For two and a half years, Pete Metzelaar and his mother evaded the Nazis by hiding under floorboards and in a makeshift cave.
“I was 6 years old when I went into hiding,” Metzelaar said.
He will be in Boise and Meridian speaking of his nearly unspeakable ordeal at two events.
At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, Metzelaar will speak at the Boise State Special Events Center, co-sponsored by the Council for Holocaust Awareness of Idaho and the Boise State History Department. The second event will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at the White Cloud Auditorium at 1303 E. Central Drive in Meridian.
The events are part of the Council for Holocaust Awareness of Idaho’s ongoing efforts to help educate the community about the Holocaust and to promote remembrance and tolerance, according to a press release about the event.
The public is invited to attend for free, including educators, students, families, and community members.
METZELAAR’S STORY
Metzelaar was born in 1935 in Amsterdam. In 1942, the Nazis arrested nearly his entire family, including aunts, uncles and grandparents. That’s when Metzelaar and his mother, Elli, took refuge and went into hiding, thanks to Klaus and Roefina Post, “a Christian farming family,” Metzelaar said. “They put their own lives and (put) their entire family at risk by giving me and my mother shelter.”