Download PDF Dutch Girl Audrey Hepburn and World War II eBook Robert Matzen Luca Dotti

Product details File Size 5456 KB Print Length 416 pages Publisher GoodKnight Books (April 15, 2019) Publication Date April 15, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07MSCBVBJ

Dutch Girl Audrey Hepburn and World War II eBook Robert Matzen Luca Dotti Reviews

• On 4 May 1944 Audrey Hepburn turned 15 years old. The next day I was born. She, her family and neighbors were about to enter the ‘hunger winter’. While I spent the winter fully fed, in a warm home in my mother's arms. A winter where there was no food, heat or electricity. A winter where over 500 Dutch people died of malnutrition each week. Five years prior the that her homeland was occupied by Nazi German troops. This book chronicles those years. The book while depressing at times is the story of a young girl who aspired to become a ballerina but because of the war, among other things missed her goal. Instead she became an Academy Award winning Hollywood actress and eventually a UNICEF ambassador. This is a powerful book and should be read by all, but especially those who loosely toss around the words Nazi, fascist and racist.
• This is a book about Audrey Hepburn but not the movie star person who we got to see in Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady and many other Hollywood Films. This is the young Audrey who was a teenager during the years of the Nazi occupation of her homeland. It reads more like a history book of the war in the Netherlands than it does as a biography of a Hollywood icon and was a well researched look at how Audrey grew up and how it affected her later life.
  
  When Audrey was 11 years old, the Germans began their occupation of the Netherlands. As a child, life didn't change much for her but as time went on and the restrictions gotten worse her life began to change and she had to give up her much loved ballet lessons. In 1944, her life took a turn for the worse when the Allies started bombing the town that she lived in. She and her family spent much of their time in the cellar of their home hoping to survive while bombs exploded all around them. Following that came the 'hunger winter'. There wasn't enough food and many people starved to death. Audrey commented that this was the first time she had ever seen starvation of such a large scale. She had a lot of determination to go from a starving young girl to a Hollywood icon in such a short period of time.
  
  The author of this book worked with the members of Audrey's family plus did considerable research and found out things about Audrey's early life that her family didn't know - that her father was a Nazi agent and her mother was pro-Nazi for the first two years of the occupation. Audrey’s own reminiscences, new interviews with people who knew her in the war, wartime diaries, and research into classified Dutch archives shed light on the riveting, untold story of Audrey Hepburn's life during World War II.
  
  I found this book to be a very well researched and interesting book about a Hollywood icon and how her early life affected the rest of her life when being a UNICEF ambassador and visiting poor places in the world were more important to her than her life in Hollywood.
• My mother was also a "Dutch Girl". I now have a clearer understanding of what she went through as a teenage girl in occupied Holland and why she rarely spoke of it.
• I am of the age that I remember Audrey Hepburn starring in the movies. I always felt she was a brilliant actress. Little did I know that her formative years were spent in the Netherlands during WW II. I am not inclined to watch movies often nor am I star-struck by the Hollywood glamour. This book, however, did pique my interest and I am so glad that I read it.
  
  This is a well-researched book and much attention to the smallest details has been given. Her son, Luca wrote the forward and in it he explained that 'good and evil/love and mercy' were fundamental in his mother's life. Audrey passed away in 1993 which I didn't remember.
  
  In all honesty, how much about the Netherlands have we heard about in WW II? Not much at all. Eight brutal months of combat began in 1944 and the starvation of many occurred. It was known as the Hunger Winter and 20,000 civilians perished including children. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons that Ms. Hepburn was involved in Humanitarian efforts during her lifetime.
  
  I never had any idea that her younger years were filled with such despair and desolation. I kept wondering while reading this book, how individuals overcome their younger years. Just think how young she was at that time. To say she was resilient would be an understatement.
  
  A most interesting glimpse into a life filled with evil and good...including love and the mercy.
  
  Most highly recommended.
• Born in Belgium and having spend the first 18 years of my life there I was always interested in actress Audrey Hepburn.
  Reading this book made me even appreciate her more for the type of woman she had become. I'm so glad this book was researched at a time when some of the children having lived through that awful period under the control of the Nazis where still alive to be able to talk about it.
  If you are looking for a glamorous story this book is not for you. This tells what is was like. Some readers find this is more about the war and life in that five year period under the Nazis then about Audrey. I think they are wrong because it very much gives back her life story at a time when her biggest worry should have been about dancing and to start thinking about boys.
  The chapter notes beginning at page 321 gives a description of the sources consulted. A lot of work and research went into producing this book. Mentioning is made of some YouTube videos which are interesting to watch.
• Ajrnhem was a terrible place to grow up in 1941 when she was ten. It shaped Audrey's life. Easy read.
• A heartbreaking story. It is good that we never forget what WWII was about and the affect it had on the people who loved through it.