JERUSALEM (VINnews) —A Dutch Christian woman who risked her life to protect a Jewish baby during the Holocaust has been posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations more than eight decades after the rescue.

Jacqueline Meents-Lenstra cared for Efraim Kochba, born Ernst Bernard van Coevorden, after his Jewish parents entrusted their infant son to her and her Jewish husband, Max, in Nazi-occupied Netherlands in 1943.

Kochba, who is now 83 and lives in Israel, spent years trying to have Meents-Lenstra formally recognized for saving his life.

“It was a closing of the circle for me,” he said.

Before Kochba’s birth, Meents-Lenstra reportedly pretended to be pregnant, using a pillow under her clothing to avoid suspicion from neighbors.

With assistance from members of the Dutch underground, she was able to enter an Amsterdam hospital and take custody of the newborn.

She then raised him as her own child while his biological parents went into hiding.

Meents-Lenstra kept a detailed diary documenting the baby’s development, preserving memories of his early childhood that his biological parents would never have the opportunity to see.

The diary included photographs and other personal mementos, including a lock of the child’s hair.

His parents were murdered

Kochba’s biological parents, Martha and Ziegfried Fritz van Coevorden, were eventually captured by the Nazis and murdered during the Holocaust.

Kochba never saw his mother again after being separated from her as an infant.

His adoptive father, Max, was also arrested and sent to a transit camp but escaped and eventually returned to his wife and the child. The family remained in hiding until the end of the war.

After liberation, Kochba became the subject of a custody dispute between his surviving biological relatives and the couple who had raised him.

The dispute was eventually resolved in favor of his biological family. Meents-Lenstra later died of cancer at age 32.

Kochba was brought to Israel by his uncle and aunt and raised with their family on a communal farm in central Israel.

He said he did not learn the full story of his childhood until he was a teenager.

A diary connected him to his past

After completing his military service, Kochba returned to the Netherlands and met his adoptive father in 1965.

During that visit, he received the diary Meents-Lenstra had kept while raising him.

For Kochba, the document provided a rare connection to a childhood he could not remember.

He later married and raised four sons of his own while maintaining contact with his adoptive father until his death.

Yad Vashem recognition

Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations program recognizes non-Jews who endangered themselves to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Meents-Lenstra’s name will be added to the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Joel Zisenwine, director of Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations Department, said the institution continues to pursue cases involving rescuers even more than 80 years after the Holocaust.

More than 28,000 people from 51 countries have received the distinction, with the Netherlands among the countries with the largest number of recognized rescuers.

Kochba is now trying to locate descendants of Meents-Lenstra so he can personally give them the certificate honoring her.

He said the recognition belongs to her family as well.

“It is theirs,” he said. “I owe it to them.”