Jeannine Burk By: Sara Sempelsz, Kylie Byers(KyByers24), & Jack Albright(Phil)

Her Story: Burk was a little Jewish girl from Brussels, Belgium. The last time she saw her father was when she was dropped off at a woman’s house where she would be hidden from the Nazis for two years. She was allowed in the backyard sometimes, but very rarely. She was never allowed to go in the front yard. When Nazis would parade through her town, everybody was required to open their doors and watch so she would go hide in the outhouse for extra protection. One morning, the neighbors snitched on her family in hiding. At 5 a.m. the Gestapo busted down the door where her parents were sleeping and took her father; her mother and sister were saved after they saw that she was in a full body cast and said they would be back soon. Her mother then went to hide in a nursing home out in the country. She came back to get Jeannine and her sister once she made sure it was safe. The girls got news that their father had been gassed in Auschwitz. Her mother then developed breast cancer and died soon after. At the age of twelve and after she had been adopted, she weighed 62 pounds. She got married young, had two boys, then was divorced. In 1970, she met Maurice whose wife had died and had four children. They now have six children and nine grandchildren together. In Philadelphia there was a Holocaust survivors meeting. She saw her fathers name in a book and it had no dates of when he was liberated, which means that he was passed away for sure. All survivors have felt guilty that they were lucky enough to be saved. She would like to thank the woman that hid her, but she has no way of finding her. If it was not for the woman hiding her so well, Jeannine would have been caught and gassed and never live to tell her impactful story to others.

This is Jeannine now and then