Nesse Godin

Nesse Godin (Galperin) (born March 28, 1928 in Šiauliai, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian American Holocaust survivor. She has dedicated her adult life to teaching and sharing memories of the Holocaust. Nesse is known for the ability to translate the Holocaust into a personal glimpse of this enormous and horrifying history.

1933-1939

When asked why she didn't just pretend to be German, she said she could have, but her neighbor had essentially pointed at her and said:

When asked about life before the war, she responded with something along the lines of:

1940-1944

These were the years of German occupation in Lithuania, as well as numerous other places and regions throughout Europe.

1945-1950

From Stutthof, Nesse was transported to several camps, and was sent on a death march in January 1945. In the cold winter weather and with little food, many of the prisoners died, freezing to death. On March 10, 1945, she was liberated by Soviet troops. As she was still a young child then, she was given a random minder, but soon afterwards she got re-united with her mother. When they were reunited, her mother did not recognize her, as it had been three years, and she had little hair due to a shaving from lice. In 1950, after spending five years in the displaced persons camp in Feldafing, Germany, she and her husband Jack (also a survivor), along with their two children, Pnina and Edward, moved to the United States and settled down in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

In 1954, Nesse and Jack saw the birth of their third and final child, Rochelle. Holding blue-collar jobs, Nesse and Jack worked hard and diligently to support their family, which included Nesse's mother, Sara. She has seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Jack has passed on.

Advocacy/Awareness speaking and volunteering

For the past 40-plus years, Nesse has been a busy individual, speaking about the Holocaust to domestic and international audiences. She has appeared before a variety of audiences including the United States Naval Academy, United States Military Academy, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the United Nations General Assembly, numerous schools, like Seneca Valley High School, Robinson Secondary School and Bluffton High School, universities, churches, synagogues, civic groups and teacher's conferences.

Nesse is on the Board of Directors and Founding Member of several Holocaust Survivor groups. She served on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and is a board member of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, and many other worthy organizations. Nesse is Co-President of the Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington and she's participated as a speaker for the Capitol Children's Museum of Washington, D.C. [1]

Nesse has earned numerous awards and honors for her speaking.

Present day

Nesse currently lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, Jack. She volunteers weekly at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and continues to speak out against the horrors of genocide, violence, and hatred. Nesse has traveled to Chantilly, VA, on more than one occasion to attend the Rocky Run Middle School Eyewitness to History Day, and has presented to groups as small as eight people to groups numbering at least ninety while there.

"Why I Volunteer:"