Henri A. van der ZeeThe Hunger Winter: Occupied Holland 1944-1945

Great read by Mr Van der Zee who lived through this brutal time as a teen (along with my idol Audrey Hepburn) and wait for freedom (after the "Bridge to Far" debacle) in occupied Holland from as it turned out: the Canadians. The book is very believable and factual and tells of starvations' effect on the human body. It's said that "history is written by the winners and not the losers" but Mr Van der Zee is a winner with his account of the wars' end in The Netherlands.

Full of information and insight about the Hunger Winter of 1945.

Very informative

I received the book a short time after ordering, I've already read the first 3 chapters. The books was in excellent conditions as stated on the website.

Excellent account of that period in Dutch History.

Excellent book, should be read in every American High School.

"The Hunger Winter" by Henri A. van der Zee. Subtitled: "Occupied Holland 1944-1945"University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1982.This book is written in understated prose. Atrocities, shootings, retaliation arrests and slow starvation are all described in a matter-of-fact, quiet writing. The author, Henri A. van der Zee, was a Dutch boy of eleven years during much of the events recorded here. As brief as it is, the book is a fairly complete documentation of the struggle of the Dutch nation in the last winter of World War II. In September 1944, the great airborne assault, "Market Garden", failed at the last bridge before Germany. Hopes of the Dutch for a quick and easy liberation were dashed. The Dutch hopes were replaced by the despair of drawn-out starvation, mainly due to the inhumane actions and inactions of the German occupiers.Since the author, Henri A. van der Zee, actually lived through this "hunger winter", the book is filled with his personal reflections. But these personal reflections are interspersed through a substantially complete history of the times. The author describes attempts to cook both sugar beets and tulip bulbs to make these "vegetables" palatable to the starving Dutch children. He also describes their taste. The author spends a substantial portion of the book on the Dutch royal family, and how they tried, as best they could, to alleviate the suffering of their Dutch people. Queen Wilhelmina is the central character in that "governmental" aspect of the period, with good mention of the Dutch Prime Minister, Peter S. Gerbrandy. Winston Churchill called Gerbrandy, "Mr. Cherry Brandy", (p.35).Towards the end of the book, the author documents the absolute insensitivity of the German occupiers to the cruelty of permitting young children and women to slowly, slowly, slowly starve to death. This heartlessness should be of no surprise to any student of World War II history, who would know that the overall policy of the German nation was to starve prisoners in concentration camps... whose names have become curses. This book documents that the occupied country of The Netherlands, the northern provinces, was transformed in all but name into an extra large concentration camp. German troops would jump out of a truck, grab Dutch men, shoot them dead and leave their bodies in a heap on a street corner. (See "terror tactics".) Fear was everywhere. People starved on the available rations. As the winter progressed, things got worse and the Germans under Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, (1892-1946), still did nothing to help. The neutral Swedes offered to send shiploads of food to occupied Netherlands and the Reichskommissar delayed and delayed. How many people died due to this sin of omission?All in all, this concise book covers much of the history of the winter of hunger which the Dutch suffered through as the war wound down to its end in May 1945. The author covers not only the atrocities committed by the Germans, but also the slowness of the Allies to respond to the plight of the occupied provinces, and the role that politics played in the attempts to relieve the starving Dutch citizens.

In modern times, famine is a catastrophe associated with the developing world. The only exception to this occurred in the Netherlands in the Second World War, where at least 12000 starved after the Nazis cut off food supplies to the uncooperative nation, determined to ensure ample food for the Reich. Complete calamity was avoided only with Germany's defeat in May of '45.The author lived through the experience, so his observations carry weight. The activities of all segments of Dutch society, from home grown Nazis to the Royal family, are found in these pages. And one can imagine the thrill at the end when victory was certain. No attempt is made to make heroes of the entire country. Many acted out of pure cowardice, greed or stupidity. I was impressed by how open the writer was on these matters.I would have preferred a bit more 'hunger' from the book though. Who starved and why? What areas of the country were worst affected? Van Der Zee gives us an interesting history of Holland in the last year of the war, but the famine gets somewhat short billing. Still an all around good work on a subject rarely explored in English.

Warning ⚠️, do not read this book whilst eating, pangs of guilt are possible. The war in the Netherlands is largely ignored, bar Arnhem and of course Anne Frank, but for the people of the Netherlands it never will be. After D.Day and the relatively speedy conquest of Belgium, troops were there by September 4, there was hope in the Netherlands they to would be liberated, but for millions, it was not to be. After the failure of Market Garden and a strike in the Netherlands, the Germans cracked down hard. Nature did her bit by bringing one of the coldest winters on record. The results was widespread famine. The author, a famine survivor, charts the events of the 1944/5 winter, from bith a general and personal perspective, giving it an immediacy few history books can achieve. I read this book years ago, it has lost none of its power in a rereading.

This book filled a gap in my understanding of my own family history. I grew up in Ireland but both my parents were Dutch and there was rarely a day that passed without a mention of the "Hunger Winter", especially with regard to respect for food. As a kid I was aware that there was a totally avoidable famine in the Netherlands during the last year of the Second World War, but didn't really appreciate the horror of it all until I read this book. While reading it I had a number of fascinating conversations about it with my mother as she told me about her memories of the long painful walks into the countryside to beg for food from the farmers, or the stories about the callous executions whenever the resistance killed a German - the rule was 10 Dutchmen for every German. Over 2,800 people were murdered in summary executions, 1560 of them during the hunger winter. She mentioned the joy of hearing about the liberation of the south in September 1944 and how everyone expected freedom within weeks if not days, but also how the disaster at Arnhem meant a devastating 8 months of extreme hardship, terror and suffering.I want to thank the Author for such a well-researched piece of work. He details all the political bickering amongst the Allies after the disaster of Arnhem and the dysfunctional nature of the Dutch resistance who were divided into numerous factions who distrusted one another. By reading the book you get a very clear perspective of how messy, uncertain and chaotic life was during occupation by a cruel, callous and often sadistic invader.He also details the turmoil amongst the German high command when towards the end they were left to their own devices maintaining a fanatical belief until the very end that the 1000 Year Reich would prevail.There was disbelief amongst the Allies that things were really that bad as they neglected the north western provinces of Fortress Holland in their race to Berlin. All in all over 18,000 people died of totally avoidable starvation during the Hunger Winter of 1944. The Liberation of the Netherlands cost 50,000 Allied lives. During the 5 years of occupation 120,000 Jews were deported, 104,000 did not survive. A gruesome total of 237,300 Netherlanders lost their lives out of a population of just 8.8 million.

A compelling book

After having read both my Dutch parents diaries from 1940 until 1945, while they were living in Amsterdam and slowly being starved to death, it was enlightening to read Mr. van der Zee his book. I never knew why so many people died from hunger. But the book explains it all. So his book will be placed in the same box as the diaries for my children to read later in life, when hopefully there Dutch has not faded awaytoo much.... But at least Mr van der Zee his book explains it all in English.

Interesting