Rodi Glass

Rodi Glass was born into a large family in Amsterdam in 1936. In September 1942, the
Dutch police came to Rodi’s home and loaded her and her family onto a truck to Central
Station in Amsterdam, where they were put on a train to Westerbork transit camp. After
several days in the camp, they were called up to be counted. When they approached
the table of Nazi officers, one recognized Rodi’s mother; when their name came up on
the list to be deported to a killing center in the East, he scratched it off. They were soon
released from the camp and sent back to the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam.
In 1943, the Nazis sealed the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam and rounded up Jews for
deportation. Rodi’s family was once again sent to Westerbork, but Rodi’s uncle had a
connection to buy a document, called a sperre, that would prevent a person from being
sent East. When the family was rounded up the sperre prevented them from being sent
back to Westerbork, and they were released. Rodi and her parents would eventually be
deported to an internment camp in Vittel, France, where they remained until it was
liberated in September 1944.

Rodi serves on the Speakers’ Bureau for Illinois Holocaust Museum and Holocaust
Documentation and Education Center in Florida.