It’s highly unusual that eight family members would not only survive the Holocaust, but all end up living in Canada after the war. Yet that’s what happened to the Veffers. The Dutch family withstood appendicitis, scurvy and Nazi raids while hiding for nearly three years, only to wind up moving to Canada after the only Veffer daughter married a Canadian Jewish soldier, who helped the whole family come to Toronto.
Now, 60 years later, the Veffers’ story is being commemorated in a new children’s book by a Jewish author and filmmaker who lives in Bussum, the Dutch town where the Veffers hid. Annet Betsalel wrote Where is Max? to portray the war through the eyes of one of the Veffer boys, Max, a soccer fanatic.
Betsalel and the son of one of the six Veffer children, Dr. Hartley Stern, join the show to talk about the book and the renewed attention brought to the hidden and those who hid them.
What we talked about:
- Order the book and read an excerpt
- Watch the This is Your Life segment
- Watch the Yad Vashem ceremony
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.
