The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found
Written by Bart van Es
Narrated by Bart van Es
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
The extraordinary true story of a young Jewish girl in Holland under Nazi occupation who finds refuge in the homes of an underground network of foster families, one of them the author's grandparents
Bart van Es left Holland for England many years ago, but one story from his Dutch childhood never left him. It was a mystery of sorts: a young Jewish girl named Lientje had been taken in during the war by relatives and hidden from the Nazis, handed over by her parents, who understood the danger they were in all too well. The girl had been raised by her foster family as one of their own, but then, well after the war, there was a falling out, and they were no longer in touch. What was the girl's side of the story, Bart wondered? What really happened during the war, and after?
So began an investigation that would consume Bart van Es's life, and change it. After some sleuthing, he learned that Lientje was now in her 80s and living in Amsterdam. Somewhat reluctantly, she agreed to meet him, and eventually they struck up a remarkable friendship, even a partnership. The Cut Out Girl braids together a powerful recreation of that intensely harrowing childhood story of Lientje's with the present-day account of Bart's efforts to piece that story together, including bringing some old ghosts back into the light.
It is a story rich with contradictions. There is great bravery and generosity—first Lientje's parents, giving up their beloved daughter, and then the Dutch families who face great danger from the Nazi occupation for taking Lientje and other Jewish children in. And there are more mundane sacrifices a family under brutal occupation must make to provide for even the family they already have. But tidy Holland also must face a darker truth, namely that it was more cooperative in rounding up its Jews for the Nazis than any other Western European country; that is part of Lientje's story too. Her time in hiding was made much more terrifying by the energetic efforts of the local Dutch authorities, zealous accomplices in the mission of sending every Jew, man, woman and child, East to their extermination. And Lientje was not always particularly well treated, and sometimes, Bart learned, she was very badly treated indeed.
The Cut Out Girl is an astonishment, a deeply moving reckoning with a young girl's struggle for survival during war, a story about the powerful love of foster families but also the powerful challenges, and about the ways our most painful experiences define us but also can be redefined, on a more honest level, even many years after the fact. A triumph of subtlety, decency and unflinching observation, The Cut Out Girl is a triumphant marriage of many keys of writing, ultimately blending them into an extraordinary new harmony, and a deeper truth.
Editor's Note
Costa Book of the Year Winner…
“The hidden gem of the year,” according to the judges who unanimously awarded “The Cut Out Girl” the prestigious 2018 Costa Book of the Year. A moving story of a young Jewish girl hidden from the Nazis by the author’s grandparents, who were part of the Dutch resistance.
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Reviews for The Cut Out Girl
22 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bart Van Es won the Costa Award for Biography and for Book of the Year in 2018 and brought to light an area of WWII that I knew little about, namely, the hiding of Jewish children in the Netherlands, from the Nazis. Interestingly, Van Es, an Oxford professor, discovered that his grandparents had hidden the particular child that he discovered in his research, making his quest so much more interesting to him. Lientje, although elderly now, is still alive and the author was able to interview her. One thing he wanted to know was why she had had a falling out with his grandparents after the war. After all, they were among those who went out of their way to save her after her parents died in Auschwitz. He uncovers disturbing information that reveals that sometimes people who try to do the right thing and come to the aid of those less fortunate are ill equipped to handle the trauma that these children face and may even make it worse. Excellent narrating of the book by the author.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just when you think there are no new angles to stories about the Holocaust something comes along that is both desperately tragic but also vital and healing. Lientje’s story is heartbreaking, but it’s related here with compassion and love. It’s about families and surviving. The Dutch don’t come out of this in any great light, but it’s far less about blame than understanding.