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Interview with Henriette Kretz, a contemporary witness
The German-Polish Institute invites you to a discussion with a contemporary witness at the Justus Liebig House in Darmstadt. Henriette Kretz (born 1934) grew up in a Jewish family in Opatów.
After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the family fled eastward from the advancing Germans. Henriette and her parents first arrived in Lemberg (Lviv) and soon after in Sambor (Sambir).
But in 1941, the war and the Germans caught up with the family there as well. Henriette's father managed to save his family from the worst several times. With the help of acquaintances and through bribery, he was able to rescue them from execution and free them from prison. For months, Henriette's family hid in a cellar and an attic. Then they were betrayed. Henriette's parents were shot dead before her eyes. She herself was hidden in an orphanage run by nuns and thus survived the Nazi terror.
After the war, she came to Antwerp by a circuitous route. For years, Henriette Kretz has been trying to build a bridge from the past to the present through lectures in Germany: "Exclusion begins very quickly; a reason can always be found." She appeals: "Always see a person as a human being."
“ My story is not special. It is the story of one and a half million children who no longer have a voice.” – Henriette Kretz
(Photo: Olaf Kosinsky)
Wednesday, March 26, 7:00 p.m.
Justus Liebig House,
Große Bachgasse 2, Darmstadt
Further information and registration for school classes and groups:
Stephanie Roth / zeitzeugen@stephanie-roth.de / Tel. 0171-8289973
