In advance of Monday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the students of Santa Monica High School were given a rare opportunity to hear from someone who escaped the horrors personally.
On Jan. 22, Holocaust survivor Eva Perlman spoke to a packed Barnum Hall, sharing her harrowing tales of resilience during tough times. Born in Berlin in 1932, Perlman was raised in constant turmoil, her family forced to flee into France during World War II, and the survivor has since used the experience to educate others about the Holocaust.
The author of “Eva’s Uncommon Life: Guided by Miracles” gave a rousing address during Samohi Flex-Time, saying that she was “very honored” to talk to the Vikings in attendance and that her experience was “only one in many.” She began her talk, as she often does, by thanking the non-Jewish allies her family had in Europe that wouldn’t sell them out to the Nazis constantly impeding French territory.
“There were people who helped the Jews, and there were evil people who betrayed them to the Nazis, so we were very fortunate,” Perlman said. “My life is just a total miracle. We were very fortunate that we were never betrayed, that we (were) helped.”
Her family had encountered roadblocks before the Holocaust itself, as her mother could not continue her medical studies at a Berlin university once Adolf Hitler came to power. Perlman’s mother received a letter from the university that she was excluded from future studies because of “Marxist activities,” an excuse to kick her off campus. All Jewish students at the university were told to leave, some having just 20 minutes to pack up their things.
“My mother was not a Marxist, she was not interested in politics,” Perlman said. “All she wanted to do is become a physician. But that was an excuse that they used.”
First forced to flee to Paris when the systematic elimination of European Jews began, Perlman’s family was then moved to a village southwest of Grenoble in the French Alps when the Nazi invasion of France began. It was in the village where a piece of a German bomb came through their roof and into her father’s desk chair, with Perlman adding it was a “miracle” that he was not there and “killed instantly.”
In the mountains, post offices would play a dangerous game of phone tag, phoning village-by-village about potential Nazi movement in their area. While her family was “always ready at a moment’s notice to pick up a coat and run,” Perlman was still able to go to school, with the local boys’ school accepting girls “because of the circumstances.”
Two close calls occurred during her time in France, first when the family’s landlord informed them that two Nazis needed to move into the house for sleeping purposes. There was no stopping this, as Perlman’s father was away on business with the French Resistance.
“My mother had to give up our bedroom to the two Nazis who slept in there next to three Jewish children for two weeks in our house, while my mother was (up) in the attic,” Perlman said. “She spent her time at the window because she was afraid that my father would come in the middle of the night.”
Perlman later pondered why the Nazis in her home didn’t say anything about the Jewish occupants, stating that it could possibly be exhaustion from the war, or they potentially were men of moral fiber that were only Nazis because they had to be. Later on, another close call saw her mother have a bicycle accident that “saved her life,” because if she kept going downhill, it would have been straight into the German lines.
Since the war, Perlman has used her experience in a healthy way, contributing her knowledge via her book and speaking appearances, as well as organizing trips to Poland for the annual International March of the Living from the Auschwitz concentration camp site to the Birkenau site.
“Ms. Perlman has dedicated her life to educating others about the Holocaust and keeping its history alive … this (was) a unique opportunity to connect with history and engage in meaningful dialogue with our student body,” Samohi ASB Treasurer Sadie Gryczman said of the visit.
