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Girl With The Blue Coat
Girl With The Blue Coat
Girl With The Blue Coat
The Netherlands
WWII
The
Canada
Netherlands
Amsterdam
Den Haag
0 40
40 kilometers
WWII 1939-1945
Despite the fact that when war broke out, The Netherlands declared itself neutral,
Adolph Hitler ordered its invasion anyway, without first making a Declaration of War.
German invasion of The Netherlands – May, 1940
The Dutch Coast was critical for the German Army to launch air attacks against
Britain.
• The Dutch government was totally unprepared
• They had outdated equipment and no real
chance of succeeding in defending the country
• Although the Germans met with fierce
resistance from the Dutch, the Dutch
defenders had enormous causalities.
• It was quickly clear that the British and
French armies would be unable to reach and
defend The Netherlands in time.
The City of Rotterdam after the German
bombing in May, 1940 • The German army was nervous about sending
in troops to Rotterdam. Instead they
demanded surrender and when that was
rejected they bombed the city entirely.
• During the so-called “Rotterdam Blitz,” between
800 and 900 Dutch civilians were killed
• 25,000 homes were destroyed
• The bombers' target was the civilian areas of
Rotterdam, rather than the town's defenses.
• Under pressure from local officials, the garrison
commander then surrendered the city and his
10,000 men on the evening of May 14, 1940
• The Germans warned that if the entire country
did not surrender, they would do the same to
other Dutch cities, including Utrecht.
• During the four-day campaign, about 2,300 Dutch
soldiers were killed
• 7,000 soldiers were wounded
• Over 3,000 Dutch civilians died.
• The invading German army lost 2,200 men, with
7,000 wounded.
• In addition, 1,300 German soldiers captured by the
Dutch during the campaign, many around The
Hague
• They were shipped to Britain and remained
Prisoners of War for the rest of the war.
• All political parties were immediately outlawed in
The Netherlands
• The only party permitted to continue was a pro-
Nazi Dutch party called the Dutch National
Socialist Party (NSB)
• The long term goal of the Nazi was to completely
incorporate The Netherlands into a part of the
larger Greater Germanic Reich
• Hitler thought very highly of the Dutch people
because he believed that they were fellow
members of the Aryan, “Master Race.”
• Shortly after it was established, the
military regime began to persecute the
Jews of the Netherlands.
• At first, there were no deportations
• Only small measures were taken
against the Jews. This included
things like wearing the identify Star of
David; restrictions on movement and
confiscation of bank accounts.
• In February 1941, the Nazis deported
a small group of Dutch Jews to a
Concentration Camp
• The Dutch reacted with a nationwide protest
against the deportations
• This was unique in the history of Nazi-occupied
Europe.
• Although the strike did not accomplish much—
its leaders were executed—it was an initial
setback for the Germans who had expected to be
able to easily deport the Jews and to win over
the Dutch to the Nazi cause.[
• Before the strike, the Nazis had installed a
Jewish Council.
• This was a board of Jewish leaders.
• The Jewish Council ultimately served as an instrument for organising the
identification and deportation of Jews more efficiently;
• the Jews on the council were told and convinced they were helping the Jews.
• In May 1942, Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David badges.
• Around the same time the Catholic Church of the Netherlands publicly condemned
the government's action in a letter read at all Sunday parish services.
• As a result, the Nazi government treated the Dutch more harshly
• Later in the war, Catholic priests were punished for their defence of the Jewish people
and were deported to concentration camps.
Jewish refugee children smuggled aboard Danish fishing
boats bound for Sweden, 1943. (US Holocaust Memorial
Museum)
• Johan van Hulst, a former Dutch senator and teacher renowned for his
efforts to save hundreds of Jewish children during the Holocaust, died
March 22 at the age of 107, the Dutch Senate announced this week.
• As principal of the Reformed Teachers Training College, van Hulst found
himself at the center of a growing operation to smuggle Jewish children
out of Amsterdam to protect them from Nazi persecution during the
Second World War.
• The college garden bordered that of a Jewish day-care center, from which
hundreds of Jewish children were passed over the garden fence to be
temporarily hidden by van Hulst before being collected by members of a
children's rescue organization and smuggled to safety.
• "Try to imagine 80, 90, perhaps 70 or 100 children standing there, and you
have to decide which children to take with you.... That was the most
Johan van Hulst – Teacher
Dutch Holocaust Hero difficult day of my life," he remembered of the period in 1943 when the
Jewish day-care center was due to be cleared out.
"You realize that you cannot possibly take all the children with you.
You know for a fact that the children you leave behind are going to
die. I took twelve with me. Later on I asked myself: 'Why not
thirteen?'“ Johan van Hulst
• Across the road from Van Hulst's school was the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a former theatre seized
by the Nazis in 1941 to be used as a deportation centre.
• While the records of those detained there are no longer available, historians believe about 46,000
people were deported from the old theatre over about 18 months up to the end of 1943.
• Most ended up at concentration camps in Westerbork in the Netherlands, or Auschwitz and Sobibor
in occupied Poland.
• The deportation centre's administrator was a German-Jewish man named Walter Süskind, entrusted to run the
centre by Nazis who disregarded his Jewish heritage because of his SS links.
• Soon after starting his work there however, he noticed that it was easy to help people escape. He falsified
arrival numbers, claiming for example that 60 people instead of 75 had arrived on a particular day, and then
letting 15 people escape.
• His task became easier when, in early 1943, the Nazis took over a crèche across the road from the theatre
- and next door to Van Hulst's school - to place Jewish children before deporting them to
concentration camps.
• Süskind joined forces with the head of the crèche, Henriëtte Pimentel, sneaking children to safety when a
tram passed in front of the crèche.
• It was only when Pimentel persuaded Van Hulst to join them that their rescue efforts picked up speed.
• Their buildings were separated at the back by a hedge. The crèche's nurses would pass children over the
hedge to Van Hulst, who would in turn pass them on to Resistance groups who would help hide them.
• None of the escapees - whose departures were all agreed by
their parents - had been registered as new arrivals, so their
disappearances were not spotted.
• Only a handful were spirited away at a time - enough not to
arouse suspicion. But helping some, while knowing others
could not be spared, proved painful to the rescuers.
The honour is given to non-Jews who demonstrated extraordinary courage during the Holocaust.
Several members of the family were also in attendance for the presentation.
Kalkman’s grandparents Rev. Dirk Pieter Kalkman and Klassje Kalkman concealed a Jewish woman –
Catharina Six tot Oeterleek-Kuijper – from 1943-45 in their home in Moordrecht, Netherlands.
This is the home in the Netherlands of
Dirk and Klassje Kalkman, where they
hid a Jewish woman during the Second
World War.
Oeterleek-Kuijper was a widow whose life was in danger –
most of her family members had died in concentration
camps – and a fellow reverend asked the Kalkmans to
take her in.
They did so despite great danger to themselves – in Nazi-
occupied Europe, the risk of punishment was high to
those who helped Jews.
The Kalkmans, who had five children, presented
Oeterleek-Kuijper to the outside world as an aunt, calling
her Tanta Ina.
Towards the end of the war, the Germans were short on
people to work in factories and other places, and they
would have roundups to look for young men who could be
taken to Germany to work. Dirk and Klassje Kalkman are shown here
with their children (from left) Jannie, Frouk,
During these roundups, they also looked for Jews in
Wim, Klari and Toos.
hiding and Dutch resistance workers.
A harrowing experience for the family took place during one of these roundups, when the Kalkmans had
two boys around the age of 16 hidden beneath the floorboards of their home and Tanta Ina sitting with
the rest of the family on the couch.
Soldiers stood above the trap door where the young men were hidden as they questioned the family.
One of the Kalkmans’ daughters was ill from diphtheria at the time and this prompted the soldiers to
hasten their search of the home and of the family’s documents. They left without discovering anyone.
Oeterleek-Kuijper went on to live into her 90s in the Netherlands, passing away in 1978. Klassje died in
1959, followed by Dirk 10 years later. They remained in the Netherlands, as did all four of their
daughters, two of whom are now deceased.
Their only son, Wim – Peter Kalkman’s dad – moved to Toronto in the 1950s and later Vancouver. He
died in 2013, but had begun the process of having his parents recognized for their bravery.
Peter, a radiologist who has lived in Abbotsford for 25 years and has four sons with his wife Bonnie,
continued the process and worked with researchers in the Netherlands to find proof of the family’s
history.
This resulted in a 111-page document being submitted in 2017 as a nomination for the award.
The Righteous Among the Nations is considered one of the most prestigious honours granted by the
State of Israel.
• Germany was particularly effective in deporting and killing Jews
during its occupation of the Netherlands during WWII
• Of the 140,000 Jews in 1941, (including both Dutch Jews and
other Jews who had fled to the Netherlands for safety earlier in
the war), about 27% survived the war.
• the survival rate was much smaller in the Netherlands than in
the other western European countries
• the German occupiers in the Netherlands were particularly
vigorous in comparison to other occupied countries.
• The Netherlands had always included religion in its national
records
• This made it much more difficult for Jews to mask their ethnic
and religious identity.
• Not all Dutch offered active or passive
resistance against the German occupation.
• Some Dutch men and women chose or were
forced to collaborate with the German regime or
joined the German army
• Others were actively involved in capturing
hiding Jews for a price and delivering them to
the German occupiers.
• It is estimated that between 8 000 to 9 000
Dutch Jews were identified by Dutch pro-Nazi
and were ultimately sent to their death in the
German Concentration Camps
• The Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation during World War II provided key
support to Allied forces beginning in 1944 and through the liberation of the country.
• Discovery by the Germans of involvement in the resistance meant an immediate death
sentence.
• The country's terrain, lack of wilderness and dense population made it difficult to
conceal any illicit activities
• Because the Netherlands were bordered by German-controlled territory, there was
virtually no escape route, except by sea.
• Small groups had absolutely no links to other so that if caught, the consequences
would be minimalized.
• These groups produced forged ration cards, printed counterfeit money, collected
intelligence, published underground resistance newspapers, sabotaged phone lines
and railways, prepared maps, and distributed food and goods.
• After the surrender of The Netherlands, civilians were
drafter for the labour force.
• Every man between 18 and 45 was forced to work in
German factories
• These factories were bombed regularly by the western
Allies.
• Those who refused were forced into hiding.
• As food and many other goods were taken out of the
Netherlands, rationing increased (with ration books).
• At times, the resistance would raid distribution centres to
obtain ration cards to be distributed to those in hiding.
• For the resistance to succeed, it was sometimes necessary
for its members to pretend to collaborate with the
Germans.
• After the war, this led to difficulties for those who
pretended to collaborate when they could not prove they
had been in the resistance — something that was difficult
because it was in the nature of the job to keep it a secret.
• After attempting to defend itself, one day after
the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch,
dreadfully outnumbered and with no chance
of defending itself against the German army,
surrendered.
• The Dutch Government and Royal Family fled
to England for safety
• The Netherlands remained under German
occupation until the defeat of Germany in
1945
• Active resistance was carried out by a minority, which grew in the course of the
occupation.
• The occupiers deported the majority of the country’s Jewish citizens to Nazi
concentration camps.
• about 70% of the country's Jewish population were killed during the conflict, a
much higher percentage than comparable countries, like Belgium and France.
• Uniquely within all German occupied areas, the city of Amsterdam actively
organized protests against the persecution of its Jewish citizens.
Hannie Schaft, “ The Girl
with the Red Hair”
Dutch Resistance Fighter
• One of the riskiest activities was hiding and sheltering refugees and enemies of
the Nazi regime, Jewish families like the family of Anne Frank, underground
operatives, draft-age Dutch, and others who were targeted by the Nazi.
• These people were known as onderduikers
Dutch Jewish Prisoners at Buchenwald
Concentration Camp.
THE SHOES OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
Setting of Girl in the Blue Coat: Amsterdam, 1943
Critique
She is a debut author in the sense that this is her first novel, but this wonderful book does not read
like a debut. It is meticulously researched and taut with suspense, mystery and romance. GIRL IN
THE BLUE COAT is such a sad and heartbreaking book, but it reads like an action-mystery-romance
novel. I do not know how Hesse did it, especially after writing only the facts for so many years. The
best thing I can say about this book is how gorgeous the writing is. Each word seems carefully
picked, plucked and plotted specifically for the story. I also loved the characters and how flawed they
were. They were not heroes or revolutionaries or anything of the sort. They were teenagers trying to
find a way to live in a war-ravaged country.
Likes/Dislikes
While I loved the characters, I also think there were too many of them. I would frequently confuse one
character with another and have to go back and review what exactly was going on --- though that was not
too bad of a chore, especially since I loved the writing so much. In addition to there being too many
characters, I have to say that I did not like Hanneke that much. I knew why she wanted to find and rescue
the Jewish teenager, but I just didn’t believe her motives. Unfortunately, I was not convinced that she
really cared whether this girl lived or died, but maybe that was the point. Hanneke was obsessed with the
idea of saving someone and redeeming herself, but not as crazy about the actual act of doing it. Either
way, I found that Hanneke could have had a little more depth and development.
Besides the characters, there was only one other flaw I found in this book: I could predict everything
that was going to happen. Usually, I do not mind knowing or predicting events in a story because,
honestly, it makes me feel pretty smart when I do. But in a book like this, with so much at stake and
such a tense setting, I did not like how predictable it was. In a way, it took away from the storytelling. I
did appreciate Hesse’s twists and turns throughout the story, but I saw them all coming, so they did
not have the intended effect.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Overall, I found GIRL IN THE BLUE COAT to be a vitally important story about Amsterdam, teenagers, and
the resistance during World War II. I found myself relating to these teenagers that were living in such a
different time than I am in now, which is a feat in on itself. GIRL IN THE BLUE COAT is a story about a young
girl’s fight for redemption, freedom and friendship in the midst of a terrible war, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys’s wonderfully researched young adult historical fiction novels and THE
DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.
On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or
kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person--a Jewish teenager Mrs.
Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing
to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that
lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her
to take desperate action.
Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary
novel about bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.