She Betrayed 50 People to Nazis—Then Her Own Sister Betrayed Her

The German occupation of the Netherlands began in May 1940. Within days, the Dutch army had surrendered, and the country entered five years of occupation. Anti-Jewish restrictions followed, and from 1942, deportations carried thousands of Dutch Jews through Westerbork to camps including Auschwitz and Sobibor. While members of the Dutch resistance helped families find hiding places and escape routes, others chose collaboration. Among them was Adriana “Jeanne” Valkenburg, an Amsterdam brothel owner already well known to the police before the war. Her story, however, was complicated. Her Jewish partner, Jacob Acohen, was arrested before they could marry and sent to Mauthausen, where he died. Valkenburg subsequently began helping persecuted Jews find hiding places and escape routes, while demanding substantial payments for her assistance. By the spring of 1943, Valkenburg had come to the attention of the German Sicherheitsdienst. Faced with arrest, she agreed to cooperate with the German-controlled Jewish Affairs Office. Using the trust she had established, she directed people towards false hiding places where they could be arrested. These addresses became known as “Jew traps”. Valkenburg received payments for successful arrests and benefited from property confiscated from those she betrayed. She also worked with collaborators including Pieter Schaap and maintained contacts within the German security apparatus. By the end of the war, Valkenburg was estimated to have betrayed around 50 Jews; at least 33 did not survive the Holocaust. Arrested in March 1945, she faced a Special Court of Justice after liberation. Her original sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and subsequently reduced. She was released in January 1960 after spending nearly fifteen years in prison. This documentary examines Adriana Valkenburg’s path from Amsterdam’s criminal underworld to collaboration, while exploring resistance, persecution and betrayal in the occupied Netherlands. Join Wor