Carla the Rescuer

Join us on a journey with Carla Peperzak, who was a part of the Dutch resistance as a teenager during WWII, where she helped dozens of fellow Jews by forging ID cards or finding safe haven from the German invaders and their Dutch enablers. 

Growing up in Amsterdam, Carla’s family attended the same Reform temple as Anne Frank, and she was friends with Anne’s sister Margot. During the Nazi occupation, Carla lost three-quarters of her extended family in the Holocaust even though she fought vigilantly to help others survive. Working through the horrors and pain she experienced, she began her calling to speak out and continues this work today. Even at 100 years of age, she reminds us all of the critical need to respect one another, inspiring each of us to never remain silent in the face of harm. 

The story is told by four generations of women in Carla's family: Carla, her daughter, her granddaughter, and her great-granddaughter. In the documentary, Carla's great-granddaughter is the age Carla was during WWII. The message of tolerance and inclusion is personified through the documentary's subject matter experts and leaders. Carla shares the gift of her story as a first-person witness and truthteller not only of the atrocities of the holocaust but also of the potential for each of us to make a difference in the world today.