​Ineke Neutel

This is probably the best and most detailed window I've had into what war-time was like for families like yours...and what a great way to honour your parents for their courage and wisdom under the circumstances. Your research is superb, and the way you've told the story is extremely compelling.  I'm grateful that you've shared this with me.  Really, really excellent work.

I devoured your book in a day and a half and am reading it again more slowly.

Thank you for writing this!

Your book is an amazing piece of work.  Thank you for writing and sharing this story.  The research, the memories and the soul searching questions you ask towards the end are all so provoking.

What a time your family lived through. I'm not done reading yet, but I wanted to send you both a note while the material is fresh. I cannot fathom how difficult it must have been to pastor a congregation under such circumstances. Their strong faith is inspiring. Your dad's journal from the days of shelling is very compelling.

On the basis of extensive research of her family archives and other archival information, Ineke Neutel wrote a compelling narrative of her family’s experiences during WW2. Her father was a Reformed Minister in Nijmegen during the Nazi occupation. She vividly described how her father and his family of four small children, Ineke being the second oldest and the only girl, were terrorized by the continuous bombing and suffered multiple fears and anxieties. Her courageous father had silently participated in the resistance movement till the Allied Forces finally liberated the Netherlands. 

I just finished reading your book. It was very informative, and I learnt first hand through this book a lot of details that I had not read in other books about the war. For example, the anti-Jewish measures progressed over time (weeks, days) into further persecution. I had never read that in full detail.   Or the tension of how far to go to help one's neighbours at the risk of compromising your own family’s safety.  

I thought your critique of PM Rutte’s speech was insightful (and fair) given your personal experience and knowledge of what the country and its people were going through at the time.