Peter Metzelaar, who was born in Holland and lived through the country's German occupation during World War II, talks about seeing his friends and neighbors rounded up by soldiers to never be seen again during a presentation to students at Centralia High School on Tuesday morning.
Peter Metzelaar, who was born in Holland and lived through the country's German occupation during World War II, compares the number of people killed during the Holocaust to the population of Washington state during a presentation to students at Centralia High School on Tuesday morning.
A photo of the yellow-star patch his mother was forced to wear while living in a German-occupied Holland during World War II is projected onto a screen as Centralia High School students listen to Peter Metzelaar talks about the Holocaust on Tuesday morning.
Centralia High School students listen as Peter Metzelaar, who was born in Holland and lived through the country's German occupation during World War II, talks about the Holocaust during a presentation on Tuesday.
A survivor of the Holocaust who was forced into hiding with his mother spoke to a crowd of Centralia High School students on Tuesday, sharing his harrowing experience during the German occupation as part of the school’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Peter Metzelaar, of Seattle, is an active member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity’s Speakers Bureau. He was born in Amsterdam in 1935.
He was 7 years old when German soldiers began to round up his neighbors.
“I had no idea what it was all about but I did remember some of these people were marched off to trucks. They were loaded like a bunch of cattle on trucks,” Metzelaar said.
After the Nazis seized his entire family, with the exception of his mother Elli, they fled Amsterdam to a small farm where they were housed by two people connected with the Dutch Underground — a resistance force that helped Jewish individuals.
Klaas and Roelfina Post housed Metzelaar and his mother, providing them shelter and a safe place to stay.
During Nazi raids of the farms, Metzelaar and his mother hid underneath the floorboards of a small room. Later, when the raids picked up in frequency, they were housed in a small underground cave in a wooded area behind the farmhouse.
“Now when we heard the trucks coming down the road, we’d run out of the house and climb into the hole,” Metzelaar said. “… Now I know I’m hunted 24/7 around the clock. Someone wants to kill me, someone wants to murder me.”
Once the raids increased to two or three times a week, the Metzelaars decided to leave the small farm house because of the great risk the Posts faced. If they were found to be harboring them, they would be killed, along with their family, Metzelaar said.
They contacted the Dutch Underground again and were moved to The Hague, where they were housed by two women.
Metzelaar obtained a new last name and was finally able to attend school, although the fear of being a hunted individual followed him.
“Going to public school in my mind being so used to being a non entity felt like everyone said, ‘There he goes, there is one of them,’” Metzelaar recalled. “They didn’t know who I was. I was just one of the guys but it was so indoctrinated as a matter of self preservation.”
After being housed by the women for nine months, Metzelaar’s mother found out they had plans to turn them in to the Nazis.
Fashioning a nurse’s uniform out of material, his mother wore her makeshift ensemble as they escaped.
“She wakes me up sometime after midnight and tells me to quietly get dressed. We tiptoed out of the apartment,” Metzelaar said, adding they had no belongings to take with them.
His mother was able to trick a German soldier into believing she was a Red Cross nurse with an orphan, making their way to Amsterdam.
The trick worked and the duo was transported back to Amsterdam where the Metzelaars tried to find some normalcy in the occupied country.
Then on May 14, 1945, five years after Germany occupied Holland, the Canadians liberated the country, and the war was over.
“Nobody in my family returned,” Metzelaar said. “I have no idea what happened to them and where they went.”
After about four years, Metzelaar and his mother moved to the United States when he was 13 years old. He kept many of his experiences to himself as he learned English and got accommodated to his new surroundings.
Metzelaar went on to serve in the military. He later traveled back to Holland to visit the farm. The Posts had died by then, and the farm was owned by a new family. He was never able to go inside, but he did find the cave that provided them shelter during the raids. He chiseled his initials, along with his mother’s who had since died, into a nearby log.
Metzelaar ended his accounts with a message of hope. He asked the students to have tolerance, to be aware, and above all else, have independent thought.
“Form an opinion of your own and don’t be influenced by somebody. Think for yourself,” he said, adding that stupidity, ignorance and bullying can all lead to tragedies. “Educate yourself and try to make this a better world.”
