Milton John Nieuwsma (pronounced "news-ma") (born September 5 1941) is an American writer, journalist and filmmaker noted for his work on theHolocaust. His 1998 bookKinderlager, about three youngconcentration camp survivors, was the basis for the 2005Emmy Award-winning documentary,Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah, which he wrote and co-produced. Nieuwsma won a second Emmy in 2006 for the filmDefying Hitler.
Nieuwsma was born inSioux Falls, South Dakota, the son of John Nieuwsma, aDutch Reformed minister, and Jean (née) Potter, a teacher. In 1945, after World War II, his family moved toBellflower, California. At the age of 5, he metCorrie ten Boom, a Dutch-born concentration camp survivor and author ofThe Hiding Place, whose family had hidden Jews in their Netherlands home during the war. Ten Boom was a guest at the Nieuwsma parsonage in Bellflower. In a 2001 interview, Nieuwsma recalled "sitting on (ten Boom's) lap...listening to her talk and wondering to myself, 'Who is this woman?' She reminded me of my grandmother." Ten Boom inspired him to learn more about the Holocaust.
Nieuwsma started his writing career as a reporter for the Holland (Michigan)Evening Sentinel, while in high school. After graduating with an English degree fromHope College in 1963, he worked as a public information officer atWayne State University inDetroit and hosted a weekly radio program,The Fifth Freedom, on WQRS-FM, a Detroitfine arts station. In the late 1970s, Nieuwsma began writing historical features and travel articles for theChicago Tribune. In 1978, he received a master's degree from theUniversity of Illinois Springfield.
In 1994, while teaching journalism atRutgers University in New Jersey, Nieuwsma met Tova Friedman, believed to be the youngestAuschwitz survivor, which inspired him to writeKinderlager. Friedman is one of three children featured in the book. In 2001Kinderlager was selected by theHogere Europese Beroepen Opleiding (Institute for Higher European Studies) inThe Hague as one of the top 10 books written on the Holocaust.
In 2005 the book was reissued under the titleSurviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah as a companion to thePBS documentary which Nieuwsma wrote and co-produced. Released in 2005, the film received an Emmy Award from the Michigan chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for besthistorical documentary. The film also won a First Place Gold Camera Award at the International Film and Video Festival in Los Angeles. Today,Surviving Auschwitz is featured in many school-based Holocaust studies programs in the United States.
Nieuwsma won a second Emmy in 2006 for writing and co-producingDefying Hitler, a documentary about a Jewish fighter in the Polish Resistance.
Since 1997 Nieuwsma has lived inHolland, Michigan, where he continues to write. He and his wife, the former Marilee Gordon (m. February 1 1964), have three children, Jonathan, Greg and Elizabeth, and seven grandchildren.
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