A Child Doll Used to Conceal a List of Resistance Members and a Secret Order in the Dutch Underground Group 2000. Netherlands, Early 1940s.
An extremely rare museum-quality artifact from the Dutch resistance, Group 2000, an underground organization that remained almost entirely obscure until recent years.
To understand how a short list of underground members’ names with coded arrow instructions was concealed, it is recommended to follow the accompanying photographs step by step.
The doll’s neck is wrapped with a white ribbon. When the head is removed by pulling it off, a rigid black cardboard panel (leather-like material) is revealed inside. This removable panel contains four names of resistance members written in a secret code, along with an arrow-shaped instruction linking one to another. The name board could be easily returned to the doll’s hollow body, allowing it to be reassembled to its original state for safe concealment.
The Dutch underground group Group 2000 (Groep 2000) was a significant resistance network operating in the Amsterdam region during World War II, saving thousands of Jews and other persecuted individuals under Nazi occupation. The group was founded in 1940 and led throughout the war by Jacoba van Tongeren. Group 2000 specialized in forging documents, primarily identity cards and ration coupons, providing Jews and resistance fighters with new identities that enabled them to go into hiding. They also organized extensive hiding networks in Dutch family homes and smuggled Jewish children to safe locations in rural areas. The group provided ration cards for approximately 4,500 people in hiding. The group operated under deep secrecy, consisting of more than 140 members, who, along with the thousands they hid, remained completely undiscovered throughout the war—and even afterward. They used advanced camouflage methods, including a four-digit code system personally devised by Jacoba van Tongeren. One of Group 2000’s most remarkable achievements was its cooperation with other resistance organizations, which provided access to food supplies and escape routes beyond the country’s borders. The group worked under extreme risk, as capture meant torture and death. They focused on rescuing Jews fleeing deportation, individuals resisting Nazi rule and Jewish persecution, and men avoiding forced labor in Germany. To find new hiding places each month, the group collaborated with the Dutch Reformed Church and the Freemasons. Thanks to its secret coding system, none of the group’s members or the 4,500 people it hid were ever discovered. In March 1945, the Germans raided the group’s headquarters, finding thousands of encoded names and addresses. However, they failed to decipher the code, ensuring the safety of the resistance fighters and those in hiding. Group 2000 was unique in that it included not only native Dutch members but also Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria, who brought valuable knowledge and experience from previous persecution.
For many years after the war, “Group 2000” remained almost entirely unknown, and items used by the group are among the rarest resistance artifacts. Several factors contributed to this obscurity. Firstly, the group’s members were identified by a secret numerical code rather than their real names, making their recognition extremely difficult over time. Secondly, Holocaust historians primarily focused on armed resistance fighters who actively fought against the German occupiers, rather than on groups that specialized in hiding people. Additionally, the group’s leader, Jacoba van Tongeren, never publicized her wartime activities, either during or after the war, aside from a factual report she submitted to the Queen of the Netherlands at the war’s end. Shortly before her death in 1967, she wrote a detailed and personal account of her wartime memories, but this report remained undiscovered until 2013, when her cousin, Paul van Tongeren, found it. He later authored the book “Jacoba van Tongeren en de onbekende verzetshelden van Groep 2000” (“Jacoba van Tongeren and the Unknown Resistance Heroes of Group 2000”), which brought the first public revelations about the group’s existence and its work. The efforts of Group 2000 contributed to the rescue of hundreds of people, and many of its members were later recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.
Provenance: The item comes from a family whose member was himself an active participant in the Dutch underground Group 2000. See also Item 124 in this auction.
Height: 23 cm. Maximum width: 13 cm. Good condition.
