The Lioness of Leiden, Robert Loewen, author
This author has written a novel, portraying the life of his mother-in-law Hetty, based on the stories she told about her experiences during WWII, in Holland. She carried the nightmare of those days with her for her entire life, even though she was one of the brave and Righteous Gentiles who actually did the right thing and resisted Hitler’s efforts. As a teenager, she fought the Nazis, inspired by her boyfriend, Karl, even though in her own home, her father was an enemy of her efforts. She bravely defied him.
Hetty and Karl, university students at the time, were part of a volunteer resistance group that was organized by a group of Communists. Together, if Hitler ever broke the Neutrality Agreement with Holland, the fairly ragtag group would spring into action. As the book progresses, and the reader learns of their effort, and of the effort of other loosely organized resistance groups and partisan groups, that did not particularly trust each other, the challenges of World War II are explored.
The efforts of the Allies to defeat the Axis were long and hard. Although this book largely involves the efforts of the Dutch people, hopefully the reader will be inspired to learn even more about the National Socialist miscreants, the monsters, misfits, thugs, and downtrodden Germans who agreed with the hateful policies of the Nazis and either happily or fearfully followed and supported their merciless effort to create the Thousand-Year Reich. The entire world suffered. Resistance movements sprang up in many cities and countries overwhelmed by the German presence, but they needed organization and weapons to fight back. Recruitment of volunteers was difficult since the torture and punishment, if they were caught, had far reaching tentacles. They were endangering and possibly sacrificing, not only themselves, but their friends and family. There would be no way to rescue any of them. If caught, one could not resist giving up information, if captured. The Nazi’s used savage methods of interrogation, including vicious beatings and torture.
As time passed and the danger increased, Hetty somehow grew braver, though she discouraged her own younger brother from joining the movement. She witnessed the deaths of many in her family and in her circle of friends. She witnessed and experienced the destruction that came from both Germany and the Allies, although in that case, it was generally an error of friendly fire. Hetty was helpless to help those ensnared by Hitler’s web, and personally experienced the effects of betrayal that put her in harm’s way.
The novel is a story about subterfuge, capture, imprisonment, escape, survival and the day-to-day experiences of those who tried to fight Hitler, the innocent and the guilty, forced to endure the trauma of those times. The facts in the novel about the war, cannot be disputed. They should suck the reader in with the easy-to-read narrative and the lighter touch of the love stories, at times, to soften the horrors of illustrated. Through it all, normal human emotions survived and endured.
I learned about things I never knew before, about the practice, in a men’s penal camp of making prisoners crawl all the time, to simulate the life of a dog, to never stand upright or speak, but to bark like dogs as their captors laughed at their suffering. These were not only Concentration Camps that imprisoned Jews. There were so many other prisoners held captive, beaten, tortured and starved by the Germans. I learned more about the barbarism of the dysfunctional people who became Hitler’s supporters. They were unhappy, angry human beings without a conscience. Their power was directed at anyone they chose to intimidate. I learned more about that righteous Gentile who put their own lives and that of their family, in danger, to save a soldier, a Jew, a child, or anyone else fleeing Hitler’s minions. I learned of so much grief and loss, again and again, but I also learned that through most of it, people retained hope. The important thing is that I did learn more after reading this novel and did do further research into a time “that will live in infamy”. The book shows the barbaric behavior of Nazis, Gentiles and Jews, etc., coupled with the righteous who fought the heinous behavior. In today’s world, I am often forced to wonder if it could happen again. Has anything changed after so many decades have passed? Have humans learned to be less evil?
There are so many non-fiction books that are available to further inform the readers, and hopefully the reader will educate themselves and be armed with the knowledge to prevent further instances of man’s inhumanity to man. At times, the book feels like it was written for a young adult audience, with its emphasis on young love and romance, but if that is what it takes to broaden the audience, that is great. It is also written for the wider adult audience, as well. The story is compelling.