Born as Clara van Thijn to a Dutch Jewish family in Rotterdam, Sonja's parents were deported to Auschwitz. She was taken in by a Christian family to avoid Nazi prosecution was renamed as Sonja van der Kaden. Her memoir “Finding Schifrah” tells her story of surviving the war and finding out about her Jewish heritage years later.
Sonja will be holding a free public talk on Wednesday April 19th at the John C Hodges Library on University of Tennessee Knoxville Campus.
