A View Across the Rooftops

by Suzanne Kelman

“One doesn’t know how brave one is until the cost outweighs the fear.”

“Sometimes the most courageous love is whispered in the quietest moments.”

Even so, the Netherlands lost some of the highest numbers of Jewish citizens; there were 140,000 Jewish people living in Holland before the war and devastatingly fewer than 25 per cent survived, with only approximately 5,000 returning home from the death and labor camps.

What was amazing, however, was that a staggering further 30,000 Jews survived the war by hiding in people’s basements, attics, and barns. We probably all know the story of Anne Frank and her family, but whilst like so many her story ended in tragedy, a huge number of lives were saved. And if it hadn’t been for the quiet courage of ordinary Dutch citizens who continued to keep their former neighbors safe even in the face of starvation during the brutal Hongerwinter where many were forced to eat tulip bulbs and wallpaper just to survive, nearly a whole nation of Dutch Jews would have been lost.