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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Leanne Ingle, 360-704-4508; lingle@timberland.lib.wa.us

Holocaust Witness, Nazi Prison Survivor to Speak at Shelton Timberland Library

Join the Friends of the William G. Reed Library for their Annual Meeting and special guest speaker, Hanneke Ippisch, at 6 p.m., Thursday March 27 at the Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W Alder Street. The presentation is intended for a middle school age through adult audience. It is open to the public free of charge. Ippisch, author of Sky: A True Story of Resistance During World War II, will talk about her underground work in Holland, her capture and imprisonment by Nazi occupation forces, and her optimism about today’s young people.

As a spy for the Dutch Underground (left), Ippisch’s duties included hiding and transporting Jewish families through the countryside to safe homes and finding meeting places for the movement’s leaders. She will share the reasons why she, the advantaged 17-year-old daughter of a Protestant minister, became involved in dangerous Resistance activities.

Captured, interrogated, and sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 19, Ippisch spent the last months of the war in a Nazi-held prison in Amsterdam. From the tiny cell she shared with several others, the young woman communicated with the outside world by etching letters into tiny pieces of toilet paper and sewing the messages into the hems of her laundry.

This presentation is a special opportunity to hear Hanneke Ippisch. She usually speaks at schools, rarely at other venues. She is positive and encouraging when talking with young adults, assuring them she believes that if they were in her place, they would have acted as she.

Ippisch now lives in rural Montana (photo at left). She writes, handcrafts toys, and speaks to youth. Her autobiography, written for young adults, will be available at the presentation for purchase and signing. The book includes photographs and copies of documents as well as Ippisch’s narrative.

This presentation is sponsored by the Friends of the William G. Reed Library. For more information, people may call the Shelton Timberland Library at 426-1362.

Revised 03/14/03