Meet Irene Perbal: Member of the Rotary Club of Jackson, CA since May 2006, Past President 2015-16, past International Service District Chair 2016-2018, fluent in 6 languages, survivor of the Nazi occupation in Amsterdam, independent thinker, and rebel rouser! This woman's story of the atrocities of the Nazi regime must be heard - and remembered - so that such things never happen again. 
 
 
 
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"On June 6 1943, (just 6 days after my 10th birthday) the Gestapo (those were not even Germans but Dutch traitors) invaded our house. Early in the morning the bell rang, I was almost ready to go to school and opened the door. Three man came up the stairs, my mother came an asked what they wanted, they only answered IRS and pushed my mother aside, went upstair and cam beck wit the 2 Jewish gentlemen. Made everybody sit in the living room. They asked where my father was, wanted his phone number and the name of our doctor. My mother proposed to call my dad but no, one of them called the office and said: “This is Dr. Dubois, Mr.Perbal must come home urgently bacause the oldest of the two babies (first son!) is dying. When my father came home he looked at my mother and my little brother in her lap. The Gestapo guy hit him in the face and said; “Don’t give signals to your wife. Then they took my  father and the two Jewish gentlemen to the Gestapo headquarters.

By a miracle, my mother with us four children were left in the house. They only came back the following days with moving trucks in order to confiscate all our belongings and assets. Our whole life was disrupted.

We moved into a small apartment with help from the resistance and had to borrow mattresses and some furniture from friends and family.

We never saw my father again”