>> flight of the space shuttle

he and his parents were actually among the very fortunate people who were able to secure a visa to come to the united states. so, it seemed like, at the time, their life was heading in a very positive direction. he recounts how he and his parents got to rotterdam. they were so excited.

the next morning they were going to get on a ship and go to the united states. what they never could have anticipated -- here they were, feeling a sense of freedom as they were in the netherlands. the next morning was the very day in which the germans invaded holland. they tried various ways of getting out. they did not succeed. ultimately, he and his parents separated and went into hiding. curt was a teenager at that point. he was very energetic. he felt very strongly he had to do something. he could not just live with this hidden identity, present to be someone else, and not do something to help other people. so he did something -- there are not enough stories about those who became members of the resistance and rescuers. those stories are not as well-known as many others are.

curt actually asked the people who had helped rescue him and his parents if he could join them. they accepted him, which also put their own lives in danger, had he ever been caught. he was traveling with false identity cards. and he became a rescuer. he helped to hide over 100 jewish children that were placed on farms throughout the netherlands. he bought them false ration coupons, false identity cards. and then, in a really amazing moment, he was bicycling and looked up and saw a plane that was exploding, saw two parachutes coming down. once again, he raced to do something and managed to look around and find two american pilots who were hiding in a haystack. he had some english.

he went up and said, "i'm a friend. trust me." which they did. and he plays a really extraordinary role in bringing these pilots to the farm, eventually helping to smuggle them out. his courage and his ingenuity were recognized after the war by then general dwight eisenhower, who, of course, commanded the forces coming into normandy, and he has a letter that we are proud to have in this library that recognizes his extraordinary heroism, in saving the lives of these two american pilots, with whom he has, in fact, stayed in contact, with them and their families.

along with his forged id cards with his photo on them, certainly one of the most valuable, historically speaking, aspects of his collection is the briefcase that he used to carry those forged ration coupons and id cards that then went to farmers throughout holland, so that they could buy food for the children they were hiding. and i know that because we were taking him once for a project

some of our students were working on, and he did not know that we were going to bring the briefcase into the taping. we brought it in, and it was as if a person walking. he responded with a look of surprise, and he literally just kind of padded the briefcase -- patted the briefcase and he said, "my old friend." for those of us who were there, it was this amazing moment that again speaks to the power of objects and the power that objects can have when they are combined with stories. after the war, when he makes his way to the united states, he starts studying acting. the becomes very well-known -- he becomes a very well-known american character actor, but, again, with another kind of ironic twist.

it was a twist for the boy in hiding to become the rescuer in the same way it was a twist for someone who is really just trying to survive and live under another name to become so good at that different identity that he becomes an actor, and then, often, is given the role of the nazi or the guard, and ended up, in fact, portraying a guard in a really extraordinary person, who is very much part of our lives here at chapman. history is all about story. people that think they don't like history, somehow, it hasn't gotten through to them that history is story.

we have been very fortunate to be able to collaborate with the usc shoah foundation institute and a remarkable number of holocaust testimonies that steven spielberg made possible after schindler's -- "schindler's list." >> suddenly, we arrived, loads of people, loads of people, cars, dogs. marilyn: what we are asking students to do is to move out of their own life experience and find the connector in their lives and their interests that connect them to the story they have heard. don't just talk about all the dates. don't try to explain the person's whole history. find that one memory that really resonates with you. and it is now yours. it is now, through listening and

watching and creative activity -- it is now really part of your life. and express that in prose and poetry, in art itself. and as you see here, you just look down the road of these tables, and you see this extraordinary diversity of creativeness in the form of responding. just as the history, the story of every person during the holocaust was unique, so, too, is the expression of these young people in response to those stories.