Cover Image: My Name Is Selma

My Name Is Selma

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Member Reviews

This is a really outstanding book about a Jewish lady from the Netherlands who survived world war 2 & it’s horrors under the Nazi regime. It is well written without emotion & to the point. I felt as though she was sat in her chair telling me her story. So glad she found it in herself to write this amazing story about her life. She managed to pass her self off as non Jewish so she could get around more easily . This enabled her to work within a resistance group to help others escape . She lived under a false Identity to protect herself as what she was doing & the fact she was Jewish could mean a matter of life or death . She travelled around taking papers, money, newsletters & sharing information That could help save lives. Her luck ran out in 1944 & she is transported to Ravensbruck concentration camp. How she survived I do not know . She is now 98 years old & we are so lucky she felt able to tell us her story .

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Until the age of seventeen Selma lived in the Netherlands without any problems concerning her identity. She lived in a loving family of two parents with four children, two boys and a sister. Her life was unremarkable with the usual amount of ups and downs. She loved her life; she was a good student, adventurous, confident, settled and happy. Then World War 11 broke out in 1939 and by 1941 it was impossible to live a normal life as a Jewish family. All Jewish people were persecuted by the Nazis and had to seek refuge, fight against the Nazis or risk your life being cut short. Times were perilous and you were not allowed to mix with non-Jews. Jews had to obey a curfew and follow lots of restrictive laws aimed at segregation. Then they were hunted down, their belongings taken from them and all too often they were sent to concentration camps and worse, to the death chambers and murdered.
Selma found friends to shield her and eventually, in an act of defiance and bravery, joined the Resistance movement under the fake ID of Margareta van der Kuit, passing herself off as an Indo-European. For two years and with many close calls she travelled around the country doing what had to be done; acting as a go-between, handing out magazines, delivering documents and messages. Several times she was seconds away from discovery and certain death. But then in 1944 her luck ran out and she was captured and loaded into transport taking women to Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp that was women only and used to house political prisoners She was still calling herself by her pseudonym. Throughout her incarceration she kept her identity secret and trusted no one. She was starved and mistreated until at last she was rescued and transported to Sweden. It was only once she was on neutral territory that she revealed her true identity and started the search for her parents and siblings.
Now aged ninety-eight and living in London, Selma has written her autobiography underlining her belief that these war stories must be revealed so that the younger generation learn about the atrocities of war. Her story is not an easy read because of the very sad and violent content, but nevertheless I found her story very moving. She has been honoured for her courage and bravery and I feel privileged to have read her story. I have been very careful in outlining her story in precis so that your reading experience has not been spoilt. The details of her experiences are detailed, shocking and very engaging but for you to find out.
I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher Transworld Digital for my copy of this novel, sent to me in return for an honest review. I recommended this memoir as a thought provoking and absorbing read. I will never forget Selma and her courageous fight for justice and freedom.

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This book tells the Story of Selma who was 17 when World War 2 started and is Jewish and her story.

Wow This book is amazing and I would Recommend everyone reads Selma Incredible Story , I read this book in a day and Selma story will stay with me for a long time .


With thanks to Netgalley & Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the Arc of this book in exchange for my review

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I’ll be totally honest I feel drawn to books about the survivors of the Holocaust. I feel very strongly that their stories must be told and never ever forgotten, so when I saw this book and the picture of Selma, “the Ravensbrúck survivor” and “Jewish Resistance fighter” “today” at age 98 I felt compelled to read about her life as well as her many near deaths too.
I think the fact the cover image is Selma’s face makes it so powerful and almost irresistible, I know I would have to pick it up from a book store shelf to learn more about the remarkable woman who was a Jewish Resistance fighter who also managed to survive Ravensbruck too!

The book begins with Selma hiding hoping to evade capture. Sadly, she is found by an SS Guard and thrown into the last wagon. Selma doesn’t know any of the women she is in the wagon with. It turns out the women in the wagon are asocial, meaning they have done something the Germans do not like. It ends up being a bit of good luck for Selma as these women worked in the kitchen which means they have had access to food and have managed to smuggle more with them than those in the other wagons. When the women bicker about how to share or ration their food it is Selma that speaks up and ends up being chosen to take care of and distribute the food, in an attempt to make it last for their journey. It’s whilst on the long train journey that Selma writes a not to her best friend Gretchen, she tells her friend she is in a cattle wagon on her way to Ravensbruck or Sachsenhausen. She throws the note through a gap in the slats of the wagon hoping it reaches her friend but not knowing if it will.

The book then reverts to the past and gives some background about Selma and her parents and siblings. Selma’s father was an actor so they moved around a lot for his work. His work was also sporadic so Selma was used to life changing rapidly. When he was in work they could live, eat and dress well. However. when work was scarce they wore hand me down clothes, made do, and ate what their mother could get her hands on to cook for them. Maybe it is this type of life of having to adapt to her surroundings that helped Selma exist and survive Ravensbrusck. Though Selma and her family were Jewish, they weren’t regular attenders at their church. The most religious thing about Selma and possibly the only clue to her Jewish heritage was the fact she wore a Star of David necklace. Some would say lucky for Selma, she didn’t have the typical Jewish hair and looks so easily passed as a German.

Several times in the book, Selma refers to herself as lucky. As she works distributing messages and leaflets within the Jewish Resistance, she comes really close to being captured. Selma’s part of the resistance ends up being caught, yet once again she is not identified as Jewish and is put with political prisoners. Selma has many brushes with death, even when liberated from Ravensbruck, she narrowly misses being in one of the vehicles that is blown up when mistaken for a vehicle full of fleeing German Army personnel.

I don’t want to reveal everything about Selma’s life as you need to read it all in the words and order Selma chooses to divulge it in the book. It is her story to tell. You may think that when Selma is liberated from Ravensbruck her suffering is over, but it is far from finished. Selma may have been freed from Ravensbruck but she has no where to live, no money, just nothing.

Selma naturally revisits her old home and discovers the odd neighbour here and there that is still in the area. Selma is desperate to know what happened to her dear father and her mother and her younger sister Clara. Unfortunately, the reality is devastating. Selma still manages to pick herself up and get on with her life. Her two brothers fought and are both now in England.

This book tells how the war and Nazi regime progressed. First what could be considered small things were taken away from Jewish families, like not being allowed into the same cinema as others, not being allowed out. Then losing their businesses and property. All perhaps things the Jewish people could survive or cope with alone but the way things escalated because of one mans idea’s of perfection, that same man’s feelings of hate towards a race of people would be unbelievable, and you would think it a fictional story if you didn’t know that it is fact and the people in these books are real, their losses real, their suffering real. The more I read about the era, the more I learn, then look at the world around us and shockingly see similarities, the beginnings of possibilities of all these atrocities happening again.
I found it interesting to learn that the Red Cross visited different camps run by the Nazis, obviously only shown certain areas and healthy prisoners. Red Cross parcels were regularly sent to these concentration camps. However, in reality it was extremely rare for any of the parcel contents to ever make it to those in need. The guards were the ones that benefited from the Red Cross parcels not the prisoners existing in the horrendous conditions hidden from the visiting Red Cross. How could the truth be so easily hidden?
I also read the sad story of the Resistance member that revealed information in the hope it would save Selma and his other colleagues. Of course, the Nazis did not keep to their end of the deal, lives were lost and the Resistance member survived the war and ended up being labelled a collaborator, despite having suffered greatly himself.
Though I have read quite a few of these survivor stories there is always more to learn. I didn’t know Ravensbruck gave their prisoners numbers but did not tattoo them onto them as other camps did. I think I have read a lot about Auschwitz and not so much about the women only camp of Ravensbruck. I had also read about “The White Rose” but perhaps not so much about the Jewish Resistance. I know it is a very dark period of history but these stories must be told, these people must be remembered, then at least they did not die in vain.

Selma truly is a remarkable woman, but through her words in the book she strikes me as someone who would shrug off an accolade or praise for what she did. Selma tells her story in a matter of fact way, how it all happened. Selma made and lost friends along the way. After the war she did her best to trace family and friends tracing what happened to them, visiting them if they too survived and mourning the ones that didn’t. I am honestly thankful to Selma for telling her story, so that younger generations can learn the truth and pass on her story into the future too. Selma doesn’t make out she is/was anything special, she just tells her story and that of those around her throughout her journey. As she says in the little introduction of the book she has shared her story as a tribute to all those who suffered and died. The ironic thing is all through her journey through the resistance and in Ravensbruck she was not identified as Jewish. She was arrested and held as a political prisoner, under an assumed name and false identity papers. Did being a political prisoner as opposed to being a Jewish prisoner save her life? Who knows, maybe it did. I imagine anytime those identity papers were called for, examined were extremely anxious times for Selma. She must have been continually on edge, and she states in the book she trusted no one with her true name and heritage. It wasn’t until everything was over that Selma reclaimed her real birth name in the hope it may help her trace her family and friends.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing this book were that it was an amazing account of a brave, courageous woman who survived the atrocities around her by living one day at a time. Trying her best to hold on to a shred of hope. Despite the odds she survives Ravensbruck. Her life story and those like her should be told, and retold, handed down the generations so they are never forgotten or repeated.

To sum up this book takes you through a whole range of emotions. From dread and being on the edge of your seat as Selma describe how she evades being almost caught on many occasions. There’s horror at the conditions she has to live in, anguish when she is so ill, it seems she will die in the camp, to elation when Ravensbruck is liberated, relief she isn’t in the wagon that is bombed yet at the same time despair for those poor women to have survived the war and a concentration camp to be bombed and killed during their liberation by those on their own side of the war. I say this about lots of the books I read about those that survived the Holocaust but Selma’s story is one of courage, bravery and yes as Selma herself says luck and it must be read, and talked about. It’s a message, memories of an horrendous time that should never be forgotten.

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An amazing lady's survival story. Selma was only 14 when war broke out in 1939. At first, her family thought they would be safe from the Nazis in Amsterdam, but it was not to be. Although friends and a new identity protected her for a while, she was eventually captured. To say more would spoil Selma's story. Her bravery and that of her friends shines through, as does her sense of adventure as she travels far and wide delivering messages for the resistance. She even entered German HQ in Paris!

The epilogue is very touching. So glad Selma survived and finally felt ready to tell her very personal account of war and resistance. Good on you Selma!

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Thank you to Selma for sharing her story. How brave she was during the war and her imprisonment in a concentration camp. All that she did to help her fellow inmates and prior to that, the dangers she faced for the Resistance Movement. The horrors of war should not be forgotten and this book certainly tells us of some of those horrors, through which people lived and died.
One of the statements which really struck a chord in me was towards the end when Selma talked about those people who had taken from them, the right to life and to die peacefully at the end of it. She said it was inhumane. How very true that is. Sharing stories such as this cannot have been easy - the horrors of their experiences must have had the most profound effect upon them for the rest of their lives and we owe it to them to read their stories and not to forget. A very moving book.

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An outstanding book. I picked it up, unable to sleep at 2 in the morning, and finished as dawn broke at 6, I couldn't stop reading it.
The author is a truly amazing woman, living an extraordinary life, from an ordinary background.
The title of the book is pivotal and when 'my name is Selma' comes up in the narrative, it was so poignant that I cried as I read the words.
This book records despair and horror, courage and conviction to a cause, and shows how much a human can use the power of positivity and the will to carry on, to survive.
Selma's love of her family, her friends and her country runs through this book, and that love clearly remains. I would love to meet her. I have Jewish heritage and am extremely proud of this, the fate of my father's relatives is unknown to me, it was something no one spoke of. There just isn't the words to thank this amazing woman for her tenacity and devotion to the lives of others.
I will undoubtedly buy this book, I was fortunate enough to be able to read this as a review copy.
This story has been held by Selma for decades, it's a story that should be heard and a book that should be available in every secondary school.
This is history from those who experienced it, who survived it, and who have lived with these memories. Selma really is someone who can take the epithet 'inspirational', although I don't suppose that she would agree, she is a very modest and self-deprecating lady. I think she's wonderful.

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I think it is so important that these voices are heard - the ones who survived to tell the tale. Selma was an ordinary young woman thrust into an extraordinary, and horrific, situation. In some senses she was lucky to survive, but the cost was terrible. This is her tribute to all those who didn't make it, who must be with her every day. A very sad, but necessary, tale.

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Selma van de Perre in her memoir shows all atrocities of Nazi regime during WWII and her personal history, through childhood in Netherland to survival in concentration camp under false identity which she took in a resistance. If they know she is jewish, we may not be able to read her story about Holocaust.

Memoir is written with great simplicity but very delicate and shows her power and will to survive and as she says how important is to listen our intuition which many times saves her life.

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What a great read! This is a memoir told by the author Selma van de Perre, she was not only a concentration camp survivor but also a member of the Dutch resistance. Now at 95 years young she is telling her story

Book follows Selma, through prewar to after the war and love how gave an epilogue of what happens after. Book is a easy if not a difficult read at times. Still amazes me how people can treat other people the way they did.


Many thanks to author and netgalley for this arc copy

. #MyNameIsSelma #NetGalley

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I am so grateful to have recieved this galley and to have been able to read Selma’s story. She is an exceptional woman who was apart of the resistance and hid her Jewishness to continue to protect and hide other Jews from the nazi’s. She is a woman of honour, and this book truly touched my heart. May Selma continue to live many more years BzH, and continue to share her story so we can listen, and say ‘never again’.

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My Name Is Selma is a powerful and remarkable true story, that lingers with you long after you've finished it and it's one you most definitely will pass on to friends and family to read.

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Selma van de Perre was a young Jewish woman when her homeland of the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans. It soon became clear that life was never going to be the same for her and her family again. Jews were discriminated against in all areas: property confiscated, jobs disallowed, being forced to wear a yellow star to show one's Jewishness and of course, being sent to work camps and death camps. This is the story of how she coped with this through being part of the resistance movement, how she was captured and sent to Ravensbruck and how she ultimately survived this. It is, like all survivor stories, a unique and admirable one.

It's heartening that 75 years after the end of the war we are still hearing new accounts of what happened to people in that time. In this era of rising racism and xenophobia we should all know what extremes can result from racism. We need accounts from survivors of what happened to counteract those who would deny it ever happened. Selma's account is remarkable for its understanding and lack of bitterness. She recounts for example how she went to hide in the apartment of her friend's family and how very soon after she was out on the street again but only once she had given them the supply of coal and food from her own family home. Although there are many such petty betrayal and demands for money she doesn't condemns the people involved instead remarking that it was very difficult for everyone at the time.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

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MY NAME IS SELMA

BY

Selma Van de Perre


A remarkable autobiography from a courageous woman.
There are many memoirs on this subject and every one is disturbing. But the power to shock is never absent. Man’s inhumanity to man is never more graphic than in the stories from those who survived the persecution of the Jews and others by the Nazis.
Selma has told her story with great simplicity. It reads like a diary or as if she was sitting chatting to the reader. She never over emphasises or dwells on the horrors she witnessed and endured, she merely states the basic facts. Her colouring did not identify her as a Jew and that worked in her favour when initially she escaped the dramatic sweeping up of her friends and family in the Netherlands. Never complacent she used her appearance and guile to become a Jewish resistance fighter and under an assumed name even when captured she managed to conceal her identity.
There is an acceptance of what she endured and little rancour in the telling or judgement of those who betrayed the Jews, or of the treatment inflicted on herself and others.
Not just another Holocaust story but one that is told with gentleness in a matter of fact style leaving the reader to take from the story what they will. There is a tenderness about the story that certainly moved this reader. A horror story? yes - as ever. But one that left me full of admiration for this very brave lady.

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this is a great book. Selma tells the story of her life and survival through the war as a young Jewish girl. Its a similar perspective to others I've read but it doesn't disappoint.

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