Jan-Peter Pfeffer

Who was Jan-Peter Pfeffer?

Jan-Peter Pfeffer was born on May 3rd, 1934 in Amsterdam, Holland. He was older than his brother, Thomas, who was younger than him by 18 months. Jan- Peter grew up also speaking Dutch and the family lived happily in Holland. With the Nazi’s taking over Holland in May of 1940, things changed for Jan-Peter and his family. Jews started being deported to concentration camps around the country of Poland. Unfortunately, Jan-Peter’s family got caught in the middle of the deportations. On May 18th, 1944, the Pfeffer family were all deported to Westerbork Transit Camp and then deported to the Terezin Ghetto. 97,297 died among whom were 15,000 children. Only 132 of those children were known to have survived, and Jan-Peter and his brother were among the 132 that did survive the Terezin Ghetto. But, in 1944, the Pfeffer family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were lucky enough to survive that ‘selection’ process and for almost two months. But in the middle of July 1944, Jan-Peter, his younger brother, Thomas and his maternal grandmother were all chosen to be slaughtered at the gas chambers. Jan-Peter died that day at the tender age of 10.