She was born in Germany, but as life for Jews in Germany became more dangerous through the 1930s, she and her family moved to the Netherlands – to Amsterdam, in the same neighborhood as a young girl named Anne Frank.
And like Anne Frank, she was captured by the Nazis and taken to the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
But unlike Anne, young Irene Butter survived the camp.
Today, Dr. Irene Butter is a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.
Her life has been a remarkable journey, knit together by Irene's decision that she was going to live as a Holocaust survivor, not as a victim.
Irene Butter is the subject of the film "Never a Bystander," by Ann Arbor filmmaker Evelyn Neuhaus.”
Irene Butter and Evelyn Neuhaus joined us today on the show.
*Listen to our interview above.