I speak to students so they can pass it along to their children, because I think it’s very, very important that our stories are getting through in the future so that it won’t happen [again],” she said. After De Perre concluded her talk, Col. Brandon R. Hileman, 86th Airlift Wing vice commander, thanked her and presented her with a gift as a token of appreciation. One day rumors began spreading around the camp that they were going to be freed. At first, De Perre said they did not believe the news. This book records despair and horror, courage and conviction to a cause, and shows how much a human can use the power of positivity and the will to carry on, to survive. Selma met members of the Dutch resistance (though she didn’t know it at the time) through her extended family. Eventually, she began working with them, executing missions such as carrying messages and stealing a German officer’s identity papers. However, one of the leaders of her cell was arrested, which led to Selma’s capture at the age of twenty-two.

As others were being imprisoned, hauled off to concentration camps and even killed, De Perre arranged for her family to be taken to go in hiding in the south of Holland, and eventually met a group of doctors who happened to be members of the resistance. After spending time with many members of the resistance, she made a decision to stand up; she joined the fight against Nazi tyranny. On one occasion, van de Perre had to infiltrate the German headquarters in Paris to deliver an envelope to a resistance spy and return some correspondence he would give her. She was told it was vital to the rescue of captured fighters being held in France. Dieses Buch soll Zeugnis unseres Kampfes gegen die Unmenschlichkeit sein. Denn die Grausamkeiten des Zweiten Weltkrieges und die mutigen Taten der Menschen, die ihnen stolz entgegen getreten sind, dürfen nie in Vergessenheit geraten. Mit meinem Buch hoffe ich, einen Beitrag zum Gedenken daran zu leisten." - Selma van de Perre, "Mein Name ist Selma" A Jewish Holocaust survivor who fought in the Dutch resistance has spoken about the moment she came terrifying close to being caught by the Nazis while travelling under a false name.Van de Perre is een dochter van de Joodse acteur, zanger en presentator Barend Velleman en Fem Spier. Zij had twee oudere broers, David en Louis, en een jonger zusje, Clara. Het was een liberaal en warm, volledig geassimileerd gezin. Haar oudste broer voer tijdens de oorlog bij de Hollandse Stoomboot Maatschappij, haar jongste broer zat in ­Engeland. In 1942 kreeg zij een oproep om zich te melden maar wist daaraan te ontkomen door in een bontfabriek te gaan werken die opdrachten voor het Duitse leger uitvoerde. Toen later dat jaar haar vader werd opgepakt en naar Kamp Westerbork gebracht, hielp Selma haar moeder en zusje onder te duiken in Eindhoven. Madurodam is a miniature park and tourist attraction in the Scheveningen district of The Hague, Netherlands, home to a range of perfect 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch castles, public buildings, and large industrial projects as found at various locations in the country. (Photo by: Paulo Amorim/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images/via JTA)

I was told I was [going to be] in prison for the duration of the war,” she said. “I was put to work in the gas-mask factory.” We were liberated on April 23, 1945, by the Swedish Red Cross. We were weak, and so scared when we were taken out of the main camp and left standing outside the gates. We thought we were going to be killed, too, and it was a terrible feeling after all we’d experienced and survived.The Nazis however eventually caught De Perre. She was brought to the police station where she was interrogated for several days before being sent to a concentration camp in the Netherlands.