Customer Reviews

Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death (illustrated)

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This is a gripping, moving book which must be read by descendants of Holocaust sufferers in order to fully appreciate what their relatives experienced. My parents were also in hiding in Rotterdam, but were never able to describe their ordeal with the graphic detail that Ms. Van Beek uses. While it is often unpleasant reading, the book enlightened me as to the utter dehumanization that my parents and others like them were subjected to. "Anne Frank" was written through the eyes of a young girl who was probably spared many of the gory details her parents did not want her to know. "Flory" provides us with the unabridged version. The pictures and the documents Ms. Van Beek was able to save and reproduce help to paint a fuller picture. One can only thank Ms. Van Beek for having the courage to share her experiences with those who have the need to know.

In writing this, I want to say that this review is likely to be somewhat biased, as I was born in 1940 in Holland and spent the most impressionable years of my childhood in very similar circumstances as Flory did. I loved this book because it gave me some information about the realities of living under horrific circumstances, something which my parents never, ever talked about. The courage and honor described by Flory about the people who hid them for such a long period of time was very moving. She mentions in the book that one is forever changed by those kind of experiences and this is so true. It is probably one of the best accounts I have ever read of the sufferings, the hunger and the emotional stress of a people dominated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

A Jewish woman credits her survival as a Dutch teenager during
the Holocaust to small miracles and human kindness, which she
chronicled in this deeply personal book.
The saga got only modest attention when published in 1998 and
sold 3,000 copies, but now the story by Flory A. Van Beek is getting
international buzz, with word that ABC and actor-director Mel Gibson's
production company are eyeing it for a miniseries in 2007. Now, the 81-year-old retired legal secretary says, "I am happy that
someone is interested in my book as TV special, because it keeps the story of the
Holocaust alive."

Read the book and weep. An important addition to the literature of that time. Oich!