Bart Van EsReseñas

Fabulous book - really clear helpful structure which I can emulate. Chspters cycle between subject, author’s research, and author and subject discussing together

Bart Van Es won the Costa Award for Biography and for Book of the Year in 2018 and brought to light an area of WWII that I knew little about, namely, the hiding of Jewish children in the Netherlands, from the Nazis. Interestingly, Van Es, an Oxford professor, discovered that his grandparents had hidden the particular child that he discovered in his research, making his quest so much more interesting to him. Lientje, although elderly now, is still alive and the author was able to interview her. One thing he wanted to know was why she had had a falling out with his grandparents after the war. After all, they were among those who went out of their way to save her after her parents died in Auschwitz. He uncovers disturbing information that reveals that sometimes people who try to do the right thing and come to the aid of those less fortunate are ill equipped to handle the trauma that these children face and may even make it worse. Excellent narrating of the book by the author.

Going back and forth from today to 75 or so years ago. Very sad account of one who was rescued from the Nazis and yet faced abuse from her rescuers.

This book came to my attention because the author is a guest at the forthcoming Adelaide Writers' Week and I came across it when browsing the program.

The Cut Out Girl was the Costa Book of the Year in 2018, taking out the prize in the Biography category as well as the overall prize for the work, worth £30,000 to the author. According to the BBC, this is the first winner from the biography category since Helen Macdonald won it in 2014 for H is for Hawk and is only the fourth biographer to take the prize this century. This is the BBC description of the book:

The Cut Out Girl tells the story of a young Jewish girl, Lien, who was taken in by strangers during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Her family were all killed but, like 4,000 other Dutch Jewish children, she escaped the Holocaust by being hidden from the Nazis by a non-Jewish family.

Bart van Es, a Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, has a personal connection to the story – his own grandparents were the couple who fostered little Lien in the Hague during the occupation. The Cut Out Girl interweaves the story of Lien in the 1940s with his own experience of uncovering it, a burgeoning friendship with the elderly Lien and some uncomfortable truths about Dutch collaboration during the occupation.

What intrigued me about the book was that there was a falling out between the adult Lien and her foster family, and I could not imagine how that could be. I have always admired the astonishing courage of people who saved Jews during WW2, and the stories of children who were fostered by complete strangers seemed like a miracle of bravery and kindness. What The Cut Out Girl reveals, however, is that rescuing these children was much more complex than just avoiding detection and the terrible risk of Nazi reprisals, and that while some people were open-hearted and generous, others did it because they felt they ought to for religious reasons, when they were not really the kind of people who should have the care of damaged young children. And inevitably, some of those who had access to these vulnerable children took advantage of them in the worst possible way.

(It's an entirely different scenario, of course, but there are awful stories about children evacuated from the Blitz who were placed with people who had no idea how to care for traumatised children and some who exploited them as domestic help or worse.)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/02/05/the-cut-out-girl-by-bart-van-es/

A sensitively told family story, which also paints a good picture of the Dutch political scene during the German occupation. Reading it, I learned a lot about the Netherlands during WWII, and I admired Van Es’s skill in manoeuvring what must have been something of a minefield, given that his grandparents were hiding and caring for the young Jewish girl at the centre of the account and at some point had a significant falling out with her. I was saddened to read of her abuse by those who were later entrusted with her care.½

Just when you think there are no new angles to stories about the Holocaust something comes along that is both desperately tragic but also vital and healing. Lientje’s story is heartbreaking, but it’s related here with compassion and love. It’s about families and surviving. The Dutch don’t come out of this in any great light, but it’s far less about blame than understanding.