(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I'm Jacqui Tricarico on location at the NJEA Convention, here in Atlantic City, and I am so honored and pleased to be joined by Maud Dahme, who is a Holocaust survivor, former president of the New Jersey State Board of Education, and the person in a documentary here that we're showing, it was done a few years back, called "The Hidden Child," about your experience during the Holocaust.

Maud, thank you so much for talking with us.

First, can you tell us a little bit about that experience for you?

I know that if we watch that documentary we get, really, an in-depth look, but just an overview of that experience for you during that time in the Holocaust when your parents decided that it was time to hide you and your sister from the Nazis.

- Well, it was very difficult, especially in the beginning, because my mother told me we were going on a vacation to a farm, my little sister and I, and of course it wasn't, and while they would go on their vacation.

So the next three years were very difficult because I was only 6 1/2 years old.

- 6 1/2, so three years, from 6 1/2 to 9 1/2, living this completely different life.

- And that was difficult.

Plus, I had to watch over my sister.

- Your little sister.

- So it got to the point after the war, whenever I told her to do something she goes, "No more."

'Cause I was... - She was knew that you were always the one telling her what to do.

(laughs) - But it was very difficult, though.

She never understood.

I started to understand it very quickly because my name was changed, I had people I had to call aunt and uncle who I didn't know.

So that was, you know, for a 6 1/2 year old- - Yeah, three years of being hid and living with that fear during that time, I mean, bombs going off around you all the time, just a horrible, horrible situation.

Your mother and father both survived and came, 'cause they were hiding separately, right?

And then they came back to find you and reunite with you, but being a child and not seeing your parents for three years, you describe in the documentary that you were a little afraid, you didn't really know them anymore, that was a huge transition for you and your sister.

- It was difficult for us, but I could imagine for my parents, to finally realize their children are still alive, they come all the way out to where we were- - So excited to embrace you and you were scared.

Small child, of course, scared.

- And they stayed for a little bit, but even then I told them, "We will go home with you, but if we don't like you we're coming back and living with Aunt."

- Yeah, yeah.

So this whole experience, you've been able to now take so many educators with you, back to the Netherlands, to Europe, and retrace your steps and your story.

Just this past summer, you went with Steve Beatty, the Vice President of the NJEA, and 28 other educators to do that.

What is that experience like for you?

- It was very difficult the first time because suddenly I was faced with some things I had heard about but had never seen.

But it's, now I've been doing it some time, so I'm in Europe two or three times a year, but it's still difficult 'cause I know what I'm going see but it's still difficult on a... Where sometimes one of the local guides will say something that will just hit me and I start to cry.

So it's not easy to do it.

- An emotional journey every time.

- Yes.

- And emotional journey every time.

An emotional journey, too, I think, for you, for so many years you didn't talk about your story but then you started opening up about it and you saw how impactful it could be to so many to hear from you, and you've been traveling all over New Jersey and the United States, sharing your story.

How does that make you feel?

Obviously, like we said, an emotional rollercoaster, but overall, why has that become such an important part of who you are and the legacy you wanna leave behind?

- Well, to me it's so important, especially in the way the world is today, 'cause genocides have not stopped and I feel especially to our students, if I can tell my story, though I'm not graphic at all, but still tell my story of the war but also the emphasis is positive, of how people cared and risked their lives.

- Right, there was humanity within the inhumanity.

- To really instill in them the respect and I've seen, one example was a school teacher had the students write thank you, the first paragraph they had to write, "Thank you, Mrs.

Dahme."

The second paragraph, how are you going to use it?

And a little boy wrote, he said, "I have a new baby brother.

I don't like him, but I'm going to be very nice to him, as the big brother."

So you know, even in that child's mind, I reached him.

- The impact you can have on children is so different than the impact you can have on adults, where we're already desensitized to so much and there's so much that we're exposed to on a daily basis, especially right now in our world, another war breaking out and anti-Semitism on the rise again here in our country but across the world, the impact of your story more now than ever before, do you feel?

- Definitely.

Very, very important.

Because it's, as I said, the genocide continues.

And I'm trying to tell the world how people cared.

It didn't matter that I was Jewish, they were Christians, they saved us.

- And we need more of that.

(laughs) We need more of that today more than ever.

Thank you so much, even with your hoarse voice, for talking with us today and sharing some of your story.

No, and I'm so glad that people have the opportunity here, with this new film festival that they've created as part of the convention, to view your documentary and learn more about your story.

Thank you so much, Maud.

- My main, I am just so pleased with the teachers 'cause it's life changing, and they're doing wonderful things in their classroom.

- Our educators are unsung heroes, and you're part of that education system now too, especially here in New Jersey.

Thank you so much, Maud.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Education Association.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

Kean University.

Wells Fargo.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

PSEG Foundation.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And by NJM Insurance Group.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

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