Born on May 4, 1929, did you know that legendary actress Audrey Hepburn helped save Dutch Jews during the Holocaust?
As a young girl in Nazi-occupied Holland, Hepburn staged secret dance recitals to raise money for the Dutch Resistance. Known as “zwart avonden,” or “black evenings,” these illegal performances helped to support those sheltering Jews in hiding. Hepburn also helped deliver an underground anti-Nazi newspaper on her bike and delivered messages to Allied pilots who were shot down. Although she was not Jewish, Hepburn felt a special kinship with diarist Anne Frank.
Both were born in 1929 and lived not far from each other in Holland. In fact, when Frank’s diary was adapted into a movie, Hepburn was personally asked by Otto Frank, Anne’s father, to play his daughter. Hepburn declined because she felt the role would bring up too many painful memories for her. Although the two never met, Hepburn described Frank as her “soul sister.”
Contributor: Jill Goltzer
