Hélène Egger
{{Short description|Dutch Holocaust survivor (1929–2024)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Beatrix Nobis
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 4 February 2024
| birth_place = Baarn, Netherlands
| death_date = 21 November 1929 (aged 95)
| death_place = Baarn, Netherlands
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Holocaust survivor
}}
Hélène Petter-Egger (21 November 1929 – 4 February 2024) was a Dutch Holocaust survivor.{{Cite web |title=Hélène Petter-Egger - Gasten archief DWDD - De Wereld Draait Door - BNNVARA |url=https://www.bnnvara.nl/dewerelddraaitdoor/catalogus/gasten-archief/h/helene-petter-egger |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=De Wereld Draait Door |language=nl}}
Biography
Egger was born in Baarn, Netherlands in 1929. As a young girl she had lost her mother who died from a brain tumour.{{Cite web |last=Digits |first=Four |title=Debby Petters Joodse moeder zwijgt zestig jaar lang over de Tweede Wereldoorlog |url=https://www.warchild.nl/debby-sterre/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=War Child Netherlands |language=nl}} The Second World War broke out when she was 10 years old.{{Cite web |last=Schnek |first=Paul |title=Helene Petter-Egger |url=http://www.demotverhalen.nl/voorstellingen/seizoen-14-15/01-februari-2015/220-helene-petter-eggers |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160520161907/http://www.demotverhalen.nl:80/voorstellingen/seizoen-14-15/01-februari-2015/220-helene-petter-eggers |archive-date=2016-05-20 |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.demotverhalen.nl |language=nl-nl}} Due to the German invasion of the Netherlands, she left her family to live in Amsterdam with her grandparents.{{Cite web |title=Oorlogsmuseum Overloon {{!}} Hartverscheurende verhalen van de oorlog |url=https://www.dagjeweg.nl/nieuwsredactie/22195/Hartverscheurende-verhalen-in-een-oorlog-vol-dilemma's |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=DagjeWeg.NL |language=nl}} As Leentje Bakker, she lived in Vorstenbosch from mid-1944 to May 1945.{{Cite web |title=In memoriam: Hélène Egger |url=https://www.vorstenbosch-info.nl/in-memoriam-helene-egger/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=VORSTENBOSCH info |language=nl-NL}} By the end of the war she was the only surviving member of her immediate family.{{Cite web |last=oorlog |first=Verhalen over de |date=2022-10-28 |title=Debby Petter - Oorlogsverhalen - Verhalen over de oorlog |url=https://www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl/nl/interviews/debbie-petter-helene-egger |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl |language=nl}} She learned that her two brothers had been deported to Auschwitz concentration camp.{{Cite web |title=Hélène Petter-Egger en dochter Debby vertellen over de oorlog - TracesOfWar.nl |url=https://www.tracesofwar.nl/news/5217/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne-Petter-Egger-en-dochter-Debby-vertellen-over-de-oorlog.htm |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.tracesofwar.nl |language=en}} She was later adopted by her extended family including her grandparents, uncle and aunt.{{Cite web |last=oorlog |first=Verhalen over de |date=2022-10-28 |title=Debby Petter - Oorlogsverhalen - Verhalen over de oorlog |url=https://www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl/nl/interviews/debbie-petter-helene-egger |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.verhalenoverdeoorlog.nl |language=nl}} She married a non-Jewish man in 1953 and did not speak about her past with him or their children until later in life.{{Cite web |last=Wermenbol |first=Grace Wermenbol |date=11 August 2009 |title=Why Must Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories? |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/holocaust-remembrance-day/2009-08-11/ty-article/why-must-holocaust-survivors-tell-their-stories/0000017f-e495-d804-ad7f-f5ff99f60000 |website=Haaretz}}
She first became a contemporary witness in 1997 in a video interview she gave for the Shoah Foundation. Her daughter, the newsreader {{Ill|Debby Petter|nl}}, wrote a book on her mothers life.{{Cite web |title=Ik ben er nog, Debby Petter {{!}} 9789400400153 {{!}} Boeken {{!}} bol |url=https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/f/ik-ben-er-nog/35297955/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.bol.com |language=nl-NL}} The book was later adapted into a play.{{Cite web |title=Hélène Petter-Egger en dochter Debby vertellen over de oorlog - TracesOfWar.nl |url=https://www.tracesofwar.nl/news/5217/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne-Petter-Egger-en-dochter-Debby-vertellen-over-de-oorlog.htm |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.tracesofwar.nl |language=en}} In 2018, a short film based on her life “Ik ben er nog” (made for the permanent exhibition "The Netherlands in the Second World War" in the Dutch Overloon War Museum) premiered in Las Vegas during The New York Festivals and won a Gold World Medal.{{Cite web |title=Ik ben er nog |url=https://www.vorstenbosch-info.nl/ik-ben-er-nog/ |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=VORSTENBOSCH info |language=nl-NL}} The film had previously also won a Dutch film award in 2017. In 2024, Hélène Petter-Egger died in her hometown of Baarn at the age of 94.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{imdb name|3434567|Hélène Petter-Egger}}
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFcLufzMj88 News report on her death] from Dtv Nieuws
{{Holocaust-stub}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Egger, Hélène}}
Category:20th-century Dutch women
Category:21st-century Dutch women
Category:Dutch Holocaust survivors