The Heart Has Reasons (39 page)

vii
different estimates by historians
Compare: Presser, 539; J. C. H. Blom, “The Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands in a Comparative International Perspective,”
Dutch Jewish History 2
, ed. Jozeph Michman (Jerusalem: Graf-Chen Press, 1989), 2 73; B. A. Sies, “Several Observations Concerning the Position of the Jews in Occupied Holland during World War II,”
Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust
, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Efraim Zurof (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1977), 527–28; Gerhard Hirschfeld, “Niederlande,” Dimension des Völkermonds,
Die Zahl der jüdischen
Opfer des Nationalsozialismus
, ed. Wolfgang Benz (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1991), 165.

BACKGROUND

1
Though millions wanted to do something
This can be deduced from the prevalence and wide readership of Resistance newspapers. The other estimates come from de Jong, 47. See also Bob de Graaff, “Collaboratie en Verzet” in: J. P. B. Jonker et al.
Vijftig jaar na de
inval
(Amsterdam: SDU, 1985), 95.

2
Through the use of paratroopers
Gordon Craig, Europe Since 1815 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961), 721.
“I saw the planes still diving”
Ralph Boucher,
Miracle of Survival
(Berke- ley: J. L. Magnes Museum, 1997), 45.

2
Closer to ground zero
This is based on the unforgettable description by Sebald of a similar, albeit larger, firebombing perpetrated later in the war by the Allies, combined with the statistics for Rotterdam provided by Shirer. See W. G. Sebald,
On the Natural History of Destruction
(New York: Random House, 2003), 27;William L. Shirer,
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), 722.

2
“WE THE GERMAN PEOPLE”
Recalled by survivor Jack van der Geest, written with Carol J. Ordemann (Arvada, Colo.: Van der Geest, 1995), 2.

3
more than a hundred Jewish people committed suicide
See Werner Warmbrunn,
The Dutch under German Occupation
1940–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963), 166; Mark Klempner, “Navigating Life Review Interviews with Survivors of Trauma,”
Oral History
Review
27, no. 2 (2000 Summer/Fall), 67–83.

3
was possible if they complied fully
See Gordon A. Craig, “‘Schreibt und Farschreibt!’”
New York Review of Books
(April 1 0, 1 986).
“We shall hit the Jews”
B. A. Sijes,
De Februaristaking, 25–26 Febrari
1941
(The Hague, 1954), 179–80.

3
Though there was some protest
See Van Galen Last, 195; B. A. Sijes, “Several Observations Concerning the Position of the Jews in Occupied Holland during World War II,” in
Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust
, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1977), 535.

3
“From the German point of view”
P. Romijn, 302.

5
do away with the Jews most quickly
Christopher R. Browning, conversation with the author, April, 5, 2002.

5
The Nationaal Socalistische Beweging
See Albert Van der Mey,
When a Neighbor Comes Calling
(Ontario: Paideia Press, 1985), 40.

5
Within a couple of years
Van Galen Last, 198.

5
“tight network of identification and movement controls”
Hilberg, 371.

5
only a few dozen Jews
B. A. Sijes, “Several Observations Concerning the Position of the Jews in Occupied Holland during World War II,” in
Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust
, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1977), 536.

6
on the board of this and another major Jewish organization
The Committee for Jewish Special Interests (1933) and the Jewish Coordination Committee (Fall 1940). See Jozeph Michman, “Historioraphy of the Jews in the Netherlands,” in
Dutch Jewish History: Proceedings of the Symposium on the History of the Jews in the Netherlands,
November 28–December 3, 1982
, ed. Jozeph Michman and Tirtsah Levie (Jerusalem: Tel-Aviv University, 1984), 26–27.

7
After being marched in columns
Moore, 71–72.

7
“For the first time, the Germans had shown”
Ibid.

7
18,000 workers were absent
Hilberg, 373.

7
that cut through the isolation
Ibid.56.

8
Nevertheless, about 1,400 Jews
de Jong, 20.

9
nearly nine million people
Ibid., 30.

9
functioned parallel to other groups
In the uniquely pillared Dutch system of
verzuiling
or “vertical integration,” religious groups choose to remain apart with separate but equal status, while maintaining their own political representation. Out of this, “integrated subcultures (
zuilen
) emerged that cut across class lines, uniting disparate economic and social groups on the basis of their religious affiliation.” See Moore, 23, 161.

10
enthusiastic quorum of fifteen
Hannah Arendt,
Eichmann in Jerusalem
(New York: Bantam, 1965).

10
“beyond the belief and comprehension”
de Jong, 6–7.

10
“apparatus of total destruction”
Martin Gilbert,
The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985), 274.

10
One indication of this
Hilberg, 407.

11
a kind of Nordic-Germanic people
Christopher R. Browning, conversation with the author, April 5, 2002.

11
Dutch civil servants . . . Westerbork.
Paraphrased from Elma Verhey, “Anne Frank and the Dutch Myth,” in
Anne Frank in Historical
Perspective
, ed. Alex Grobman and Joel Fishman (Los Angeles: Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, 1995), 24.

11
Police Inspector Schreuder
Personal correspondence with Dr. Maurice van der Pol of Newton, Massachusetts, whose life was saved as a result of one of Schreuder’s tip-offs, 30 May 2002.

11
some donned homemade stars
Martin Gilbert,
The Holocaust: A History
of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War
(New York: H olt, Rinehart a nd Winston, 1985), 283.

12
70,000 different issues
de Jong, 46.

12
“The blindness of the Jews”
Elie Wiesel and Philippe-Michäel de Saint-Cheron,
Evil and Exile
, trans. Jon Rothschild (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990).

12
“set off for the streets”
P. Romijn, 314.

12
To expedite turnover
Elma Verhey, “Anne Frank and the Dutch Myth,” in
Anne Frank in Historical Perspective
, ed. Alex Grobman and Joel Fishman (Los Angeles: Martyrs’ Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, 1995), 24.

12
a two-day raid on Rotterdam
Van Galen Last, 205.

13
more than ten times
B. A. Sijes, “Several Observations Concerning the Position of the Jews in Occupied Holland during World War II,” in
Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust
, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1977), 547. See also Henri A. van der Zee,
The Hunger Winter
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988), 305.

13
“I have now been here”
de Jong, 16.

14
“Tens of thousands of such letters”
Ibid., 17.

14
“When you lie, tell big lies”
Adolf Hitler,
MeinKampf
, trans. James Murphy (London: Hutchinson, 1939), 198–99.

14
As Browning points out
Christopher Browning, conversation with author, 5 April 2002.

15
“was thought to present special problems”
Moore, 171.

16
“Few Jews survived in Holland” Hilberg, 365.

16
more than 4,000 young lives
According to the
Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust
, vol. 3, ed. Israel Gutman, (New York: Macmillan, 1990), 1005, about 4,500 children were hidden in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, and “only a very few were discovered.” Additional children were helped to escape to Switzerland, Israel, Spain, France, and elsewhere. See Moore, 168.

CHAPTER ONE ~ HETTY VOÛTE

19
“the stubborn ounces of my weight”
Bonaro Overstreet,
Hands Laid upon
the Wind
(New York: Norton, 1955), 15.

19
One Führer, One Reich, One Egg
The source of this story is an unpublished interview with Hetty conducted by Bert Jan Flim in 1989, and contained in the archives of Beit Lohamei HaGetaot in Israel. A transcript is available in Hebrew.

21
Once we went to the room of a fellow student
Jan Meulenbelt tells this story himself in
Nieuw Utrechts Dagblad
, March 17, 1955. An English version is included in Flim, 21.

24
my legs were shaking
This detail from Hetty’s interrogation came out in Bert Jan Flim’s unpublished interview with Hetty, contained in the archives of Beit Lohamei HaGetaot in Israel. A transcript is available in Hebrew.

38
nine out of ten of Poland’s 3.3 million Jews
Hilberg,126, 767.

CHAPTER TWO ~ HEILTJE KOOISTRA

42
“It attacks unexpectedly”
De Telegraaf
, 13 December 1944. Available at the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation.

42
“Those who are hungry shout”
Henri A. van der Zee,
The Hunger
Winter
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988), 146.

55
The Spanish Crown sank millions of ducats
G. Parker,
Spain and the
Netherlands
1559–1659 (London, 1979), 185, 188.

56
“If you didn’t have an onderduiker”
Moore, 177.

56
“broke the bloody scepters”
John Calvin,
Calvin Institutes of the Christian
Religion
, ed. John McNeil, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), 669.

56
Indeed, his exhortations
Lawrence Baron,“The Dutchness of the Dutch Rescuers” in
Embracing the Other
, ed. Oliner and Oliner (New York: New York University Press, 1992), 319.

56
though numbering only 8 percent
Moore, 165.

57
700 Catholics
Gordon F. Sander,
The Frank Family That Survived
(London: Hutchinson, 2004), 143. For “500 Protestants” consult the Sijes reference cited next.

57
These Catholics and Protestants
Paraphrased from B. A. Sijes, “Several Observations Concerning the Position of the Jews in Occupied Holland during World War II,” in
Rescue Attempts
during the Holocaust,
ed. Yisrael Gutman and Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1977), 550.

CHAPTER THREE ~ RUT MATTHIJSEN

61
what I had in my suitcase
I have relied in part on Flim’s account of this incident, 40.

61
my stamp collection
Flim, 26.

62
One photo went
This matter of the purpose of the second photo was clarified by Flim, 6.

63
“A cell is only six feet long”
The poem contains seven stanzas, but only five have been included. This non-literal translation is by Mark Klempner and Nino Pereira.

68
Professor Scholten, a jurist
Quoted by Presser, 21.

69
The petition was signed
Ibid.