Beginning Monday evening, the world will observe Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah. It’s a day of special significance for 102-year-old Spokane resident Carla Peperzak, who lost family members during the Holocaust. She talked about it with SPR's Kyrsten Weber.
This interview edited lightly for clarity and length.
Carla Peperzak: One of the reasons I talk to the schools and to people, whatever comes up, universities, about what happened, because people don't believe what happened. And so I think it's very important to know, so that this won't happen again. If, you know, in a place like Germany, highly educated and very cultured, maybe the most cultured in those years in Western Europe, if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
KW: The event on April 14, is that event at Temple Beth Shalom open to the community?
CP: Absolutely. It's really meant for the community. Because we invite the mayor, we invite the governor, and the mayor often comes. The governor, they send the representative. Yeah, it's really meant for everybody.
KW: And what do you hope that attendees will take away from the service?
CP: The main thing for me, of course, is to be aware that this can happen again, and work against that.
KW: In light of current events, what are you experiencing? What are you feeling personally in terms of the attitude towards our Jewish community members?
CP: The main thing is, as far as I'm concerned, is that they keep on doing what I'm doing and that they're not sitting down and saying, this is awful. I know it's awful, but personally, I can't do anything but try to be good.
KW: You mentioned that you did lose family members in the Holocaust.
CP: Right.
KW: And friends, friends too, I would imagine?
CP: Many, many friends, yeah. I belonged to a rowing club and the members were about 80, well, maybe 95 percent Jewish and, you know, a lot of them were taken away.
KW: You have experienced over the decades the ebb and flow of anti-Semitism in our society. How does the current climate compare to, say, 10, 15 years ago?
CP: Ten to 15 years ago, nobody really talked about anti-Semitism and lived their own lives, and that has now changed. But actually, personally, I have noticed, but then I'm living in, you know, the retirement community, I'm isolated, but I personally have not noticed it. But I know, of course, what's going on. And this has happened the last thousands of years, two, three thousands of years. It's all ebb and flow, you know. And, you know, if people learn to, not to hate, I think this is one of my messages. Hate is so useless. And if you learn not to hate, be kind and good to people and have respect for them, it will be so much better.
KW: In light of what you have experienced, how have you found that path to choose not to hate?
CP: It took me a long time not to hate the Germans, and I still, it's still difficult. We went once to Germany and I felt such a bad vibe, so we, you know, went back to the hotel. It's very difficult not to hate the people who killed all your relatives. So, but I guess time does heal a little. But I still have a problem.
KW: Clearly, you have gone on to live a remarkable life. What have you done within yourself so that that hatred, that hurt, that anger hasn't determined the path of your life?
CP: I have been trying to do the best I can, to see the good in people as much as possible. And there is so much good in so many people.
Carla Peperzak will attend the Holocaust Remembrance Day event at Temple Beth Shalom, Tuesday evening at 7. The public is invited to attend.