There is also betrayal, such as a daughter -in -law of a hiding family. And courage, which surprises Truus herself when she transports weapons on bike for the resistance or brings civilian clothes to French parachutists in Appelscha. She says about it: “I wasn’t a child anymore. I got big. I no longer wanted to be the girl who just waited.”
The biggest blow comes when her mother is arrested on the street in Amsterdam, when she wants to get money that was placed with a notary. Money that was needed to be able to pay a hiding. “I said: don’t go, I’m going to work hard here,” says Truus. And it’s going wrong. Her mother is deported to Auschwitz, where she survives medical experiments, but returns heavily drawn. “Only from her eyes did I see it was my mother.”
After the war, Truus and her brother return to Hoogeveen. A new shock awaits there: their house has been taken, their things divided among neighbors. “How can you do this? We ago“ Truus shouts. Guido Abuys: “This happened more often. People who returned after hiding or camp discovered that nothing was left of their old life.”
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