Over the past 20 years, I have been a Legacy Partner, which means I am a “Guardian of the Holocaust.” I have accepted this lifelong pursuit to ensure that the world remembers the survivors and victims of the Holocaust.
My Legacy Partner work has brought me before many diverse audiences. I’ve spoken before gatherings of all ages and denominations, nationalities and life experiences, from primary school students to religious congregations, community organizations, book groups, libraries, corporations and university classrooms. I’ve even presented at a local theater in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Week. No experience is ever the same, and I always come away learning something new from my generous hosts.
At the heart of my Legacy Partner story is Netty Vanderpol, a native of Amsterdam, Holland, who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia between 1943 – 1945. While at Terezin, Netty was forced to endure many terrible hardships and witnessed horrible abuses of her fellow prisoners at the hands of the Nazi guards. Despite these traumas, she and her family managed to survive the war intact, returning to Amsterdam in 1945 to rebuild their lives, eventually immigrating to America a few years later. She and her late husband, Ries Vanderpol, also a Holocaust survivor, settled in the Boston area where they raised two children and worked closely with organizations like Facing History and Ourselves, the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum and the Holocaust Museum Boston North, which is housed today at Salem State University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Holocaust curriculum in public schools is inconsistent at best, with different mandates state-to-state and even some states banning Holocaust books entirely. The New York Times published an article declaring that younger generations know less and less about world history and lack “basic knowledge about what happened” during the Holocaust. While it’s easy to assume everyone within a particular age group shares similar thoughts and beliefs, I would caution against making such broad generalizations. I’m sure there are plenty of people of all ages who haven’t been properly exposed to or who have chosen not to pay attention to the lessons of history.
At a social justice symposium at Merrimack College, I met an undergraduate student who told me he attended my presentation so that he could learn how to be more tolerant in his future career in law enforcement. Another young man I met through business heard about my Legacy Partner work and wanted to share with me how he’d felt during his visit to Dachau in Southern Germany. Those stories keep me hopeful that we will eventually stem the tide of ignorance and build greater awareness across generations.
The inevitable mortality of the survivors, many of whom are in their 90s at this point, makes this work all the more important. In the words of the late Holocaust survivor and Legacy Partner Program founder Sonia Weitz, “The goals of The Holocaust Center are to document and to preserve history; to reduce hatred, prejudice, ignorance and indifference through education; and to prevent future tragedies through the study of the universal lessons of this period.”
Author’s Note: I originally wrote this piece back in 2018 when I was still actively sharing Netty’s Story as part of my involvement with Holocaust Legacy Partners, a nonprofit organization founded in 1981 by Sonia Schreiber Weitz, herself a survivor of Auschwitz, author, poet and advocate for human rights. Much has changed since I started my Legacy Partner work several decades ago. Sonia passed away in 2020, leaving Holocaust Legacy Partners without leadership to continue operations. In 2022, my Legacy Partner, Netty Vanderpol, died at age 96, leaving behind a large, extended family and her strong belief in the power of the human spirit. It has been an honor to tell her story of survival and hope in the face of the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust.
In the fall of 2022, I traveled to Prague with my family to cheer on my son Ian who was competing in the World Rowing Championships. While we were in the Czech Republic, we made a day trip to Theresienstadt, a small village about an hour’s drive north of Prague which had been the site of a Nazi prison camp during WWII. Netty and her family had been held there for two years after being deported from their home in Amsterdam in the later stages of the war. With a knowledgeable guide alongside us to narrate our observations, we trudged around the town, viewing prison cells, artifacts, crowded bunks, narrow streets, a cemetery and of course, the crematorium, the building housing the dreaded ovens. The feeling of darkness and devastation there was palpable.
I dedicate this article to Netty. It was a privilege to know her and to be given the chance to educate new generations through her life story. I only met Netty in person once, on a rainy afternoon in Needham, Massachusetts where she was living at the time with her husband, Reis. I remember how nervous I was at first and how their warm welcome quickly dispelled my fears. They offered me fresh strawberries and tea, and we sat together for several hours as they quietly recounted their first-hand accounts of life under Nazi occupation. It’s an experience that will stay with me forever.
Sharing Netty’s story is my way of contributing to the fulfillment of Sonia’s promise. It’s my honor to educate others about the Holocaust and to commemorate Netty’s life experiences so that they will not have happened in vain.
