Holocaust Hero Saved over 600 Children

A graduate of the University of Washington, Noah Genatossio is currently a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle. He also served as a campaign intern for Bill Bryant for Governor and a diamond summer intern at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Additionally, Noah Genatossio is interested in history and taught Holocaust history at the Temple Beth Am in North Seattle.

The Holocaust continues to remind people of the tragedies during the second world war. Fueled by anti-semitism, which represents hostility and hatred toward Jews, Hitler killed over 10 million people because of their race and political inclinations. During these events, multiple people tried to save people from concentration camps and lived to tell the stories, one of which is Johan van Hulst. Johan van Hulst was a dutch teacher who saved over 600 Jews children during the second world war.

While serving as a teacher at the Reformed Teachers’ Training College, Johan van Hulst turned the school into an anti-Nazi resistance center. Just across the school, in a theater, the Nazis were preparing a deportation center for Jews, and Johan van Hulst managed to smuggle children from the theater with the help of his colleagues by arranging cargo transports for food. Instead of food, the teacher hid and transported children out of Amsterdam, which was German-occupied at the time.

Strategies Against Criminal Charges

A resident of Seattle, Washington, Noah Genatossio is an alumnus of the University of Washington, where he majored in political science. He currently serves as a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett, where he helps lawyers with criminal defense. For legal professionals like Noah Genatossio, part of their research involves finding information for defense strategies.

For a person to be convicted of a crime in the US, they have to be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt; as such, one of the most common defense strategies is to establish reasonable doubt. The lawyer’s objective is to find arguments for why the prosecutor’s claims are not viable. Some approaches they use include finding errors in police evidence or questioning a witness’ credibility and intention.

Another typically used defense is the alibi. If a lawyer can find and reveal evidence that showcases the fact that their client was somewhere else, doing something else during a crime, there is no basis upon which to accuse them. As such, all criminal charges are withdrawn.

Depending on the offense and the individual’s medical history, a lawyer may also consider an insanity plea. This is an option only when the defendant can produce psychiatric records that indicate that their actions were a result of not being able to tell right from wrong. If the court accepts this defense, the defendant does not receive jail time; instead, they undergo treatment at a psychiatric facility.