A vivid report on illegal life in Holland by Mrs Selma Frank. Mrs Frank lived in Rotterdam until September 1940 when all Jews of foreign extraction had to leave the costal zone of 40 km. in width. She went as a housekeeper to the Marcus family in Zwolle. They became great friends and Mrs Frank was treated as a member of the family. Already in October 1940 the razzias on Jews started and quite a number of well-to-do business men disappeared. Mr Marcus decided to go underground and though he came secretly home from time to time he did not openly return before 27 April 1945. In the beginning he was regularly called for by the Sicherheitspolizei. His wife became deputy manager of his firm at Zwolle and its branch in the Hague had a very unpleasant time. All anti-Jewish-Measures - the David’s Shield; special Jewish food rations; prohibition to use public conveyances; curfew; deportations (Westerbork) - which in Germany were gradually introduced during 5 years, were imposed on Holland within a year. In autumn 1942 the whole Marcus family (including Mr Marcus) went underground under the name of Gelderland (forged papers). They stayed at a remote village in the country - Hoogkeppel - in a small boarding house. But this idyll did not last very long. In May 1943 they had to leave because the son of their hosts, a policeman, was afraid of the danger for his parents. Now the family split up. Mrs Frank, after several changes of place, went to Noordwolte as a ‘friend’ of a large family with 4 children, helping the housewife. When the fifth child was born, there was no more room for Mrs Frank in the overcrowded house, and again she had to move. Her last stay was at Murmerwoude (Friesland) where she lived in the very centre of the “Underground Resistance”. Mr and Mrs Sierke Schaafsma, her hosts, were genuinely relgious people.

According to Mrs Frank it was not only a nerve-racking, but also a most interesting and, historically speaking, important life they were leading: they hid people and incriminating material; held secret meetings etc.etc. She praises the courage and independent spirit of the average Dutch people. The province of Friesland was liberated by the Canadians on 12 April 1945. It took almost another month (5 May 1945) before the west of Holland was liberated, too. She describes the riots of joy, the cheers of the population, with which the Canadians were greeted.

Miss X. was living with her Aryan mother and Nazi stepfather in Breslau; had, on the whole, no unpleasant personal experiences. School (1941 last year of Abiturium for “Non-Aryans”). “Pflichtjahr” (instead of six months' Labour Service). Ration cards had to be fetched from a special centre for every household with a non-Aryan, which was compromising. She had to leave a position as a shop assistant in a music shop because it would bring her into contact with the general public.

In forced labour camp: Organisation Todt; Unternehmen Berthold; unpleasant circumstances; the author states cynical outlook on sexual behavior. She had a chance of marrying an Aryan Czech, i.e. “a man of inferior nationality” since her father had not received a University education; thus there was deemed to be little risk of her transmitting “Jewish intelligence” to her children.

Miss X. is now living in London with her Jewish father.

The author, a Catholic journalist in Prague, was correspondent of the Berlin Film-Kurier, editor of Prager Montagsbeatt and-under the pen name “Christianus” author of Die Totengraber des Sudetendeutschen Katholizismus. After the Anschluss he helped Austrian refugees and worked at the St. Raphaelsverein. When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, he fled with wife and child to Holland. He remarks bitterly about the bureaucratic attitude of the police who took him to a camp near Rotterdam and about the lack of understanding on the part of the camp administration in Sluis. Dr. Glaser's wife obtained a domestic post in England and took the child with her. Dr. Glaser became liaison man between the Czech National Committee in Paris and influential persons in occupied Czechoslovakia.

After Holland was invaded, Dr. Glaser fled to Belgium and was interned in Lombardzyde. Later, he lived in Middlekerke but was arrested by the Germans and after interrogations in Ghent and Allost, he was kept for weeks at the citadel of Huy under “catastrophic” conditions. After his release a fellow prisoner sent him to the monastery in Chevetogme whose prior found him a place in a refugee hostel in Brussels. Here, he earned his living by selling pictures of saints, published by the monastery. On the recommendation of the Abbe Augustin Van Roey Dr. Glaser got a room in an old men’s home in Ixelles in the winter 1940 - 1941, and was brought in contact with the Belgian resistance.

In August 1941 the Gestapo found out about Dr. Glaser’s earlier activities, and he had to report regularly at their offices in Avenue Louise. When the anti-Jewish laws were inforced, Dr. Glaser became a teacher at a Jewish school. In June 1942 he was given to understand at the Gestapo office, that it was advisable for him to disappear. With the help of Abbe Van Roey and the Resistance he reached Switzerland. He was interned at Neuenburg fortress, and during an interrogation in Berne he learned, that Dr. Jaromir Kopecky was helping Czech refugees. Dr. Glaser became Dr. Kopecky’s assistant in Geneva and tried to reach England via Spain in order to fill the post with the exiled Czech Government

Dr. Kopecky had obtained for him. But he was unsuccessful, and after his return to Switzerland he was sent to a labour camp in Mezzovico near Lugano. Upon intervention of “Caritas”, he later became secretary at the camps of Filisur and Inntertkirchen. In October 1943 he was released, and after a short period as civilian internee in Fribourg, he resumed his work for Dr. Kopecky. In March 1945 Dr. Kopecky’s office became the Embassy of the Czech Exile Goverment and was transferred to Berne, and in July Dr. Glaser was officially appointed Press Attaché. A little later he was reunited with wife and child.