Holocaust survivor, hero shares story with students
(DEVIN WEEKS/Hagadone News Network) Canfield Middle School volunteer Morgan Woodman asks Holocaust survivor Carla Peperzak a few questions following her presentation Thursday. Also pictured, behind Peperzak, from left: Peperzak’s daughter, Marian Cummings, and eighth-graders Erik Wise, Vance Gass and Colby Strong.
Photo courtesy of the Holocaust Center for Humanity Carla Peperzak, seated next to her father, mother and sister Miep (right) in the 1940s. Carla, now 96, is a Holocaust survivor who went to school with Anne Frank’s older sister Margot. Carla saved several people when she joined the Dutch resistance at age 18.
Holocaust survivor Carla Peperzak's ID in 1942. (Photo courtesy of the Holocaust Center for Humanity)
Tara Nelson's eighth-grade language arts students spent the morning with Holocaust survivor Carla Peperzak is seated front and center with (from left) Human Rights Education Institute executive director Jeanette Laster, Nelson, Canfield Principal Nick Lilyquist and Tara Nelson's eighth grade language arts class. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
COEUR d’ALENE — The Star of David around Carla Peperzak’s neck sparkled in the light of the gymnasium following her presentation at Canfield Middle School.
“I didn’t share my story for years and years and years,” the 96-year-old Holocaust suvivor said recently. “Even my kids didn’t know much about it.”
Peperzak, of Spokane, was born in Amsterdam in 1923 to a Jewish father and Catholic-born mother. She attended synagogue and Hebrew school where one of her fellow students was Margot Frank, the older sister of Anne Frank. Peperzak graduated from high school in 1940, the year Germany invaded the Netherlands.
By 1941 the Nazis forced Dutch Jews to register with the state. They were issued identification papers marked with a “J.” Because her mother was Catholic, Peperzak was able to have the “J” removed from her papers. The next year, Dutch Jews had to wear the Star of David, and her dad’s business was taken.
When she was just 18, Peperzak decided to fight back. She joined the Dutch resistance and saved some of her family members by hiding them away in a farmhouse. At one point she went undercover as a German nurse to rescue her young cousin, who would otherwise have died at a killing center in Poland.
Language Arts teacher Tara Nelson’s eighth-graders were captivated as Peperzak spoke of her experiences finding hiding places for Jews, publishing underground newspapers and conducting other life-saving work that could have cost her her own life.
“I thought it was pretty cool that she became a spy, that she was undercover acting as a German,” said eighth-grader Wyatt Young. “I didn’t think people would actually do that.”
“I thought it was really interesting because usually you only read about it. You don’t get the full story,” said Wyatt’s classmate, Cameron Cox. “When Carla spoke, it made it easier to understand. She was very brave.”
Although Peperzak’s immediate family survived the war, nearly 20 of her relatives did not. She said she was finally convinced to speak out with the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau when another woman in her community who had survived concentration camps just couldn’t do it anymore.
“By that time I felt the need to talk about the Holocaust, very much,” she said. “That’s really what keeps me going. As many people as possible should know, because you don’t want it to happen again.”
Canfield Principal Nick Lilyquist said Peperzak’s visit was one that brought relevance and real life to the forefront for the students.
“She’s a hero who all the kids got to experience today, which was pretty cool,” he said.
Peperzak’s presentation was sponsored by the Human Rights Education Institute.