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Passing On The Comfort : The War, The Quilts, and the Women Who Made a Difference

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The authors of this endearing book come from two different worlds and generations. An is a native of Holland, married to a Mennonite pastor for more than sixty years. Lynn is from Minnesota, now living and working in Amsterdam. They meet through fate and these amazing women gradually share their stories. Passing on the Comfort takes us back through time to an era of quiet courage, when an oppressed people found fleeting moments of warmth and comfort wrapped in quilts provided them by strangers. It seems a simple premise, but this story blossoms through the wonder of these quilts and the
skillful weaving of two lives.

An is 23 in 1944, an inexperienced girl working with the Dutch Resistance during World War Two. The Nazi Occupation of her homeland changes life for everyone. Families are separated. Food, once so abundant, is scarce. Collaborators who were previously friends or neighbors lurk in every town and village. When An marries Herman, a Mennonite pastor, their
home becomes a way station for starving children, Jews fleeing for their lives, and vermin infested Resistance fighters. Throughout the Occupation and after the war, the Mennonite Central Committee of North America provides food, personal items, clothing, and quilts to the people of Holland. An shares this history of wartime Occupation simply. The telling is poignant and powerful.

In 1972 a youthful Lynn meets her future husband in Holland
while searching for meaning in a troubled world. She's a peace activist befriended by a group of Palestinian men and European women. Among those men is Avo. Lynn finds love and a new home in Amsterdam. On a trip in 1980, Lynn meets An and sees her collection of quilts received during the war. As their friendship grows through correspondence, Lynn asks to show
the quilts at her bookstore.

This story is a fascinating view of history, a view few readers will remember. Throughout millennia, the Dutch have helped oppressed countries without fanfare. They helped because they could. In World War Two that help was returned to them during the Occupation in many great and small ways. It's through the quilts that An preserves her memories of the war years. Worn by time and use, family quilts donated by the women who made
them, their faded beauty reflects history and represents generosity at its finest. They bear silent witness to a place and time we should not forget.

Nineteen quilts are featured in this beautiful book, reproduced in vibrant color on glossy pages. Everything about this book is beautiful, in fact, from the women who wrote it to the words they wrote to the quilts they both hold dear. Mennonite readers will take pride in their heritage. History buffs will love every part of this story. To all, of any age,
Passing on the Comfort is highly recommended.

This heartwarming book is primarily set in the Netherlands during and immediately following WWII. It is well written and easy to read the emotional and historical story of An. An, now 82, was a devoted anti-war protestor in today's terms. At that time she was part of the resistance movement who helped the refugees and Jewish people during the terrible years of World War II in Holland. An married a Mennonite minister, Herman, in order to help these survivors as much as humanly possible. She and Herman helped thousands of women, children and men trying to escape by housing them secretly in their attic for months at a time when necessary. They provided food, clothes, bathing, and bedding.

The stories An writes are personal experiences of hers that could not be found anywhere else. I was crying and touched and on the edge of my seat much of the time. It was suspenseful as she talked about her daily work. I learned a great deal more about the European's War experience and I am left humbled by this book. it was so enriching to my life, I highly recommend this book to you. It would be a wonderful gift, especially to older people that may have been more intricately involved with WWII due to their age.

It wasn't until after the War ended that An contacted the Mennonite Relief Organization or Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to provide blankets for the people leaving her church hiding place to re-enter the community and return to their former land. The MCC sent very thin quilts- or rag blankets - as they referred to them, as quilt was not a well known term. They were too thin for sleeping on or under in Holland's climate, so An contacted them again and was sent 50 comforters (tied, not quilted) and quilts. These provided enough for the people with some left over. It is these quilts, utility in description, but graphically beautiful in their visual essence, that are now touring on exhibit and featured in the book.

Nazi occupied Holland found An risking her life caring for war-time refugees, including hiding a Jewish baby in her hand-luggage when on a ferry that draws gunfire -- distracting a German guard at a bridge so a fugitive without a pass can be bicycled across; and at one time stuffing documents under a body lying in state in a room in her home when German soldiers suddenly launch a raid. During those years of occupation, there were groups of women across North America meeting in sewing circles to make quilts for devastated families throughout Europe, doing what they could to provide comfort and courage during an horrific war. Twenty years later Lynn comes to Amsterdam, discovering that the quilts her grandmother, her aunts, and other older women in her childhood church had made for war ravaged families in Holland still survived and warmly regarded. Lynn goes searching for the owners of 19 of these work-worn these quilts and their individual stories. This is how she encounters An with whom she collaborates to tell these stories enhanced with war time photos revealing these quilts to be more than just needlecraft treasures from a desperate yesteryear, but enduring testaments that will inspire today's needlecrafters not to turn away from helping others with the fruits of their own handmade labors. Passing On The Comfort: The War, The Quilts, And The Women Who Made A Difference should be read by every needlecrafter in every generation.

Passing on the Comfort; The War, The Quilts, and the Women Who Made a
Difference
By An Keuning-Tichelaar and Lynn Kaplanian-Buller

Just like the quilts pictured throughout this book, this story brings together pieces from two continents, two wars, two generations, and two women from very different backgrounds. An, a Dutch Mennonite woman, who lived through World War II as a pastor's wife, was dedicated to the work of providing shelter, food and strength to the fugitives, children and refugees who came her way. Lynn, whose roots in a Mennonite community in Minnesota shaped her experience of the Vietnam War, eventually immigrated to Amsterdam where she married Avo, a Palestinian man, and began to raise a family. An's stories of everyday resistance are told interspersed with connecting stories from Lynn and prints of the quilts. Both women faced challenging situations for which they at times felt inadequate. Both found strength in their faith.

The relationship between An and Lynn formed out of a connection to the MCC quilts donated to the Dutch Mennonites during the years of World War II. Lynn, with her memories of sewing circles and quilting societies, was surprised to find this same kind of quilt while staying as a guest at a house in the Netherlands. Inspired by these memories, Lynn found the owner of the quilts, An, who had memories of the comfort the quilts brought her and other Dutch people during the war. Together, the two women began the long journey of creating this book and traveling exhibit.

Grief caused by the realities of past and present wars creates places of tender ache that when carried over decades continue to connect us with the pain of military violence on any and every continent. As we work with the history that connects us as women and as Anabaptists, stories such as this help us to understand a shared history with people around the world and invite us as peacemakers to find comfort today and hope for the future.

Abigail and Lois Nafziger
June 2005

Quiltmakers will enjoy this bit of quilting history. Pictures of quilts are very "washed out" colorwise, but I suppose I'd be a little washed out if I'd been around since the 1940s also.

Excellent book . . .very meaningful . . .hard to put down!

Not all that interesting. I thought there would be more to the story