Heroism Ran in the Family

By Kerry August

The Chevy Chase Women's Republican Club persuaded Katja Bullock to be their president two times. Katja worked in the White House under four Republican Presidents serving as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. President George W. Bush detailed Katja to the Army in Iraq during the Iraq War. With great courage, Katja and Army staff recovered a fallen Lt. Colonel's body from their burning building during a raid. When the war ended and Katja returned to her duties at the White House, she received the gratitude of President Bush. Katja asked President Bush to spend time with the Lt. Colonel's widow, and he did. Katja received the Outstanding American by Choice Award, which recognizes naturalized U.S. citizens who have made exceptional contributions to the United States. To know and understand Katja it helps to know her father.   

Katja's father, Dr. Zapfe, was a member of the SS, the most ruthless branch of the Third Reich. He was forced to join the SS as an officer or face a firing squad. Many of Germany's physicians had to make this same difficult decision. He devised a plan to save his Jewish patients knowing full well his exposure would mean certain death for him, his wife and infant daughter. He was assigned to continue working in his practice and to process his Jewish patients who were selected to be sent to a concentration camp.

As an SS officer he had access to the highly secret lists of the names of those who would be arrested and sent to a death camp. For whatever reason, the Nazis were forbidden to arrest anyone directly from a hospital. With access to the lists, he was able to warn the Jews or have them admitted to the hospital with a variety of medical conditions. On many occasions he would send an ambulance to pick up the targeted Jews and safely transport them to the hospital. His ingenious plan bought them time to go into hiding or connect with the underground. Because of his heroic action, so many lives were saved. As the war was ending, he was forced to take his family into hiding deep in the woods in an abandoned cabin. At that time SS officers were being hunted down, killed or imprisoned. He was captured by the American Army and later released from prison after the returning Jews intervened with the American Army, proclaiming him to be a hero.

Kerry August is a member of the Chevy Chase Women’s Republican Club.