Holocaust survivor, professor emerita of Public Health at the University of Michigan and co-founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Project, Irene Butter says that given the recent uptick in antisemitism, she feels a responsibility, now more than ever, to tell her story. Published on April 7th, 2018, her book, Shores Beyond Shores, tells the story of how “she and her family were ordered out of their Amsterdam apartment, loaded into a cattle car, and sent to a holding camp before eventually being transported to Bergen Belsen”. This book is extremely well timed considering the worry that many survivors are beginning to die and the world is beginning to forget. Considering that a recent poll showed 66% of American millennial did not know what Auschwitz is and 22% didn’t know if they had heard of the Holocaust, survivor testimony may be more valuable than ever.
What I find most interesting about Irene’s story is the striking resemblance to Anne Frank’s story. She and her family were taken from the same city and she was even sent to the same camp as Anne. It is interesting to think that despite such similar stories, they have been told in completely different ways. Anne’s name is now known across the globe, and Irene’s story may never have been told had she not undergone a sudden change in thinking.