But she couldn’t, she wouldn’t. She would remember those years, every good and bad and painful and sad and beautiful thing that had happened to her. She would remember it, and she would remember all the people she had loved and lost, and Leo and Sara and Mrs P and Marcus, oh, Marcus. She would remember everybody, she would do that for them.
A Calendar of the Occupation
1940
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May 10 - The Wehrmacht invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France
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May 13 - Queen Wilhelmina leaves the country, oil refineries in Amsterdam blown-up, heavy fighting around Rotterdam
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May 14 - The Luftwaffe bombs Rotterdam and threatens other cities
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May 15 - The Netherlands capitulate
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May 16 - Censorship of the press begins
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May 29 - Seyss-Inquart becomes top German authority
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June 1 - Coffee and tea rationed
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June 15 - Bread and flour rationed
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August 12 - Textile products rationed
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September 14 - Meat rationed
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October 1 - Introduction of ID cards for everyone over 15
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October 3 - Signs barring Jews from restaurants and cafés displayed
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October 17 - Introduction of special ID cards for Jews
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November 15 - Gas and electricity rationed
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November 23 - Jewish civil servants and professors fired
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November 27 - Delft College and Leiden University closed after the students strike
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1941
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January 9 - Jews forbidden to attend theaters and cinemas
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February 9 - Dutch Nazis cause riots in Jewish Quarter, one Nazi killed
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February 10 - Underground newspaper Het Parool appears
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February 12 - Jewish Council formed
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February 17 - Steelworkers strike
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February 19 - NSB and Jewish combat teams fight in Koco ice cream parlor
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February 22-23 - First round-up of Amsterdam Jews, 400 arrested
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February 25 - Start of the national strike
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April 19 - Milk rationed
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April 26 - Potatoes rationed
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June 4 - Jews barred from beaches and parks
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June 11 - Second round up of Amsterdam Jews
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June 22 - Mass arrest of Dutch communists, Germans invade the Soviet Union
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July 5 - Dutch political parties disbanded
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August 8 - Jews ordered to transfer all their money to a German-controlled bank
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August 11 - Jewish businesses taken over by non-Jews, real estate confiscated
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August 29 - Jewish children banned from public school
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December 17 - Reformed churches protest labor conscription
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1942
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January 17 - Jews in Zaandam moved to Amsterdam ghetto
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February 28 - Weapons dropped for the resistance confiscated by the Germans
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April 20 - Beaches off-limits for all civilians
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April 29 - Jews ordered to wear the yellow star
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May 3 - 460 prominent Dutchmen taken hostage
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May 17 - Dutch SS pledge allegiance to Hitler
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June 13 - First deportation of Jews from Westerbork to concentration camps
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June 30 - Curfew for Jews 8 pm to 6 am, forbidden to leave their houses
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July 11 - Dutch churches protest deportation of Jews
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July 13 - 800 more prominent Dutchmen arrested
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July 14 - Large-scale round-up of Jews aged 15-40
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July 19 - Germans commandeer bicycles
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October 17 - Hostages executed to punish the resistance
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December 10 - Mussert visits Hitler and is appointed Leader of the Dutch People
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1943
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February 6 - Round up of students, universities closed
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February 10 - All Jewish orphans deported to Germany
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February 17 - Churches send protest letter to Seyss-Inquart
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March 22 - Work week lengthened to 54 hours
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March 24 - Dutch physicians strike
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March 27 - Raid on registry in Amsterdam
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April 10 - 85% of Dutch students refuse to pledge loyalty to Nazis
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April 30 - Countrywide strike, Germans execute over 200 strikers
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May 5 - Over 3,000 students sent to Germany
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May 6 - All men aged 18-35 ordered to report for work in Germany
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May 13 - Order that all radios be turned in
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May 19 - Churches protest order to sterilize Jews married to non-Jews
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June 20 - Large-scale razzia in Amsterdam, 5,700 Jews arrested
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June 26 - Hundreds of physicians arrested
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August 25 - Work week extended to 72 hours
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September 27 - Het Parool reveals existence of gas chambers in concentration camps
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September 29 - Last round-up of Jews, 10,000 deported, including the Jewish Council
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1944
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February 14 - Himmler visits Holland, more executions take place
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April 1 - Black market price of cooking fat ƒ64 for one kilo
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May 16 - Round up of Roma and Sinti
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September 3 - Prince Bernhard appointed commander of Dutch forces
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September 5 - Mad Tuesday, hundreds of NSB-ers and Germans leave Amsterdam
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September 12 - Americans cross Dutch-Belgian border
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September 13 - Westerbork prisoners sent to Auschwitz
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September 17 - Operation Market Garden, Dutch railway strike
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October 26 - No gas or electricity
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December 1 - Seyss-Inquart allows food distribution via river barges to starving cities
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December 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes
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December 24 - German mobilization of men to build defenses on beaches
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December - No coal or wood for fires, people beg for food at farms
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1945
* * *
January 1-17 - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes
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March 7 - Allies cross the Rhine River
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May 7 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces
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May 8 - VE Day: Victory in Europe
About the Author
* * *
Born in the US in 1927, I've lived in ‘interesting times’, tho
se years when momentous dislocations occur in people’s lives: the Depression in the ’30s, World War 2, the Shoah and the Vietnam tragedy. Yet nothing life-challenging has happened to me: I've always been on the right side of the Atlantic.
In 1957, I left San Francisco with my newly-naturalized German-born husband for a two-month honeymoon in Europe, where he was offered a wonderful job, and we’ve lived here ever since. His work brought us to The Netherlands in 1971, and I've lived in Amsterdam since 1982.
Between 1977 and 2007, I founded and managed a private Dutch high school and then a private college, the first in The Netherlands to offer an American-style humanities program. Teaching writing appeased a frustrated wish to write full-time until, in 2007, 79 years old, I retired and said, 'It's now or never!'
In the past eleven years, I've written four rhymed picture books, three novels for early readers, a memoir of my Polish-Jewish ancestors and my husband’s Judenfrei German family, a history of England and the literature it inspired, and four novels. This one, my first, was inspired by my realizing that my Dutch students knew almost nothing about a physically and morally challenging part of their country’s recent past.
I wanted the book to be something young readers could identify with, girls could, I thought, and that it be easy to read. There’s lots of dialogue, but there’s also lots of information woven into the story. That sounds as if it's more history than fiction, but I didn't include most of what I learned: I just needed it to be sure that what I imagined could have happened that way. The best compliment I got came from one of the three Dutch women I talked to as part of my research. She asked me, 'How did you know?'
The year it took to research and write The Time Between was a wonderful one. Sure that I would hate retirement, I discovered it was my chance to find out whether I could write The Great American Novel I promised myself and the world in my high school year book. This isn’t it, but it’s the best I could do, and my goodness, ain’t we got fun!
Dear Reader
* * *
I hope you enjoyed my novel.
Reviews are the most powerful tool when it comes to helping authors reach a wide audience, and your honest review will help more readers find my work.
You can make a difference.
* * *
If you enjoyed my work I would really appreciate your review on this novel’s Amazon salespage.
Also by Bryna Hellmann-Gillson
A Few Years More, a memoir
Letters to the Queen
Reading the English
A Happy Man
Bread without Tears
Sarah, Becca and Rosie
The Birds’ Wedding
10,9,8, a counting book
Further Reading
In case you enjoyed reading The Time Between 1940 - 1945, you might be interested in reading some of our other titles. Amsterdam Publishers specializes in WW2 historical fiction and in memoirs written by Holocaust survivors. Please note: We always welcome new WW2 fiction manuscripts. You are invited to send them to our email address: [email protected] and we will assess the quality.
The Hidden Village by Imogen Matthews is available as Kindle ebook audio and paperback (ISBN 9789492371256). It is a bestselling WW2 historical fiction novel.
Deep in the Veluwe woods lies a secret that frustrates the Germans. Convinced that Jews are hiding close by they can find no proof. The secret is Berkenhout, a purpose-built village of huts sheltering dozens of persecuted people. Young tearaway Jan roams the woods looking for adventure and fallen pilots. His dream comes true when he stumbles across an American airman, Donald C. McDonald. But keeping him hidden sets off a disastrous chain of events. All it takes is one small fatal slip to change the course of all their lives for ever.
A Quiet Genocide. The Untold Holocaust of Disabled Children in WW2 Germany by Glenn Bryant. Forthcoming Autumn 2018. Please note that this is a historical fiction novel.
Germany, 1954. Jozef grows up in a happy household – so it seems. But his father Gerhard still harbours disturbing National Socialism ideals, while mother Catharina is quietly broken. She cannot feign happiness for much longer and rediscovers love elsewhere. Jozef is uncertain and alone. Who is he? Are Gerhard and Catharina his real parents? A dark mystery gradually unfolds, revealing an inescapable truth the entire nation is afraid to confront. But Jozef is determined to find out about the past and a horror is finally unmasked which continues to question our idea of what, in the last hour, makes each of us human. A terrifying and heartbreaking story.
Outcry - Holocaust Memoirs by Manny Steinberg is available as paperback (ISBN 13: 9789082103137 ) and Kindle eBook. This memoir has been published in English, French, German, Chinese, Italian and Czech.
Manny Steinberg (1925-2015) spent his teens in Nazi concentration camps in Germany, miraculously surviving while millions perished. This is his story. Born in the Jewish ghetto in Radom (Poland), Steinberg noticed that people of Jewish faith were increasingly being regarded as outsiders. In September 1939 the Nazis invaded, and the nightmare started. The city’s Jewish population had no chance of escaping and was faced with starvation, torture, sexual abuse and ultimately deportation.
Outcry - Holocaust Memoirs is the candid account of a teenager who survived four Nazi camps: Dachau, Auschwitz, Vaihingen an der Enz, and Neckagerach.
The Dead Years - Holocaust Memoirs by Joseph Schupack is available as paperback (ISBN 13: 9789492371164) and as Kindle ebook. Also available in German as Tote Jahre.
In The Dead Years, Joseph Schupack (1922- 1989) describes his life in Radzyn-Podlaski, a typical Polish shtetl from where he was transported to the concentration camps of Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Dora / Nordhausen and Bergen-Belsen during the Second World War. We witness how he struggled to remain true to his own standards of decency and being human. Considering the premeditated and systematic humiliation and brutality, it is a miracle that he survived and came to terms with his memories.
The Dead Years is different from most Holocaust survivor stories. Not only is it a testimony of the 1930s in Poland and life in the Nazi concentration camps - it also serves as a witness statement. This Holocaust book contains a wealth of information, including the names of people and places, for researchers and those interested in WW2, or coming from Radzyn-Podlaski and surroundings. The book takes us through Joseph Schupack’s pre-war days, his work in the underground movement, and the murder of his parents, brothers, sister and friends.
Among the Reeds: The true Story of how a Family survived the Holocaust by Tammy Bottner is available as paperback (ISBN 13: 9789492371287) and as Kindle ebook.
Belgium, 1939. Melly Bottner is just eighteen with a three-week old newborn son when the Nazi occupation of Belgium begins. She and her young husband Genek live in fear as it becomes obvious that all Jews will soon be taken. Watching friends and neighbors disappear as the Germans carry out their shocking purge, the young family confronts an awful truth: if they are to survive, they must rip their own family into pieces. In this biography from Melly's point of view, author and granddaughter Tammy Bottner delivers a true and moving family memoir. This meticulously written and researched account brings to life the horrific decisions Bottner’s grandparents had to make simply to survive. Through their monumental choices, Tammy Bottner's grandparents ensured the survival of their family and made their post-war reunion possible.
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