‘The Jewish faith is very strong’

It was 1938 when 16-year-old Stokkink and her father fled over the border into Holland, where her mother already was waiting for them.
The next two years were wonderful. "I was a regular person," she said. "I was no longer dirty trash or an outcast."

That peace didn't last long, however. By 1940, the Nazis invaded Holland. Most Jewish residents were rounded up and moved to a ghetto in Amsterdam, she said, but for about a year and a half the family hid in the attic of a business acquaintance.

The two-room living space included a small bed for her and a couch for her parents. A closet stored potatoes and turnips, and once a week the family would purchase a big loaf of rye bread from the black market.

Going underground Although Holland was forced to surrender, many residents continued to fight against the Nazis.