The Cut out Girl

`Without families you don’t get stories.’

This is without doubt one of the most fascinating books I have read –a real page turner. Its author, Bart van Es, was born in the Netherlands. At a young age he was taken to Britain where he grew up, eventually becoming an Oxford University professor of English literature. At some stage he finds out his grandparents, Jans and Henk van Es had sheltered Jewish girls during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. This leads him to meet with Hesseline (Lien for short). By then Lien is in her 80s.  The Netherlands has a history of being a favoured country for people escaping conflict. At the time of the Nazi occupation an estimated 18,000 Jewish people were living in The Hague. Of those 2000 survived. Across the Netherlands 104,000 Dutch Jews, many of them children, died during WW2. Lien’s parents had sent their daughter to a safe shelter just a month before they were themselves arrested and sent to their deaths in Auschwitz.

 Bart van Es magnificently weaves a story of Lien’s war years and how they rebound on her adult life. She has been cut out of her own family and, later, through curious misunderstandings, the van Es family. At one stage she lived with a family where she was treated as a servant and suffered sexual abuse. The story brilliantly unfolds with the author visiting locations relevant to Lien’s life. This way the reader gets an insight into Dutch culture. This I found fascinating having cycled through much of the Netherlands in 2008 as a prelude to a Scandinavian bicycle tour. I have vivid memories of visiting the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam.

I had been introduced to Dutch people who had, post WW2, immigrated to New Zealand.  We didn’t like them. They worked hard and showed us up. I recall, as a teenager, having a Dutch boss. We unfairly called him a ``Dutch bastard.’’ He was off side for insisting we youngsters did the day’s work for the day’s pay. And he set a good example. I should have been more charitable, having been fascinated by the history of Dutchman, Abel Tasman, the first European to discover my country –New Zealand. 

View overlooking Tasman Bay to Golden Bay where Dutch navigator, Abel Tasman made his New Zealand landfall in December 1642

The cycle tour in the Netherlands introduced us to some great, kind, people. I recall, when lost, having asked a couple for directions. We were invited to their nearby home for coffee. We kept in touch for many years. On returning to New Zealand I attempted to track down my former Dutch ``bastard’’ boss. Regrettably, I was not successful. He had a large garden from which he frequently brought us lettuces.

The Cut out girl thus rekindled agreeable memories. As a writer myself, I am partial to ``people’’ stories. For many years I enjoyed penning a ``I remember when’’ series for Latitude magazine. Van ES writing about his distant relatives and a Jewish girl they sheltered transplants ``people’’ writing into a whole new realm. The Cut out Girl is a `must read’ especially at a time when, in many countries, white supremacy and anti-Antisemitism are dangerously on the rise, recklessly spurred on by too many rogue world leaders.