations in cen-
tral Israel.
“The investigation uncovered
an organized Hamas network that,
had it not been thwarted, would
have caused widespread death and
destruction,” the Shin Bet said in a
statement.
continued on page 62

*

MOURNING THEIR LOSS...CELEBRATING THEIR LIFE...
HELPING YOU IN YOUR TIME OF NEED.

ENTERING OUR SECOND CENTURY
OF CARING AND RESPECTED SERVICE

HebrewMemorial.org | 248.543.1622 | 800.736.5033 | 26640 Greenfield Rd, Oak Park, MI 48237

Obituaries December 29 • 2016

61