We are honored to have Holocaust survivor and author, Dirk Van Leenen, share his testimony of survival and courage. Dirk was born in Holland after the start of WWII to a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father. Dirk’s father was responsible for saving thousands of Jewish people from the Nazis. His father brought many people to hiding places on farms, where they had more food than was available to them in the ghettos. A warehouse where bicycles were rented served as the center of the resistance. Some of those being smuggled into hiding were hidden in the bicycles’ baskets, under a layer of things such as fish heads, which discouraged the Nazis from looking very closely.
The Nazis eventually found out that Dirk’s father was helping Jews and arrested him. Dirk’s family was put on a train for a four-day trip to Bergen-Belsen, with no food, water, or toilets. Many people died on the way. The camp was liberated the day after Dirk arrived there. However, his aunts, uncles and all but two of his cousins had died in the camps. The only two who survived had figured out a way to escape from the train taking them to the camp.
After sharing stories about his experiences in Holland during World War II for several years, Dirk’s children and grandchildren urged him to write a book about those difficult times. Dirk has written three books about his and his family’s experiences, and still travels back to the Netherlands. Dirk lives in Mesa and often speaks about the Holocaust. His books (“Resistance on a Bicycle,” “The Americans are Coming” and “The Last Train to the Concentration Camp”) will be available for sale at the event.
We will be providing traditional Sufganiyot with coffee and hot chocolate on this special evening.