The other day, I spent the night at a lady's home. She was an elderly gal, in her 80s. When sitting in the living room, I noticed that she had a certificate on her wall that said "Certificate of honor." I asked her what it was, and she began telling me a fascinating story. She was originally from Amsterdam and as a child, her family hid a jewish girl during the Holocost. They hid the girl for 7 years, and she had many interesting stories to tell me about her experiences during the war. Some of the ones that were of note were, that her neighbors one day were forced by the Nazis to leave for a concentration camp on a train (they were Jews). All of them were on the train, but one of the guys managed to jump off the train and escape. Pretty soon the Nazis realized he was missing, stopped the train, and sent soldiers out to find him. Miraculously, he managed to walk back and escaped into Holland, to freedom. She also told me a story of how all the people had to have ID badges. The Jewish badges had a "J" printed on them, so the Nazis knew that they were Jews. My host auntie's mom managed to switch out her picture for the Jewish girls' picture in the badge. So that Jewish girl's identity became hers. They had to teach her her name, birthday age, and all different details, because she said that the Nazis used to question people in depth, and she had to be ready for any and every question. She also told me how one day, she remembers the soldiers coming in and basically tearing thier house apart looking for Jewish papers, but for some miraculous reason, never checked in her dad's desk, where they were. They tore the house apart, and never found them. If they had, they could have been killed.
It's interesting to me, as I meet so many people, day in and day out. This woman had an amazing story to tell.
