A must-read for occupied Amsterdam during World War II
- Book: War and Love
- Location: Auschwitz/Birkenau, Chrastava, Westerbork
- Author: Melanie Martin
This book is about the wartime experiences of the author’s Dutch family. A very compelling read about the treatment of the Jewish population of the Netherlands – who nearly all died in concentration camps – and the day-to-day life of Amsterdam under Nazi occupation. Melanie Martin has put together extensive, detailed research about her family, the Granaats, with first-hand witness testimony from family members. Many photographs and diagrams help bring the story to life.
The family had lived in Amsterdam for many generations. In 1940, Holland was occupied by the Nazis and suddenly they found there were many Nazi sympathisers among neighbours they had known for years. Daily life became more and more restrictive for Jewish people, and they could hardly realise what was happening to them – until it was too late. Melanie’s grandmother, who was English, set about proving her nationality of origin, and enabled most of her family to survive though not without terrible privations and traumas.
The book is almost a companion to “The Diary of Anne Frank”, which also took place in Amsterdam. It provides some details about Anne’s history between her arrest and her death from typhus seven months later in Bergen-Belsen. This was of additional interest for me in this fascinating book.
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