My name is Selma: the remarkable memoir of a Jewish resistance fighter and Ravensbrück survivor

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher
Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc
Publication Date
2021.
Language
English

Description

An international bestseller, this powerful memoir by a ninety-eight-year-old Jewish Resistance fighter and Ravensbrück concentration camp survivor 'shows us how to find hope in hopelessness and light in the darkness' (Edith Eger, author of The Choice and The Gift).Selma van de Perre was seventeen when World War II began. She lived with her parents, two older brothers, and a younger sister in Amsterdam, and until then, being Jewish in the Netherlands had not presented much of an issue. But by 1941 it had become a matter of life or death. On several occasions, Selma barely avoided being rounded up by the Nazis. While her father was summoned to a work camp and eventually hospitalized in a Dutch transition camp, her mother and sister went into hiding'until they were betrayed in June 1943 and sent to Auschwitz. In an act of defiance and with nowhere else to turn, Selma took on an assumed identity, dyed her hair blond, and joined the Resistance movement, using the pseudonym Margareta van der Kuit. For two years 'marga' risked it all. Using a fake ID, and passing as non-Jewish, she traveled around the country and even to Nazi headquarters in Paris, sharing information and delivering papers'doing, as she later explained, what 'had to be done." But in July 1944 her luck ran out. She was transported to Ravensbrück women's concentration camp as a political prisoner. Without knowing the fate of her family'her father died in Auschwitz, and her mother and sister were killed in Sobibor'selma survived by using her alias, pretending to be someone else. It was only after the war ended that she could reclaim her identity and dared to say once again: My name is Selma. "We were ordinary people plunged into extraordinary circumstances," Selma writes. Full of hope and courage, this is her story in her own words.

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Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Selma, a Dutch Jew, came from an unconventional family and lived sometimes well and sometimes in poverty, depending on her father's work in the theater. At the start of the war, the family felt that the Netherlands might be spared, but, of course, that was not to be the case. Her two brothers were able to leave the country, but her parents and younger sister were swept up by the Nazis. Selma survived by assuming a Dutch identity and working for the Resistance. She was eventually taken as a political prisoner, and though Ravensbrück was not as harsh as the death camps, conditions were extreme, with death by starvation and disease common. She survived the war and eventually moved to England, married, and established a career. Holocaust memoirs are all different, all worthy of being told, and all adding to the story that needs to be remembered. This is a somewhat nondramatic telling of the horrors that Selma experienced and witnessed, not the least of which was losing her identity, and offers a slightly different view of camp life. It should find a home in any library that collects Holocaust materials.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Library Journal Review

Van de Perre was a resistance fighter in the Netherlands during World War II, while she was still a young woman. Now in her late 90s, she movingly recounts her work with Dutch resistance organizations and the people she met along the way. During the war, the author hid her Jewish identity and risked her life to protect others; she was eventually discovered and sent to Ravensbrück. After the war, Van de Perre moved to London and became a foreign correspondent. Memories of her father, who died in Auschwitz, and her mother and sister, who died in Sobibor, are never far from her mind. She shares her pain vividly, having lost most of her family and many of her friends, and paints a stark portrait of what it was like to live with so much fear, terror, and uncertainty. Her debut shares the incredible efforts of so many people fighting Nazism, even when the odds seemed insurmountable. VERDICT There are many extraordinary books written by survivors of the Holocaust, and this numbers among them. The author's voice, strength, and pain are palpable throughout; everyone can benefit from reading her story.--Sarah Schroeder, Univ. of Washington Bothell

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Kirkus Book Review

A harrowing memoir from "one of the few remaining Dutch Jewish survivors" of World War II. With captivating and heartbreaking detail, van de Perre (b. 1922) shares her memories of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, offering "a testament to our fight against inhumanity." Though the author enjoyed a happy childhood, in 1936, the Netherlands started taking in immigrants from Germany who "told troubling tales of National Socialism and what happened to people who renounced the Nazis." At first, nobody paid much attention, but soon enough, German soldiers invaded and "beg[a]n to commit acts so horrific that I now struggle to believe they really happened, in spite of having experienced them myself." As a child, being Jewish in Amsterdam never posed a problem. Her family wasn't strictly observant, and people barely mentioned religious differences. While it may not have seemed significant at the time, "the fact that I didn't look Jewish would later save my life." By 1942, van de Perre was working for the resistance as a courier. For her own security, she bleached her hair and assumed a new name and identity, Margareta van der Kuit. Despite her subterfuge, however, she was arrested and put on a train to the female-only Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was greeted by SS officers with whips. She was subjected to hard labor and meals consisting of watered-down coffee for breakfast and a thin slice of bread and soup ("water with a few blades of grass or cabbage") for supper. Throughout her time at Ravensbrück, the author remained cautious and quiet, fearing that her true identity would be revealed. Due to perseverance and some good fortune, she managed to survive her brutal circumstances, which she ably conveys in a plainspoken, touching manner, displaying a sharp memory and acute sense of the gravity of her experiences. In April 1945, she was marched to freedom. Next came the task of picking up the pieces. An incredible story of courage and compassion. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

Selma, a Dutch Jew, came from an unconventional family and lived sometimes well and sometimes in poverty, depending on her father's work in the theater. At the start of the war, the family felt that the Netherlands might be spared, but, of course, that was not to be the case. Her two brothers were able to leave the country, but her parents and younger sister were swept up by the Nazis. Selma survived by assuming a Dutch identity and working for the Resistance. She was eventually taken as a political prisoner, and though Ravensbrück was not as harsh as the death camps, conditions were extreme, with death by starvation and disease common. She survived the war and eventually moved to England, married, and established a career. Holocaust memoirs are all different, all worthy of being told, and all adding to the story that needs to be remembered. This is a somewhat nondramatic telling of the horrors that Selma experienced and witnessed, not the least of which was losing her identity, and offers a slightly different view of camp life. It should find a home in any library that collects Holocaust materials. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Now 98 years old, van de Perre was just 17 and living with her family in the Netherlands when World War II broke out. Joining the Resistance in 1941, she traveled the country under the pseudonym Margareta van der Kuit and was eventually captured and sent to Ravensbrück in 1944. She survived only because she continued to use her alias; the rest of her family perished in the camps. With a 70,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal.
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Library Journal Reviews

Van de Perre was a resistance fighter in the Netherlands during World War II, while she was still a young woman. Now in her late 90s, she movingly recounts her work with Dutch resistance organizations and the people she met along the way. During the war, the author hid her Jewish identity and risked her life to protect others; she was eventually discovered and sent to Ravensbrück. After the war, Van de Perre moved to London and became a foreign correspondent. Memories of her father, who died in Auschwitz, and her mother and sister, who died in Sobibor, are never far from her mind. She shares her pain vividly, having lost most of her family and many of her friends, and paints a stark portrait of what it was like to live with so much fear, terror, and uncertainty. Her debut shares the incredible efforts of so many people fighting Nazism, even when the odds seemed insurmountable. VERDICT There are many extraordinary books written by survivors of the Holocaust, and this numbers among them. The author's voice, strength, and pain are palpable throughout; everyone can benefit from reading her story.—Sarah Schroeder, Univ. of Washington Bothell

Copyright 2021 Library Journal.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal.
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