Leendert Overduin Civil Courage Essay Contest

Sister Cities since 1980, Palo Alto and Enschede, the Netherlands joined forces to launch the Leendert Overduin Civil Courage Essay Contest, open to high school students in Palo Alto and neighboring cities, as well as their Sister City peers in Europe and students in our Sibling City, Bloomington, Indiana. The cross-border contest, organized by Neighbors Abroad, offered cash prizes and an opportunity for the winners to visit Enschede as Sister City ambassadors in June 2023.

The story of Pastor Leendert Overduin’s life-risking humanitarian efforts during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands is starting to be unearthed in his native Enschede, a town of 160,000 near the German border. Overduin’s life and legacy are the subject of the 2020 Dutch documentary “The Conscience of a City,” produced by Enschede resident Willy Berends and available on YouTube.

Outside Enschede, however, the Protestant pastor’s quiet legacy is barely a historical footnote. This innovative contest aims to change that. A member of the Dutch resistance, Overduin saved hundreds of Jewish children and adults through an underground network of safehouses in the Dutch countryside. After the war, he provided aid to the orphaned children of Dutch collaborators. His dramatic story — multiple arrests by the Nazis, hundreds of lives saved — invites comparisons to Germany’s Oskar Schindler, the subject of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film.

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