ISLANDS OF DECEPTION
Lying with the Enemy
Constance Hood
ISLANDS OF DECEPTION
Waves Press
Copyright © 2017 by Constance Hood
www.conniehood.com
All rights reserved.
Though based on true stories and real characters, this is a work of fiction and of the author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Author services by Pedernales Publishing, LLC.
www.pedernalespublishing.com
ISBN 13: 978-0-9993946-2-5 Digital Edition
ISBN 13: 978-0-9993946-1-8 Paperback Edition
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017915864
Printed in the United States of America
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In 2002 my father sent me a thick envelope. In it were several closely spaced pages of notes. He was particularly proud of work that he had done as an intelligence operative in World War II. The tasks had been classified under a long-term non-disclosure agreement, and he was releasing his account of 1943 events in the South Pacific.
His story was complex. For one thing, no one had ever heard an accurate account of how he came to leave Holland, or why he decided to reject his cultural origins as a Dutch Jew. Even his name was changed. The shadows of partial truths led loved ones into complex paths of obscure intentions and resulting misunderstandings. We disregarded his intriguing narrative until we found the parallel reports in released Army Counter Intelligence documents.
Many people shared the vision of this book. The long dead needed to be brought back to life. Adapting their story as a novel gave me the freedom to add characters that were missing from official reports. My husband, actor Chet Hood, worked daily to help me understand a little about the life of a warrior. I’m sure the neighbors wondered why we were having slow motion knife fights in the backyard. Nancy Hall and I talked for hours about how threat and fear led people into a lifetime of hiding.
Dutch relatives shed a lot of light on the subject during the same period of time. My aunt told her story piece by piece in a series of long visits to Amsterdam. I ended up with a narrative that was accurate but colorful, fascinating but heartbreaking.
Photographs needed to become scenes. Philip and Marcia Goudsmit collected hundreds of photos of the main characters and shots of Amsterdam from the 1930s and 1940s. Imagine my surprise when the collection mirrored things that I had made up to cover missing pieces of the story. Hendrina Lisiewicz and I translated Dutch maritime records that chronicled her father’s years at sea. The curator at Battleship Cove, Fall River MA gave me a day to crawl around PT boats and construct key scenes. Dr. John Munholland, author of Rock of Contention offered valuable descriptions of the partitioning of France and the role of New Caledonia as an improvised Allied staging area for the War in the Pacific.
The Ventura Writer’s Group read draft after draft of chapters and asked all the right questions to bring the story alive. Ross R. Olney, Francis Moss, Chris Frederic and Charlie Schwartz also read drafts and shared true stories that added authenticity to the narrative.
A story of this scope cannot be accomplished without editors. I am truly grateful for the support of Kate Breckenridge and Brenda Podagrosi-Georgi who spent countless hours with these characters. Finally, special thanks to Mary Ellen Gavin, Literary Agent who helped bring the story to you.
July 14, 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
Amsterdam, Holland
May 1939
The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) raged from November 9 to 10, 1938. After celebrating victories over Jewish neighborhoods, the Nazis announced a decree to remove all Jews from German economy, society and culture.
CHAPTER TWO
Ellis Island
August 01, 1939
“Each island is only a place to depart from to go to another island. You never know where you are going.” ~ Sidney Diamond
CHAPTER THREE
Amsterdam, Holland
Rosh Hashanah, September 14, 1939
September 1, 1939 – Hitler invades Poland
“Danzig was and is a German city. We are obligated to protect people of German blood.” ~ A. Hitler, Amsterdam Courant
CHAPTER FOUR
Upstate New York
September 1939
“German forces have invaded Poland and its planes have bombed Polish cities, including the capital, Warsaw. The attack comes without any warning or declaration of war.” ~ BBC
CHAPTER FIVE
Amsterdam, Holland
Friday, May 17, 1940
“Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg Invaded; Britain and France Send Help”
~ The Star (London) May 10-14, 1940
CHAPTER SIX
Rochester, New York
June 1940
“Paris falls under German occupation.” ~ Newsreel
CHAPTER SEVEN
Amsterdam, Holland
July 1940
“Where has your lover gone, O beautiful one?
Say where he is and we will seek him with you.” ~ Song of Songs
CHAPTER EIGHT
Upstate New York
July 1940
Warning from the FBI
CHAPTER NINE
Rochester N.Y.
July 1940
“Gentlemen don’t read other gentlemen’s mail.” ~ U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson, 1929
CHAPTER TEN
Upstate New York
July 1940
“Auf wiedersehen – until we meet again”~ German folk song
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rochester, N.Y.
July 1940
“Northern Europe: Most of Europe is now under Nazi rule.
France surrenders. The French Vichy Government will cooperate with the Nazis. Britain is given the choice to surrender or die.” ~ N.Y. Times
CHAPTER TWELVE
Rochester, N.Y.
Labor Day 1940
“Let’s Go… Canada!”
~ Recruitment poster
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ontario Canada
Fall-Winter 1940-41
“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches…. we shall fight in the fields and in the streets….we shall never surrender!”
~ W. Churchill, BBC
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Amsterdam, Holland March 1941
The simple greeting “ hallo” became an acronym for “Hang alle landverraders op” (hang all traitors).” ~ Dutch Resistance
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rochester, N.Y. October 1941
“Uncle Sam Wants You! We must guard against complacency. We must not underrate the enemy.” ~ Army Recruitment poster
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Fort Dix, New Jersey
January 1942
“A date which will live in infamy” ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 7, 1941
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Amsterdam, Holland
May 1942
“A woman is like a teabag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
CHAPTER EIGH
TEEN
Sharpshooters
June 1942
“Our own objectives are clear; the objective of smashing the militarism imposed by war lords upon their enslaved peoples, the objective of liberating the subjugated Nations—the objective of establishing and securing freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear everywhere in the world.” ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 1942
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Son of Neptune
July 1942
“Loose lips might sink ships!” ~ Poster
CHAPTER TWENTY
Indian Ocean
July 1942
“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
U.S. Admiral D. Farragut
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Amsterdam
July 1942
“I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to… a final solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence.”
~ Hermann Göring To Reinhard Heydrich, July 1941
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Noumea, New Caledonia
August 1942
Battle of Guadalcanal begins.
“Australia and New Zealand are now threatened by the might of the Imperial Japanese forces, and both of them should know that any resistance is futile.” ~ Hideki Tojo
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Bergen Belsen
September 1942
“Everything human has its origin in human weakness.”
~ Franz Stangl, SS Captain
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
New Caledonia
October 1942
“Jesus Christ and General Jackson, what a hot potato they have handed me!”
~ Admiral Halsey re. American Occupation of Noumea
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Bergen Belsen
November 1942
“Axis in South France, France Is Overrun: Nazis Reach Marseille After Hitler Scraps Armistice Pact; Atlantic Fleet’s Fate a Mystery” ~ New York Times Headlines
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
New Caledonia
December 1942
“Knowing is half the battle.”
~ GI Joe, Guadalcanal
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
New Caledonia
December 1942
“No one likes the Americans but they go along because they owe everything to them.” ~ Governor Laigret
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
New Caledonia
December 1942
“…the Free French colony of New Caledonia could avoid the horrors of war if the colony would return to neutrality and Vichy control.” ~ Radio Saigon
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Bergen Belsen
February 1943
Response from the Pope following the murder of more than 200,000 Ukrainian Jews:
“to bear adversity with serene patience” ~ Pius XII
CHAPTER THIRTY
Flight Fishing
February 1943
Japs Hurled Back on Guadalcanal – Daily Mirror
After six months of desperation, disease, and brutal fighting, the U.S. declares Guadalcanal secure the day after the last Japanese soldier quietly evacuates the island.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Tonkin, French Indochina
February 1943
Roosevelt and Stalin discuss the future of French rule in Indochina, a Vichy French stronghold.
~ 1943 Tehran Conference
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Venus Rising
February 1943
“How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?” ~ Charles de Gaulle
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Noumea
March 1943
“Tell Nobody – Not Even Her
Careless talk costs lives” ~ Poster
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Debriefing
July 1943
“Before Guadalcanal the enemy advanced at his pleasure – after Guadalcanal he retreated at ours.” ~ Admiral Halsey
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Noumea
August 1944
“Russian Troops reach Concentration Camps in Poland” ~ News dispatch
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Bergen Belsen
April 1945
We have to go into the despair and go beyond it, by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something
else.” ~ Elie Wiesel
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Upstate New York
May 1945
“U.S. Army Retrains Prisoners of War. Handpicked prisoners are given a six-day course in U.S. style democracy and sent back to Germany or Austria as free men.” ~ Christian Science Monitor
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Upstate New York
May 1945
In an old Dutch Garden where the tulips grow That’s where I first whispered that I love you so.” ~ Glenn Miller song
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Brooklyn, New York July 1947
Four of the world’s great powers sit in judgment today on twenty top Germans whom the democratic nations charge with major responsibility for plunging the world into World War II.” ~ Nuremberg Trials, New York Times
CHAPTER FORTY
Rochester, New York
July 1948
“We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
Chapter One
Amsterdam, Holland
May 1939
The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) raged from November 9 to 10, 1938. After celebrating victories over Jewish neighborhoods, the Nazis announced a decree to remove all Jews from German economy, society and culture.
Sam Goudberg’s voice snapped like a whip through the entire office. “Hans, have you completed the accounts for the shops in Rotterdam?” Hans Bernsteen wiped off the tips of his two pens and placed them in a jar on his desk. Silence announced that the bookkeeping staff had departed for midday. Tall front windows reflected spots of sunshine onto the marble floors, an uncertain promise of a sunny afternoon. The converted ballroom still had its gilded light fixtures, but its interior had been occupied with commerce for years. His desk was in a dark corner of the offices, where he counted his parents’ wealth for hours on end.
He turned his head aside and muttered a quick response to his stepfather. A blotter lay across the sheet in an enormous book while he stretched his long legs and rolled back his cramped shoulders, waiting for the ink to dry. Columns of black and red numbers marched up and down the page, each entry standing for an item in a warehouse or a shop, stacks of laces here or rolls of ribbons there. The hefty volume contained more than a hundred balance sheets and Hans placed it on a shelf with a row of similar books, each dated with registers of accounts. Standing up from the stiff leather chair, he brushed off his tweed jacket and buttoned on a clean pair of spats in anticipation of mud on the streets. He checked his leather briefcase a final time and stepped out the doors of Herengracht 94. If this afternoon meeting went well he would not ever need to return to the ledgers.
Thank heavens the upstairs dining room curtains were closed. By now his stepfather, Sam, would be upstairs with his mouth full of boiled meat or potato, reporting to mother on the morning’s profits and losses. Sara would ask a few questions and then serve dessert. Hans’s nervous stomach cramped at the thought of food. Bicyclists bumped and rattled across cobblestones, avoiding iron stanchions and bars that lined the canal. Barges poked along the water, sloughing off their loads of merchandise. The little shops were shuttered for midday. Hans dodged into a shaded alley and another turn
placed him onto the next canal. A solid wall of dark red bricks continued along the Keizersgracht. Head down, he followed the angled patterns in the brick sidewalk, avoiding stray dog droppings that lay in his path, until the scrubbed white stone steps and arched double doors of the United States Consulate came into view.
The young man introduced himself at reception, and expected to be ushered right into the office of the consul. Hans’s father had been Minister of Finance for the Netherlands, and Consul Van den Arend was a family friend. The receptionist looked at Hans as if he were nobody, just one person in a herd of civilians who asked for favors. It had been necessary to wrestle his way through phone lines and calling cards to obtain an appointment. In the noisy lobby, he took a seat and read the same pamphlet over and over. After several minutes, an unsmiling secretary came toward him, heels clicking on the marble flooring. She stood over his chair, waiting for him to look up. “Heer van den Arend will see you now.”
Recent political actions in Germany had prompted the American consulate to expedite papers for those claiming refugee status. Jews in Berlin were sweeping up the shattered glass of commerce and broken hopes. Now Dutch Nazis participated in isolated incidents throughout Holland, raiding Jewish homes and shops, vandalizing synagogues, and killing nearly 40 Jewish citizens. Instead of expressing public outrage, Dutch people quietly went about their everyday lives.
Hans took a deep breath as he stepped into the office. The consul set his reading glasses aside. “Hans, my dear boy! How have you been?”
Van den Arend extended his hand, and Hans quickly wiped sweat from his palm. He smiled nervously as he glanced around the room. “Business has been steady… people still need …. the things they need.” Although he was heir to a prestigious Amsterdam mercantile enterprise, his stepfather had dismissed him from any duties that required working with customers. Hans took exception to a new business philosophy that the “customer is always the boss.” A business proprietor was not a servant.
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