Anneke was born just months after the Nazis occupied Holland in 1940. Her father, Erich Kohnke, was a gifted musician and conductor. Her mother, Leni Leyens, was an artistic and capable student. As Jews they were in grave danger, so they decided to go into hiding. The parents dearly loved their child but knew they had to give her up. Sadly, a year later, her parents were discovered and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The Dutch people had formed a resistance movement to help people in danger. The parents arranged to have baby Anneke taken to safety before they could hide themselves. They needed someone to take their baby to safety.
Cora, a young Gentile woman, knew the risks in taking the 18-month-old Jewish baby to a safe place. Smuggling a Jewish baby out of Amsterdam was a crime of the highest order to the Gestapo.
She explains simply, “They needed help.”
One night in 1942 Cora met the parents. She took the sleeping child, who was wrapped in a white blanket. She and the sleeping baby had to travel for an hour and a half by train and tram. Cora had been told to walk to the third light post past the end of the line. A contact person would meet her there. Arriving at the place, she passed the still sleeping child to a waiting man. Cora then had to walk home after curfew without encountering the Gestapo.
Over the years Cora wondered what had become of the child she had rescued. Eventually, after sixty-five years, by searching the Internet she discovered Anneke’s whereabouts.
When they met in August 2007 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, they both shed tears. Anneke, leaning forward in her seat, said, “What do you say to the person who saved your life?”
“What drew me here was not wanting to know more about me. It was, ‘I want to meet this remarkable person who risked so much.’ How could you not want to meet the person who saved your life?
“I haven’t become anything that was worthy of being saved. I’m just grateful to be alive.”
As a sinner saved by God’s grace, with no merit of my own, I have the same sentiments. I am an unworthy sinner. I too look forward to the moment when Jesus comes and I will meet my Savior.
What can I say to the One who saved me? “What but one loud, eternal burst of praise!”
Jesus saw my need. He knew the cost but He was willing to take my punishment for me. He, the perfect, sinless One, when asked, “Who will go for us?” replied, “Here am I, send Me” (Isa. 6:88Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. (Isaiah 6:8)). The Lord Jesus did not risk His life; He gave His life. He knew all that He would endure, but He went to that cruel cross to die for unworthy sinners like me.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ your Redeemer also? If so, we’ll praise Him together. If you say, “No,” and reject Him, or neglect Him, you must meet Him as your Judge.