Keren Perlmutter has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and lives in Pacific Palisades. She spoke of her father, Avraham Perlmutter, who was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1927 and was swept up in the Holocaust at age 10. She spoke of his autobiography, “Determined”, detailing his amazing escapes and survival.
When the Nazis arrived in Vienna, his parents sent him to the Netherlands, but the invading German army caught up with him there. He never saw his mother again. He was sheltered by sympathetic Dutch families and a heroic Catholic priest (who provided Christian names and identity-protection to Jewish refugees at great danger to himself, and survived for only about a year). During this time, most of Avraham’s relatives were captured or disappeared, and most of them perished in concentration camps. He was on his own as a teenager, living in multiple places staying ahead of the Nazi authorities.
Several times he narrowly escaped, hiding in a hidden compartment in a house, and once running down the street to knock on the door of a stranger and saying, “I’m Jewish, can you help me?” (He did.) When stopped by a German army officer on the street, he responded in Dutch, “I don’t speak German” (his native language), and was not captured. Once he was caught on the front lines between the British and German armies, with shells exploding around him. He survived and was befriended by the British.
After World War II ended, he emigrated to the pending new state of Israel. He joined the Israeli army during their war against the neighboring countries, and was wounded. He had learned to speak several languages by this time, and decided to continue his education in the United States, where he went on to earn a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering. He became a successful businessman and earned numerous patents. Now in his 90s, he lives in Santa Monica with his wife, Ruth.