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My Name Is Selma

The Remarkable Memoir of a Jewish Resistance Fighter and Ravensbrück Survivor

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My Name Is Selma

By: Selma van de Perre, Alice Tetley-Paul, Anna Asbury
Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'I am one of few Jewish survivors of World War Two, but one of many Jewish people to fight the Nazi regime. My story illustrates what happened to thousands of Jews and non-Jews alike... the sheer luck that saved some of us and the atrocities that led to the deaths of so many, as a tribute to all those who suffered and died.'


Selma van de Perre was seventeen when World War Two began. Until then, being Jewish in the Netherlands had been of no consequence. But by 1941 this simple fact had become a matter of life or death. Several times, Selma avoided being rounded up by the Nazis. Then, in an act of defiance, she 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 travelled around the country delivering newsletters, sharing information, keeping up morale - 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 would later discover, died in other camps - she survived by using her alias, pretending to be someone else. It was only after the war ended that she was allowed to reclaim her identity and dared to say once again: My name is Selma.

Now, at ninety-eight, Selma remains a force of nature. Full of hope and courage, this is her story in her own words.

©2020 Selma van de Perre (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Judaism Military & War War Military Memoir Survival
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This books is not only a story of one person's life but is an education to those who are unclear as to exactly what went on in occupied Netherlands and beyond during the 2nd World War. I lived in vught for a year and I am ashamed to say that I had no idea what had gone on there. I plan soon to visit auschwitz and I will make the journey also, back to Vught, to learn more of the lives a deaths of the innocent people who lived under the murderous and evil control of the Nazis

An incredible story, an incredible woman

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Most of you will have read Anne Frank’s diary. This is another “must read” book from that era. What a brave lady Selma and her fellow resistance fighters were.

What a brave lady

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Thankyou for sharing your heartbreaking story, so Beautifully written by such a brave soul ❤ I really hope this book will be a permanent fixture in schools!
compassionately read !

Such a brave lady 💔

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Incredible story of a very brave woman's life in the resistance and beyond. The voice of the person who reads it is very pleasant, but I was terribly distracted by her mispronunciation of all the Dutch in the book. The names, places, institutions - there are too many of them for the publisher to not have hired someone who is fluent in both English and Dutch. I understand most people listening to this audio book wouldn't know how to pronounce most of them, but it should be quite clear to anyone that the narrator stumbled over a lot of the longer words. Shame of an otherwise incredibly interesting listen.

Incredible story

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A very interesting book about the years surrounding the Second World War through the eyes of a young Jewish girl who joined the resistance and survived the concentration camps.

My name is Selma.

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