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The Occupied Garden: A Family Memoir of War-Torn Holland

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"The Occupied Garden" by Kirsten Den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski
Subtitled: "A Family Memoir Of War-torn Holland"
St. Martin's Press, New York 2008

Two granddaughters, decades after the events, worked together to write the history of their grandparents, Gerrit and Cor den Hartog, and the impact of the War. The two writers, working together, were able to capture a more personal history of the effects of the Second World War on a small Dutch family, their forbears.

The story begins with the young Gerrit "flirting" with Cor as he flashes by in his expensive ice skates. He had special skates, long metal blades that locked on to black boots, "... fancier than the wooden tie-on kind". Cor was beautiful and her heavy blue coat "... was lovely with her eyes - blue like cornflowers". That was 1927. The book ends, decades later, with the two writers, the granddaughter s of Gerrit and Cor, looking for a stick, or something, to scrape the moss from the in-ground markers on the graves of Gerrit and Cor.

There is a brief chapter dealing with the combat experiences of Gerrit in the May 1940 debacle when the Dutch Army was routed by superior German forces and by confusion on the part of the Dutch command. Gerrit related how two Dutch forces were firing on each other until a bugle call identified one group as Dutch (and not German). At the nation's surrender, the Dutch gave up their weapons, which was greatly regretted in 1944.

The two writers were fairly even-handed in their descriptions of the German occupation and of the Allied bombing. The bombing went astray and critically wounded two den Hartog boys. Some of the book deals with their later rehabilitation in both the United Kingdom and in Canada.

Towards the end, the gardener, Gerrit, hands out a single potato, one by one, to Dutch citizens who were standing in a long line. The book documents the absolute insensitivity of the German occupiers to the cruelty of permitting young children and women to slowly, slowly, slowly starve to death. This heartlessness should be of no surprise to any student of World War II history, who would know that the overall policy of the German nation was to starve prisoners in concentration camps... places whose names have become curses. After September 1994, those occupied areas of The Netherlands, the Northern provinces, were transformed in all but name into an extra large concentration camp. German troops would jump out of a truck, grab Dutch men, shoot them dead and leave their bodies in a heap on a street corner. Fear was everywhere. People starved on the available rations. As the winter of 1944-1945 progressed, things got worse and the Germans under Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, (1892-1946), still did nothing to help. The neutral Swedes offered to send shiploads of food to occupied Netherlands and the Reichskommissar delayed and delayed. How many people died due to this sin of omission?

For a more scholarly work, you can see "The Dutch Under German Occupation, 1940-1945" by Werner Warmbrunn, Stanford University Press, 1963. Or, take a look at: "The Hunger Winter" by Henri A. van der Zee. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1982.

Fascinating and wonderful. A very interesting and much needed perspective on life during WWII.

This book is written by two sisters whose father and his siblings were born to Dutch parents just before, and during WWII in the Netherlands. It offers a deeply touching account of the family's life during this period of time, from the courtship of the author's grandparents, to their marriage, young family life, invasion of German forces and German occupation of the country, and their struggle to survive these horrifying years, to their eventual emigration to Canada a few years after the war.

The reader is given a glimpse into the Dutch way of life during this period of time, their customs, family life, etc., as well as the history of Holland's WWII war experience, which was shocking to me as an American who knew little about the reality of living through this period of time in a country occupied by enemy forces.

Much is also included about the monarchy of Holland during this period, which is fascinating. The Dutch held their then Queen Wilhelmina in high regard, even though she and her family fled to England and Canada during the war. She continued to be an inspiration to the Dutch people by communicating to them via BBC broadcasts which gave strength to the resistance within Holland and helped her people continue to press for liberation and not succumb to the harsh and often brutal German occupiers.

This book shows the plight of the Dutch people who, as an unarmed citizenry, and as a weak military power, were totally vulnerable to the complete and swift takeover by German forces who literally dropped into their backyards, and took over their government, towns, businesses, and even their very homes! Dutch military was small, unprepared for war and did not have modern weaponry with which to protect its borders and citizens. For these mistakes, they paid dearly and many lives were lost and tragically affected, including those of many Dutch Jews. To me, one of the most glaring lessons of this book and of this period of history, is that a nation of people without access to and ownership of their own personal firearms to protect themselves, their families and their homes, will be victims of those who do. It is a fact of history that is undeniable, yet difficult to accept for those who feel that gun ownership is a bad or wrong thing.

The German Occupation of Holland, and this little town particularly, worsened progressively until people were starving, suffering, and lived in absolute fear with no rights and few freedoms. Yet, they doggedly, as a people, resisted the oppression!

Many of the Dutch people were part of an organized resistance in this long and horrific occupation. The resistance efforts were valiant, persistent and deeply moving, yet also caused much reprisal and revenge-seeking on the part of the Germans. There were many German sympathizers amongst the Dutch population, but by and large, the people did not not buckle to the Nazi's, but instead, passively resisted in many creative and effective ways. Further into the occupation, the resistance grew and became necessarily much more aggressive and violent once they had help from Allied Forces and were funnelled weapons and other supplies through airplane drops into their countryside. Not always knowing who was and was not a sympathizer often complicated daily life.

There is some information about carrier pigeons and their role in the war, which I found fascinating.

Eventually, with the help of Allied forces and after many years of increasing deprivations of basic goods and services, including food, the Dutch people were liberated.

I admire and thank these two sisters for digging deeply into their own family history, as well as the history of Holland (and beyond) to bring together all the parts of this truly amazing story. It is very personal and very authentic. I was left stunned by the horrors of the war, as well as by the courage of these people to press on and make the best life they could for themselves and their growing family (they had their 5th child during the war; the 6th child was stillborn). I was also left wondering what happened to all of these children, greedy for more information about them, their lives and family history, after the family left Holland to start new lives in Canada.

I wanted to read this as I have Dutch friends who lost family members in the Holocaust. The book was well written and showed the every-day perils of living in a neutral nation that was nevertheless ruthlessly occupied.

One Dutch friend who lived through WWII, said to a child who was complaining of being hungry (though always well-fed). "Never. Never speak to me of hunger. You have no idea what hunger is." The depth of their deprivation is unimaginable.

To think that people would ride a bicycle (without tires, just rims) 200 km to find food is unfathomable.

The book was well done and I recommend it to anyone interested in Holland in WWII.

The book I find more compelling is In My Hands, but Irene Opdyke, only because her situation was quite different. Both are "should reads" about the period.