Heartbreaking Account of Dutch Jews During Holocaust

 

TITLE: Discovering Twins; No Secret is Safe Forever

AUTHOR: Stella Ter Hart

PUBLISHER: Stella Ter Hart

PUBLICATION DATE: July 27, 2021

LENGTH: 280 Pages

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author is an award-winning choral and instrumental composer, casual author, and educator.
Stella Ter Hart was born in the small prairie town of Estevan, Saskatchewan, to Dutch immigrant parents. She now lives in rural Ontario with her husband, tending her heritage apple orchard.

Uncovering Family Secrets
"Twins run in the family, you know."

When the author was expecting her first child in 1982, her mother casually made a remark about twins running in the family. Stella had no knowledge of this fact and her mother had always been very secretive about her early life growing up in the Netherlands.

Once that first door into the author's past was opened to her, she needed to know the truth. She spent almost five years of deep genealogy diving and internet research. 

Stella discovered over 1,200 Dutch relatives that died in the Holocaust. The Jewish line in her mother's family had been residents in Amsterdam for over 400 years and they were wholly assimilated into Dutch society.

She discovered that her family had fifteen sets of twins out of approximately 550 births between 1832 and 1942. 

My Thoughts

We all know the story of Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam. This book provides details about how other Dutch Jews were arrested, transported to concentration camps, and murdered by the Nazis.

Stella Ter Hart did an amazing job with her research and discovering stories that were passed down in her family. She was recently reunited with a distant cousin who was sent into hiding as a child and survived the war. This book includes photos of lost family members that are poignant and heartbreaking. 

The information in this book is shocking and sad. I really can't express my disgust in words. I hope the legacies of these innocent people will not be forgotten.

I did a little research of my own and discovered the following information:

• Between 75 and 80 percent of the Netherlands' Jews were killed during the war, the highest rate in Western Europe.
• Although about 150,00 Jews were living in the Netherlands in 1940, including about 25,000 German Jews who had come as refugees, only about 15,000 were counted during the postwar census of 1947.

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

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The Radio Signal (Memoir) Depicts German Baptists in World War II

The Radio Signal

Author: Friedhelm Radandt

Publisher: Deep River Books

Publication Date: June 8, 2016

Length: 248 Pages










About the Author
Friedhelm Radandt served as a college president for a quarter of a century, first at Northwestern College in Iowa and then at The King's College in New York. After arriving from his native Germany as an immigrant, he earned graduate degrees at The University of Chicago and enjoyed a rewarding teaching career at that institution and at Lake Forest College.

The Tale of Two Families
Friedhelm and his wife, Elizabeth Job, share the childhood memories of their experiences in Poland and Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. During the war years, neither family knows of the other. Neither family knows that their paths will cross after the war and their families will be united forever.

The author shares some history of the Radandt and Job families. The families lived a pleasant, middle-class life in Germany and Poland in the years prior to the reign of Hitler and the beginning of World War II. They were both active in the German Baptist Church and community. The author believes the support that both families received from the church was an important aspect in their survival during the years they spent as refugees during the war. 

"Like his parents before him, Friedhelm began looking for a Baptist fellowship as soon as he arrived in Hamburg. This had, after all, been his family's saving grace: no matter where they settled they had never been truly alone, because they always established ties to the nearest Baptist community."

Friedhelm found fellowship and love at the Baptist Church in Hamburg. Elizabeth Job was a member of the youth group at the church and their friendship eventually grew to love and marriage.

My Thoughts
This is a riveting account from a child's point-of-view of the extreme conditions endured by ordinary families during World War II. These families faced the threats of arrest, hunger, homelessness, and death on a regular basis. Both families had to relocate several times and lost their homes and all of their material possessions. There were times when it seemed that Divine intervention was responsible for their safety and survival.

I belong to a Baptist Church and found the information about the German Baptists very interesting. In recent years, the German Baptists have come under criticism for not speaking out against Hitler and the terrible injustices and atrocities that occurred during the years the Nazi party was in power. In most cases, the Nazis allowed the Baptist Churches to remain open and continue to preach the Gospel within the church. So, the Baptists were happy to be left alone and did not want to make waves that would put their organization in jeopardy. 

After the war, the author did extensive research on the role of the Baptist Church and other Christian groups during the war. He immersed himself in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Ethics" and committed himself to teaching about the issue of resistance to Baptist young people's groups. He believed that dealing with the past would free the church to do God's work with integrity.

The memoir ends in 1960, when Friedhelm and Elizabeth immigrated to America, arriving in New York City aboard the SS United States. This is a book about war, but it is also about faith, hope and love. The author did an excellent job telling his story. Highly recommended!

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

FYI ~ I received a free print copy of this book from the author's publicist in exchange for a fair review.

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Children's Book Review: I Will Come Back For You; A Family In Hiding During World War II

I Will Come Back For You: A Family in Hiding During World War II

Author: Marisabina Russo

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade

Date: September 27, 2011



About The Author
Marisabina Russo is the author and illustrator of numerous books for children. Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II, based on the experiences of her grandmother's family during the Holocaust, was named an ALA-ALSC Notable Children's Book.

A Jewish Family In Italy
A grandmother uses her charm bracelet to tell the story of her life in Italy during World War II.

The first charm is a donkey. The donkey represents the happy times that Jacob, Sabina and their children had in Rome before the war. They would often go to the park and ride on the backs of gentle donkeys.

The second charm is a piano. Jacob would play the piano and sing to his family each night when he got home from work. One day, Jacob learned that he and all Jewish men had to move to a small village up in the mountains. The music ended and the family missed Jacob very much.

The third charm is a bicycle. Jacob learned that the Germans were coming to the village and all the Jewish detainees would be moved to a concentration camp. Jacob ran away and hid in the mountains. A friendly farmer carried Sabina on the handlebars of his bicycle to a safer hiding place higher in the mountains. The children were left behind but hoped to be reunited with their parents as soon as it was safe.

The fourth charm is a pig. The children hid in baskets of live piglets and were carried high into the mountains on the back of a donkey. They were reunited with Sabina and lived with her on a farm until the war ended.

The next two charms are a barn and a spinning wheel. These charms represent the time that Sabina and the children lived on the farm. Sabina worked in the fields and even learned to spin yarn from sheep's wool. They looked like part of the farmer's family so no one suspected that they were Jews.

The Last charm is an ocean liner. Sabina learned that Jacob had joined the partigiani, a group of people who were fighting against the Germans. He was killed by Nazi solders who found his hideout. After the war, Sabina and her children sailed to America where they started a new life.

My Thoughts
When I was a child, I loved to read biographies and books about history. I read very little fiction, I always wanted a "true" book. I majored in social studies/history when I went to college. I love to learn about the history of my country and the world.

The subject of the Holocaust is difficult to explain to children. This fictionalized story based on the author's real-life experience deals with the subject in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

I really love the way the charm bracelet was used to represent each part of the story. The author gives more information about her family in the "Afterword" section of the book. Incredibly, about 85% of the Jews in Italy survived the war, more than in almost any other European country.

This is an excellent resource to teach children about war, evil, bravery and kindness in the face of danger. Highly recommended for children in early elementary grades and up. (The book jacket says ages 5 - 9 but I think it could  be used with older students.)

My Rating: 5 Stars Out Of 5

FYI ~ I checked-out this book from the public library.

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Book Review: Broken Birds

I downloaded a copy of Broken Birds, The Story of My Momila, by Jeannette Katzir, on my Kindle.  I read the book at the request of the author.
This story is a memoir that describes the lasting effects of the Holocaust on the survivors and on the children and grandchildren of the survivors. The horrors of the Holocaust send ripple effects down through the generations. 
The author's parents are children when Hitler begins his campaign of hatred and death in central Europe.  Channa, Mrs. Katzir's mother, was born in a small town in Poland.  When her family was forced to leave their home, they spent some time in a crowded ghetto.  Channa and her brother eventually fled the ghetto and spent the rest of the war living in the forest with a group of partisans.  They did anything they had to do to survive, including stealing and killing.  Nathan, the author's father, grew up in a town in Czechoslovakia.  He spent most of the war in the Auschwitz and Dalchau concentration camps.  Nathan lost his entire family and Channa and her brother were the only survivors in their family.  War is truly hell and I was shocked and disgusted by the circumstances that Channa and Nathan had to endure.  It is a miracle that they survived.
Channa and Nathan both made their way to the United States where they met and got married.  These two "broken birds" were determined to find happiness and success in their new country.  They worked hard and raised five children.  Channa was the matriarch of the family and she taught her children many lessons that she learned during her struggle to survive during the war.  She taught them that failure was unacceptable and that strangers were not to be trusted.  These lessons helped Channa survive while she was running from the Nazis, but they led to relationships that were dysfunctional and broken in our modern society.
The family members turned against each other after Channa's death.  The book describes in great detail the fighting, lawsuits and court hearings that were needed to settle Channa's estate. 
How long does it take for the curse to be broken?  How many more generations will suffer as a result of the Holocaust's atrocities?  It just takes one person to stand up and say, "It is going to stop right here and right now."  I pray that this family will be reconciled and find peace.  
I highly recommend this book to everyone.  I promise you will be counting your blessings by the time you read the last page.