George and Annemarie Roeper arrived in Detroit in 1941, having fled Germany in 1937. Once here, they founded the Roeper Grade School, now known as The Roeper School, one of Michigan’s best known independent schools. The Roepers were fortunate to have escaped the worst horrors of the Holocaust, but as they watched it unfold from America, they realized a sense of purpose by founding a school to help develop human beings who want to build a better world. Drawing on the principles of the psychoanalytic community they had been part of in Vienna and Germany, as well as the lessons learned from living through the upheavals in Europe from the First World War to the rise of the Nazi Party, they used the model of the progressive German school founded by Annemarie’s parents to help them develop a clarity of vision that guided them through challenges and still provides inspiration for The Roeper School today.