Holocaust survivor and scholar Hedwig Rose to give public talk at UCSC on Jan. 21

Following her father’s arrest by the Nazis in 1942, six-year-old Hedwig Rose, her mother, and sister spent three years hidden in an Amsterdam cellar by a Christian friend until the country was liberated on May 5, 1945.

Today Rose is a well-known speaker, a frequent visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a faculty member of the Global Citizenship Program at the Salzburg Global Seminar, and the author of Freedom and Restraint in the Lives of American Teachers.  

She is also currently working on a book titled Living the Life of Anne Frank: A Childhood in Hiding.

On Thursday, January 21, Rose will give a free public talk at the Music Center Recital Hall on the UC Santa Cruz campus, beginning at 7 p.m.

She will speak about her experiences as a child in Amsterdam during Nazi Germany’s invasion and occupation of The Netherlands. The title of her talk is: “My Childhood in Hiding: Amsterdam, 1942-1945.”

Seventy-five per cent of The Netherlands’ Jewish population were killed during the Nazi occupation. Of the 140,000 Jews who lived there before 1940, only 30,000 survived the war--the highest death toll of any western European country.

Rose eventually came to the United States in 1947. She attended the University of Rochester and received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a master’s degree from Smith College, and a doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts.

She has lectured in the U.S. and abroad, including Austria, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, and in the Netherlands on her personal experiences in an effort to bring history alive, and to help people see the relevance of her story to the world today.

Rose’s appearance on campus was arranged by Cowell Provost and professor of psychology Faye Crosby.

“Because Hedy is working on a book about Amsterdam before World War II, she is a scholar at Stanford’s Hoover Institute,” said Crosby.  “When I learned that she and her husband, sociologist Peter Rose, would be coming to Palo Alto again this winter, I asked her if she would be willing to speak to the UC Santa Cruz community.”

“Two years ago she had spoken to a small class at UCSC run by Nathaniel Deutsch and had spent some time with me and with Santa Cruz’s Brigritta Ryle,” Crosby added. “Ryle is another Holocaust survivor and devotes her time to educating young Americans about the horrible realities of anti-Semitism. Ryle encouraged me to ask Rose to speak to our undergraduates. We also wished to open the event to all concerned.”

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This event is sponsored by Cowell College, The Neufeld-Levin Endowed Chair in Holocaust Studies, The Center for Jewish Studies, Stevenson College, Oakes College, and the Psychology Department. For more information, contact Beverly Iniguez: biniguez@ucsc.edu.