March 31, 2008
A Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivor now living in California, Van Beek recalls her harrowing experiences at the mercy of the Nazis. In 1939, fearing a German invasion of Holland, the 18-year-old Van Beek left her Rotterdam family for Argentina with her German-Jewish boyfriend, Felix. But German mines sank their ship; seriously injured, they recuperated in England, but were refused permanent residency there and arrived back in Holland right before the Germans. In the panic of the invasion, Van Beek's aunt and her family attempted suicide, with one cousin succeeding. Anti-Jewish pogroms and deportations escalated, and in 1942 Van Beek, now living with her mother's family in the Dutch town of Amersfoort, received a summons to report to a German work camp. A chance meeting with an altruistic Resistance member resulted in hiding places for the couple and some family members. But Van Beek's mother was deported to Westerbork and a poignant letter that she threw from the train headed to Auschwitz, where she was murdered, managed to reach Van Beek. Although the author's rudimentary writing skills hinder her memoir, this has intrinsic value as a Holocaust survivor testimony.
January 7, 2008
A Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivor now living in California, Van Beek recalls her harrowing experiences at the mercy of the Nazis. In 1939, fearing a German invasion of Holland, the 18-year-old Van Beek left her Rotterdam family for Argentina with her German-Jewish boyfriend, Felix. But German mines sank their ship; seriously injured, they recuperated in England, but were refused permanent residency there and arrived back in Holland right before the Germans. In the panic of the invasion, Van Beek's aunt and her family attempted suicide, with one cousin succeeding. Anti-Jewish pogroms and deportations escalated, and in 1942 Van Beek, now living with her mother's family in the Dutch town of Amersfoort, received a summons to report to a German work camp. A chance meeting with an altruistic Resistance member resulted in hiding places for the couple and some family members. But Van Beek's mother was deported to Westerbork and a poignant letter that she threw from the train headed to Auschwitz, where she was murdered, managed to reach Van Beek. Although the author's rudimentary writing skills hinder her memoir, this has intrinsic value as a Holocaust survivor testimony.
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 15, 2007
Van Beek, whose mother and other family members were killed in the Holocaust, immigrated to the U.S. from the Netherlands in 1948. She brought with her a suitcase filled with almost 1,000 documents, diaries, newspaper clippings, and photographs that she had saved during World War II and the Holocaust. The author had hidden them in metal boxes, which were buried in the ground. Van Beek began writing this manuscript 30 years ago. Initially published in her native country, it chronicles the familys early years in the small town where she met her future husband, and their flight from the Netherlands aboard a passenger ship. The vessel was sunk by two German mines. They were injured but survived and were able to fly back to the Netherlands. Van Beek also writes of the German destruction of Europes Jews, of deportations, persecution, years in hiding, and working for the Resistance. A vivid story of the Holocaust and its few survivors.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)