My Name Is Selma

The Remarkable Memoir of a Jewish Resistance Fighter and Ravensbrück Survivor

By: Selma van de Perre

Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge

An international bestseller, this powerful memoir by a ninety-eight-year-old Jewish Resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor “shows us how to find hope in hopelessness and light in the darkness” (Edith Eger, author of The Choice and The Gift).

Selma van de Perre was seventeen when World War II began. Until then, being Jewish in the Netherlands had not been an issue. But by 1941 it had become a matter of life or death. On several occasions, Selma barely avoided being rounded up by the Nazis. While her father was summoned to a work camp and eventually hospitalized in a Dutch transition camp, her mother and sister went into hiding—until they were betrayed in June 1943 and sent to Auschwitz. In an act of defiance and with nowhere else to turn, Selma took on an assumed identity, dyed her hair blond, and joined the Resistance movement, using the pseudonym Margareta van der Kuit. For two years “Marga” risked it all. Using a fake ID, and passing as Aryan, she traveled around the country and even to Nazi headquarters in Paris, sharing information and delivering papers—doing, as she later explained, what “had to be done.”

In July 1944 her luck ran out. She was transported to Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp as a political prisoner. Unlike her parents and sister who she later found out died in other camps—Selma survived by using her alias, pretending to be someone else. It was only after the war ended that she could reclaim her identity and dared to say once again: My name is Selma.

“We were ordinary people plunged into extraordinary circumstances,” she writes in this “astonishing, inspirational, and important” memoir (Ariana Neumann, author of When Time Stopped). Full of hope and courage, this is Selma’s story in her own words.

Hope is necessary for survival.

Selma did a great job of relating her experiences during the war. Thankful to he for sharing.

Great testament of the world to survive with dignity and strength.

Great admiration for Selma. This is a great read and a poignant one for these times.

Critically important eyewitness testimony

Important autobiography from one of the dwindling living witnesses who endured it. Such important testimony. A painful, emotional, insightful, incredible story.

A powerful story, an amazing woman

Selma’s story is a reminder of how horrific circumstances can cause one to find strength and courage, one moment, one event at a time. Her life bears witness to the nazi atrocities while also bearing witness to the courage a young woman found in herself to resist the unspeakable inhumanity.

A Must-Read True Story of A Holocaust Survivor

This is a fascinating true account of a brave young Jewish woman who became part of the Dutch resistance in WWII, who saved many lives, who was sent to Ravensbrooke Concentration Camp, and who lived through incredibly dangerous situations and horrendous conditions in Ravensbrooke. The reader was outstanding. I could not stop listening the story was so good. I cannot think of anyone who would not enjoy this book.