Ur mum’s Reviews > 796 days : hiding as a child in occupied Amsterdam during WWII and then coming to America > Status Update

"While my parents believed that there were forced labor camps, they could not imagine or believe in the murder of millions in those camps."(85) I think people don't know about the death camps because the Nazis tried to disguise the camps to make it look like you're working for something, so the Jews would work harder but then would be killed but their efforts wouldn't be wasted.

"the germans had even established an Advice Group to promote the benefits of going to German work camps (an estimated 500,000 Dutchmen wound up working in Germany"(78) I think the Germans made these kinds of groups to give the Jews a apse sense of security and then they would work harder, believing they're going to live and then they are killed but the Germans still had their work.

"The deportations and killings were primarily at the hands of the Nazis but, to a not insignificant extent, also Dutch collaborators, including especially Dutch Nazis."(72) I think it is interesting that the Nazis weren't the only one responsible for the dehumanizing of Jews, since they had all of the power.

"The Germans, as was their rule, widely published the names of all persons whom they executed for their "misdeeds".(71) I think this happened probably because the Germans want to spread fear, and want the Jews to fall in line to they can send them to concentration and death camps.

Jews also had to pay a special tax on, and subsequently to give up, their radios, which my father, and an estimated 25% of their owners, didn't do."(67) I think that the Jews should have all given up they radios because if they would be discovered they would be killed and you don't need a radio to survive.

"Many non-Jewish Dutchmen at the outset wore they stars to show solidarity, but this, by ordinance, became a serious crime potentially punishable by death."(71)I think it was kind that non-Jewish people tried to wear the stars to sympathize with Jews, but of course Germany would make that illegal.

"Juliemarthe and Joost, with their kids, Herman, Bertien and Emily, wound up in Port Washington, New York.(60) I think it is very cool that a relative of the main character in this story live(d) in Port Washington. It is rare that Port is even mentioned and I think it's interesting that a relative of the book I'm reading live(d) in the very same town I do.

"Many Dutch Jews, from the moment of the German invasion, and thereafter, carried a cyanide pill or two in their pockets in contemplation of suicide"(51) I think many Jews did this because if Germans attacked them, they would just go out quickly and not be hurt or tourtured slowly by the Germans. Another reason I think Jews carried pills was because they didn't have any rights, so life looked meaningless to them.

"On May 10, 1940, German tanks invaded Holland "falling in unannounced" early in the morning without declaring war(50). I think that was Hitlers tactic to attack "unannounced" because like the blitzkrieg (lightning war) is part of that tactic. If Hitler attacked without any warning, no one would be able to stop him.