Grow Through It: War & Terrorism
Maud Dahme, author of Chocolate, the Taste of Freedom, describes her experience of being hidden with her younger sister in the homes of ‘righteous gentiles’ during World War II.
Maud, 6.5 years old and her sister Rita, 4.5 years old, were two young Jewish girls who were first hidden by the Dutch resistance on the Spronk farm. The Spronks were a very religious, childless Christian couple in their 60s who gave the girls a new identity and protected them for more than two years.
Around Christmas of 1944, the girls’ whereabouts were discovered and they were moved to a fishing village to live with the Westerink family until the end of the war.
At that time, they went back to the Spronk farm where they were reunited with their parents who had also survived the war by being hidden by the resistance.
The adjustment to living with their parents again was a difficult one and Maud had a breakdown at the age of 10. She eventually recovered, but found her greatest healing years later as an adult when she began to speak about her war experience after she encountered Holocaust deniers in the USA, where she had moved.
As a hidden child, she prayed every night that she wouldn’t be found. Maud was fearful that she would mess up and expose her real identity or where she was from. She had nightmares for many years after the war.
Maud is troubled by all of the lies that people continue to believe and spread about the Holocaust.
She and her sister were the recipients of kindness and caring from generous strangers and Maud believes in the importance of caring for others. Her message is to embrace each other. Regardless of how we look, speak or where we are from, we are all the same inside.
Leave a Reply