Betty Schols (* 1941) was born as the child of a non-Jewish mother and a Jewish father. Two weeks after her birth, her father was deported via the Schoorl transit camp to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he died later that same year. In June 1943, Betty’s Jewish grandparents were also arrested and transported via Westerbork to the Sobibor extermination camp, where they were gassed immediately upon arrival. Initially, Betty and her mother found shelter with her non-Jewish grandparents in The Hague; during the hunger winter following D-Day, they crossed the IJssel Line to Zwolle, where they experienced liberation. Betty Schols has been deeply involved in Holocaust education; as a guest speaker at the Westerbork memorial site, she regularly gives talks to students.
