The House On The Canal by Thomas Harding

A building located in the middle of Amsterdam next to a canal was referred to by Anne Frank as "the old house on the canal."  That house had it's beginnings long ago. 

In 1580, the land where the "tall, narrow house" would come to stand was part of a marshland filled with field mice and seagulls. In the 1600's people came to build a canal that had strong walls. In 1635, a stonemason built a brick house with a green door close to the canal. When he required more space, the stonemason built an annex at the back of the house. More homes were built next to the house, one with blue shutters, another with red shutters, as well as a church with bells that rang four times every hour. 

In 1653, the house was the home of a woman with twelve children. She had fled persecution because of her Christian beliefs.  The plague raged along the canal in 1709, but the woman and her family survived. She lived for many years there. The Great Frost came, freezing the canal, meaning that food and water could not be supplied to the people that lived hear the canal. Eventually a wealthy merchant and his wife moved into the rundown house, repainting and repairing the annex. Although they had no children there were parties and many of their friends visited. Eventually the merchant died and his wife moved out of the house. After many winters, the ground floor of the house became stables for horses. It soon became a place of business.

By 1880 the house on the canal was still used as a home with people living in both the front and the annex in the back. The area around the house and the canal smelled like rotten eggs. In 1884 a fire raged blistering the brick walls but firefighters saved the house. In the early 1900's the house once again became the home for a family, an ironmonger, his wife and children. The stage was set for the house to play an important part in a war that saw millions killed.

Discussion

The House On The Canal is a picture book that traces the history of the house that would become known as the Anne Frank House, so named because it was where Anne Frank and her family along with the van Pels family and a dentist hid from the Nazis during the occupation of Holland in World War II. In the back matter of the book, the author writes that the house was built on a canal, called the Prinsengracht (or Prince's Canal) by Dirk van Delft in 1635. He eventually added on to the rear of the house, an addition called the annex which would play a part in hiding Anne and seven others.

Although Harding doesn't mention them by name in his account, in the back matter he does identify the people mentioned: Baefje Bisschop was the woman with twelve children who found refuge in the home, the wealthy merchant was Isaac van Vleuten who moved into the house in 1740 with his wife Cornelia, the ironmonger was Alle Pieron who moved into the house in 1901.Of course many readers will know that the "...tall man in a fine suit" was Otto Frank and the "young girl with a sweet smile" was his daughter Anne.

Otto Frank moved his businesses into the house in 1940 but when the Nazis began rounding up the Jewish people in Amsterdam in 1942, he moved his family into the top three floors of the annex where they lived hidden for over two years. Sadly Anne and the other Jewish people were betrayed by an unknown person and sent to concentration camps. Only Otto would survive the war, returning to Amsterdam in 1945. Anne's diary had been recovered from the annex by two of Otto's employees, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. It was given to Otto upon his return. The house was bought by NY Berghaus who were convinced by Otto Frank to donate it. More than a million people visit the restored house annually.

Thomas Harding previously authored a picture book about a house his great-grandfather built outside of Berlin prior to World War II, exploring the unique history of that house and how his family lost and then regained it. In this latest offering, Harding explores the history of a better known house, the annex that was the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family during World War II. Readers are taken back to the very beginning, before the canal existed and before the house was built. The timeline approach, with each two page spread featuring a specific year, identified in the upper right corner of the right page, offers readers a coherent and easy to follow story. Readers can see how, over a period of centuries, a house can be used in many different ways: as a home for a family,  as a place of work and sometimes as a place of refuge. The simple text is accompanied by illustrations done in mixed media by illustrator, Britta Teckentrup.

The House On The Canal offers a unique and interesting way to introduce young readers to the story of Anne Frank. Although there is a photograph of the Annex taken in 1954, a more recent colour photograph of the house, along with a photograph of Anne Frank would have put a face to the name.

Book Details:

The House On The Canal by Thomas Harding
Somerville, Mass.: Candlewich Studio     2025

The Girl In the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

"This is all completely insane and every new piece of information only compounds the insanity. I'm trying to find a girl who vanished from a closed house. Who cannot be reported missing, because if the police found her, it would be worse for her than if they'd never gone looking at all. "

It is January 1943. Winter in Amsterdam. Holland has been occupied for the last two and half years by Nazi Germany.

Hanneke Bakker is on her way to make her "deliveries" of black market items. Hanneke trades in the black market - the "illicit underground exchange of goods" such as potatoes, meat, and lard so her family can survive. She hunts down items that can no longer be easily found in shops such as bacon, tea and chocolate. To Miss Akkerman, her first customer on this Tuesday morning,  she brings lotions and lipstick.

Hanneke's next customer, Mrs. Janssen, has requested sausage. The Janssen's have three sons, the two older ones have moved to London and America, but the youngest son died on the Dutch front lines attempting to protect Holland's border from the German invasion. Her husband disappeared a few months ago and Hanneke never asked about his whereabouts. She offers Hanneke real coffee and stroopwafel and insists she visit. Mrs. Janssen then tells Hanneke the real reason for asking her to stay: she wants Hanneke to find a missing person.

Mrs. Janssen has been hiding a young Jewish girl in a tiny room off her pantry. Her husband Hendrik had a business partner David Roodveldt who is Jewish. The Roodveldts included wife Rose, and their two daughters Lea and fifteen year old Mirjam. In July, David came to Hendrik needing a place to hide, so David brought them to his furniture shop where he built a secret room. Mrs. Janssen did not know her husband was hiding the Roodveldts and didn't find out until one night last month when a girl wearing a pale blue coat showed up at her door. That girl was Mirjam Roodveldt. She told Mrs. Janssen about the hidden room and that someone betrayed Hendrik. The Nazis came to the factory but when Hendrik claimed he didn't know and David tried to intervene, all were murdered by the soldiers. Mirjam escaped out the front door of the factory.  Mrs. Janssen tells Hanneke that she was hiding Mirjam in the secret room in her pantry until yesterday at noon. When she returned from visiting her neighbour, Mrs. Veenstra, she discovered Mirjam was gone. Mrs. Janssen has no idea how she left the house unseen nor where she might have gone. Hanneke promises Mrs. Janssen nothing mainly because she is trying only to survive the war.

Hanneke's purpose in life at this time is to try to help her family survive, not to find missing persons. Her father is unable to work because of an injury during the Great War. Hanneke works as a receptionist for Mr. Kreuk, an undertaker. But Kreuk also has a second job for Hanneke. Using the ration cards of dead people, he stocks up on supplies and resells them at higher prices on the black market. Later on in the day after talking with Mrs. Janssen, Hanneke and her family witness their neighbour, Mr. Bierman who is Jewish being taken away by the NSB officers. Life in Amsterdam has changed so much for Hanneke and her family. Her best friend Elsbeth is now living with a German soldier. Her boyfriend Sebastian (Bas) Van de Kamp was killed on the Dutch front two years ago.

Hanneke decides to go back to Mrs. Janssen and ask her more about Mirjam. She learns that Mirjam attended the Jewish Lyceum. Even though it is now 3pm, Hanneke decides this might be the perfect time to sneak into the school unnoticed when the hallways are filled with students leaving. However, she finds the school quiet and mostly empty of students who are either in hiding or have been taken away by the Germans. At the Jewish school, Hanneke is confronted by a tall, young woman only a few years older than herself. She tells Hanneke nothing. When Hanneke returns home around 6pm she finds Bas's older brother Ollie waiting for her. Ollie, a university student, takes Hanneke for a walk and questions her about her visit to the Jewish Lyceum. Ollie reveals that the young woman Hanneke met at the school, Judith came to him because she believed Hanneke might be a Nazi scout. After pressure from Ollie, Hanneke reveals that she is looking for a fifteen-year-old girl and wants to meet Judith again to ask her. Ollie invites her to their supper club that both he and Judith, also a university student attend.

That supper club turns out to be a small resistance group that includes Ollie, Judith and her friend Sanne, Willem, Leo, and is part of a larger network. The group is struggling to provide fake ration cards for the people that they have been helping in hiding. From Judith, Hanneke learns about how the beautiful theatre, Hollandsche Schouwburg has been turned into a deportation center for the Jewish population who are shipped to the camps. Judith's cousin, Mina works in the nursery or creche which keeps the children separate from their parents until they are deported to the camps. Hanneke learns that any Jewish person who is caught up in the nightly sweeps, regardless of whether they received their deportation notice, would be sent to Schouwburg. She needs to discover if Mirjam might be in Schouwburg.

As Hanneke continues her search for Mirjam she confronts the reality of the Nazi occupation of Holland and the effect of war on the Dutch people. Hanneke also begins to discover the risks the hidden resistance takes to save even a few Jewish children. As she uncovers the truth of Mirjam's disappearance, she discovers friendship, jealousy and unintended betrayal while dealing with the loss of the boy she loved.

Discussion

The Girl In The Blue Coat is a finely crafted historical novel about life in occupied Holland. Set over the span of eight days in January of 1943, the novel follows Hanneke Bakker, whose blond hair would make her a poster girl for the Nazi party, as she searches for a missing Jewish girl.

At first Hanneke doesn't want to get involved in the mystery of Mirjam's disappearance but Hanneke undergoes a transformation over the week portrayed in the novel. Initially she is concerned only with survival, like the majority of her fellow Dutch citizens. War, occupation and the loss of her boyfriend have hardened Hanneke to some degree.  When Mrs. Janssen wants her help, Hanneke's initial reaction is "Too bad she didn't realize I don't need to be buttered up. I work for money, not kindness." Even after Mrs. Janssen tells her story, Hanneke states "The explanation doesn't matter, really. I can't help her, no matter how sad her story is. It's too dangerous. Survival first. That's my war motto. After Bas, it might be my life motto...Now I transport black market goods, but only because it feeds me and my family. I flirt with German soldiers, but only because it saves me. Finding a missing girl does nothing for me at all."

Hanneke insists she is a different person from the one she was before the war. She doesn't believe she can change a situation that is much bigger than her small world.  "Finding this girl is not who I am anymore. That action is soft; I am practical. That action is hopeful; I am not. The world is crazy; I can't change it." She tells Mrs. Janssen that she will consider finding Mirjam but as Hanneke begins to learn about Mirjam she finds herself drawn into becoming  "an accidental member of the resistance."  And she finds herself drawn into asking "Mirjam. Where did you go?"  Hanneke decides to help Mrs. Janssen partly as an act of rebellion against the Nazis, partly to try to put a bit of order into her "corner of the world" but also as "a way of finding the person I used to be." 

When it appears that Mirjam has been caught in a sweep and is at the dreadful Hollandsche Schouwburg, Hanneke becomes determined to free her and prevent her from being taken to the camps. Ollie tells her that his group cannot help her and that they cannot risk the resistance network for one girl. But Hanneke responds, "I know your 'greater good', Ollie, but if the good that you're working so hard for is one that won't work to rescue a fifteen-year-old girl, then is it worth it anyway? What kind of society are you trying to save?" 

Hesse builds the tension in her story with numerous plot twists that lead to the revelation of what really happened to Mirjam and her best friend, Amalia. The terrible tragedy plays out despite Hanneke and the resistance group's efforts. Like her own situation with Bas, there are unintended consequences of certain actions. Just as Amalia unwittingly revealed Mirjam's family's secret hiding place leading to the death of four people, Hanneke's pressuring of Bas to sign up led to his death. Hanneke did not believe Bas would die and feels enormous guilt over his death, just as Amalia felt enormous guilt over what happened to Mirjam's family. However, unlike Amalia who tried to fix her mistake, Hanneke can never undo what she's done. She comes to realize that doing good deeds will never make her feel better about the loss of Bas, but that healing is possible. "Maybe we can't barter our feelings away, trading good deeds for bad ones and expecting to be whole."

Hesse also effectively portrays the effect of war on people; how fear and the desire to survive at all cost changes people so that they no longer resist evil but unwittingly co-operate by simply doing nothing. For example Hanneke notes that after Mr. Bierman is arrested, "the shop assistant is selling vegetables to a customer, as though the store's owner wasn't just put into a truck and carted away, as though Mrs. Bierman's world wasn't just turned upside down."

When Hanneke and Willem watch one of the forced marches from the Schouwburg, Hanneke notes how people simply ignore what is happening. "The prisoners follow, carrying suitcases, disheveled and tired like they haven't slept in days. The crowd is big, maybe seventy people, and the soldiers march them down the middle of the street. It's a lovely winter day in Amsterdam, and though there are other people on the street, couples like me and Willem, nobody acts like the forced parade of people is out of the ordinary. Our sense of the ordinary has become horrifying."

Hesse also touches on the Dutch citizens who were on friendly terms with their Nazi occupiers and how they were thought of by their fellow citizens. This is done through Hanneke's friend Elsbeth. Hanneke and Elsbeth were close friends for twelve years but their friendship died when Elsbeth became involved with a German soldier and eventually married him. Hanneke refuses to attend Elsbeth and Rolf's wedding and she grieves over how the Nazi's poison everything.

There's plenty of references to some of the resistance actions by the Dutch and to how the Dutch Jewish population suffered. In this way Hesse creates a realistic setting for novel so that readers get a true sense of the what the Nazi occupation was like. Ollie, who it is revealed is a homosexual, confides his secret to Hanneke but questions her as to whether she will tell. Even at the end of the novel when Hanneke expresses her happiness over the defeat of the Nazi's at Stalingrad, she experiences momentary fear that the woman on the train may be a Nazi sympathizer.

The Girl In The Blue Coat is a combination of historical fiction, mystery and adventure. It has a strong heroine and an interesting supporting cast of characters.

Book Details:

The Girl In The Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
New York: Little, Brown & Company    2016
301 pp.

The Baby Experiment by Anne Dublin

Set in Germany, in 1703, The Baby Experiment tells the story of a 14 year old Jewish girl, Johanna Richter, who signs up to work at an orphanage. With her father dead, Johanna and her mother try to support themselves by selling their lace in the market but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make enough to feed their family. Johanna gives a false name, one that isn't Jewish because she knows as a Jew she would never be hired. When Johanna is offered the job, she is told that she must follow one rule absolutely. She must never talk or sing to the babies nor may she hold them longer than is absolutely necessary. Although she thinks the rule is strange and unnatural, Johanna needs this job badly and she accepts the position, without further thought.

Life in Hamburg, Germany during this time is not easy for the Jewish people. They have been prohibited from building a synagogue and rumours are afoot that the Jewish people would no longer be allowed to practice their religion even in private houses. The people of Hamburg have been agitating for the Senate to expel all the Jews in the city and many had moved to safer cities such as Altona and also to Amsterdam in Holland.

When Johanna arrives at the orphanage she learns that the babies are part of an experiment being run by Professor Gottfried Leibniz. Each young woman is assigned a section of the nursery with a number of babies under her care. When a baby cries the girls are to change the diaper and feed the baby but they cannot sing or talk to the baby. The work is tiring and difficult. Soon the babies start dying. Doctor Keller who is the orphanage doctor, tries every remedy he knows to no avail.

One day Johanna overhears a conversation between Keller and Leibniz about the babies and the experiment. She soon comes to understand that the young girls not interacting with the babies is slowly killing them. In effect, they are being asked to emotionally neglect the babies and Johanna cannot do this any longer. Johanna comes to a difficult decision and chooses a drastic course of action. She decides to flee with one of the babies in an attempt to rescue at least one child from death. With the help of Daniel the wagon driver who delivers fresh vegetables and fruit to the orphanage, and accompanied by another young girl, Cecile, Johanna slips out of the orphanage with baby Rebecca.

Johanna's journey is a difficult one, fraught with many dangers. She is aided by a Jewish man who has taken on the appearance and public practice of a Christian, Mendoza. Johanna feels a strange attraction to him. After many adventures, Johanna arrives at her destination knowing she has saved at least one of the babies from certain death.

Author Anne Dublin, lives in Toronto and is an award winning author of historical fiction and juvenile biographies. The Baby Experiment will appeal to younger fans of historical fiction who are looking for something a little different to read. This plot driven short story is well paced and provides young readers with a map to aid in understanding Johanna's journey and the setting of the story. The characters are believable and well conceived.

Johanna is a likeable character who struggles with the ever prevalent discrimination against Jews in Europe at this time. Her deep faith forms the basis for her actions. She is both courageous and intelligent, quick thinking and resourceful. Liked well enough by Cecile at first, when she learns that Johanna is a Jew she changes her opinion almost immediately.

The Baby Experiment touches on a few delicate subjects including human experimentation and prejudice.

Dublin is planning a new historical fiction which is set in 1931 Toronto and deals with the dressmakers strike. This should prove to be another interesting read.

Book Details:
The Baby Experiment by Anne Dublin
Toronto: Dundurn Press    2012
152 pp.