At 16, Kate Lipner rescued Jewish children during World War II and brought them to France and Switzerland for refuge.

At 17, Lipner saw her mother die of a cerebral hemorrhage and her father taken as a prisoner of war when some of the French fell to the Nazis.

And at 75, Lipner stood in front of an Evanston Township High School audience and told the story of her heroic past. Her speech Tuesday was part of this week’s ETHS Holocaust commemoration, which aims to educate people about the reality of the Holocaust.

Lipner said she joined the underground resistance against the Nazis because she wanted to fight the war for her father in her own unique way.

She said she taught the Jewish children Catholic catechism and French so they could answer Nazi officers who questioned them.

In one instance, a boy whom Lipner was taking to Switzerland could not speak French, so he pretended he could not speak or hear to avoid being detained by the officers.

After the war, Lipner left France, converted from Christianity to Judaism and went to live in the United States with her Jewish-American husband. She then tried to lead a “normal” life.

“I wanted to forget about Europe and the war,” she said. “I didn’t even talk about it with my son and husband.”

But Lipner realized her grandson and some others did not believe that the Holocaust happened.

Survivors will speak at ETHS all week, and the school will make a donation to the Holocaust Memorial Foundation.

The events, which began Tuesday, take place during class periods. Teachers can bring their classes to a variety of these events, which include movies about hate crimes and cases of genocide in Kosovo and Cambodia.

Program organizers said the event received a high turnout from students and faculty.

“It’s the first day, but the room was really packed with people when the survivor spoke,” said ETHS senior Danielle Mickenberg, who is on the organizing committee for the Holocaust commemoration.

Students also participated by lighting candles in the main lobby as committee members took turns reading a partial list of names of people who died at Auschwitz.

Lipner listened for the names of parents of children she had saved.

Committee organizer and special education teacher Ronnie Sokol called Lipner a hero. But Lipner said she was not.

“You would do the same thing if you saw the children,” Lipner said.

But Sokol disagreed and said that not everyone would have been so brave.

“You would like to think that we would rise to the occasion,” Sokol said. “But we know that’s not true because of all the people who didn’t.”