Spotlight
Camp Westerbork
Impossible choice
The occupied Netherlands, 1943
It seemed such a clever thing to do: voluntarily enrolling in the service of the German occupiers to work at camp Westerbork – safeguarded against deportation.
He was not raised as a Jew. He does not feel Jewish. Being forced to live with only Jewish people in Westerbork changes his identity. Much to his own surprise. After all, he did not identify with being Jewish at all. The absurd situation forces new insights on him. He starts looking into the philosophy and views of Jewish thinkers and predecessors.
His job at camp Westerbork involves him in deporting others every day. Common people: men, women, and children; patients from a psychiatric ward; friends and acquaintances; family, and the girl he is in love with.
He cannot bare it. Anything but this executioner’s job. All he wants is one more week to write down his thoughts and feelings. Then he has himself deported.
Over 100,000 people were deported from Westerbork to destruction camps in Eastern Europe.
J.P. Presser, a historian, based his Night of the Girondists on his own experiences as well as on historical sources. The story poignantly illustrates how the Nazi regime presented people with dilemmas which were impossible to solve.
Trivia: Also published as 'Breaking Point'. Originally published as ‘boekenweekgeschenk’ 1957.
Previous spotlight Archive
Cover of the book 'Dissolution' by C.J. Sansom.England at a time of insecurity
In 1534, the English king Henry VIII abandons the Church of Rome so that he may divorce his Spanish wife and marry the English Anne Boleyn instead.He appoints himself the head of his own Anglican Church. Everybody is forced to convert; whoever dares to refuse is sentenced to death.
Monasteries and convents throughout the whole country are dismantled and churches deprived of their relics.
In 1537, the king has just gotten rid of Anne Boleyn. She was decapitated after being accused of adultery.
The entire nation is in fear and trembling of the arbitrariness of the constantly changing new rules.
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Statue of the boys from the book 'Java ho!' in their home town Hoorn.The Bontekoe journal
On November 19th 1619, the galley boy on board the ‘Nieuw Hoorn’ is pulling the crew’s daily drop of brandy from the cask. When he has filled up his little vessel, he wants to pick up his candle and go back – but the candle is stuck. He has to exercise quite a bit of force to undo it, and a spark falls from the candle into the brandy, setting it on fire.All attempts at extinguishing the fire come to an end when it reaches the stock of gunpowder. The ship is blown up into thousands of pieces with her entire crew on board.
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In Dutch / In het Nederlands
Bezoek www.historische-romans.nl voor een overzicht van Nederlandse romans.
Highest rating
The Lost Diaries of Frans HalsMichael Kernan, 1994
The Thousand Autumns of Jacbob de Zoet
David Mitchell, 2010
The Winter Queen
Jane Stevenson, 2001
The Cocaine Salesman
Conny Braam, 2009
Batavia’s Graveyard
Mike Dash, 2002
Recent publications
Trivia: Illustrated with reproductions of paintings, maps, and globes.