“Hate brings more hate. It makes no sense,” Feenstra said of corrupted ideals during the Holocaust to a class of students Thursday.

Eleventh grade Frewsburg Central School students were treated to a presentation put on by Feenstra and his daughter Nancy Feenstra, who provided a slide show and additional information during the lecture.

“It fits in perfect with the 11th grade curriculum, World War II and the Holocaust,” said Tom Nelson, Frewsburg U.S. history teacher. “To have someone who lived it, who really experienced it, it’s an incredible chance to hear someone who has real, firsthand knowledge. He’s a real primary source. This is not reading out of a book. It’s a great opportunity for the kids.”

Feenstra’s granddaughters attended Frewsburg, making the connection to the school district even tighter.

Feenstra, emigrated to the U.S. in 1956 after being liberated from a Nazi Germany concentration camp during the Holocaust. He settled in Jamestown with his wife and two children. He later had his third child, who he named Nancy.

Originally from Rotterdam, Holland, Feenstra was arrested in 1944 in Den Helder beginning his journey through the Nazi concentration camp system.

“You have to realize these people were in charge of their country and their country was occupied,” Nancy Feenstra said. “Which means you have no more freedom. It was very controlling.”

Feenstra was originally assisted by a resistance group known as “the underground” before being sold out by a Dutch citizen collaborating with the Nazi regime. Under the Nazi occupation, the Netherlands was changed forever with men the ages of 20 to 50 being viewed as threats and others trading in fellow country men for gold.

Now 95, Feenstra told 11th grade students, who were born more than 50 years after his liberation, about the horrors he encountered at the control of Nazi SS soldiers he described as the “scum of the earth.”

He admitted not all Germans fit his description and even attributed to his long life to some of their efforts during his imprisonment.

“Thanks to a few good Germans, I’m sitting here today,” he said.

Feenstra told stories about his experiences in the various camps he labored at while the war waged on after he was taken in at the age of 21.

At the time, Feenstra’s name was disregarded and he became a number without belongings. His number was designated as 56,146 when he entered the concentration camp Neuengamme, near Hamburg, Germany.

Feenstra provided books with images of the concentration camps and his liberation in 1945 to the class listening to his accounts of the war. Also, the actual striped, blue prison pants he wore during his internment were on display as well.

Feenstra was liberated by the Army’s 82nd Airborne division on May 2, 1945. Now, any chance he gets to pay his respects he does so. Whenever he meets a veteran of the Airborne division that saved him, he takes them out to dinner, or at least tries to do so.

He remembered seeing Airborne members ride in on a motorcycle after the majority of the SS members had vacated the concentration camp Wobbelin days before.

Feenstra, at the time of liberation now weighed 89 pounds 100 pounds less than what he was a year earlier, was overjoyed to see the Airborne troopers who had just ensured his life would not end in a concentration camp. Feenstra now lives in Portland, thanks to his resilience, the 82nd Airborne and a few good Germans.