The Curtain: Witness and Memory in Wartime Holland

A.J. Pell is rector of Christ Church in Hope, B.C., editor of the
Canadian Evangelical Review, and an instructor of Liturgy, Anglican
Studies Programme at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C.

Henry Schogt and his wife, Corrie, were only 12 and 11 respectively when
World War II began. The Curtain is Schogt’s account of six difficult
years for a Dutch boy and a Jewish girl in Holland.

The seven chapters detail seven memories (four are Henry’s and three
are Corrie’s), stories of particular people or objects that signify
the terror and the small successes and losses each endured.

“Alex” was a Jewish school chum of Henry’s who was rounded up by
the Nazis for forced labour and death. “The Fortune Teller” betrayed
a Jewish lad and his girlfriend. “Mr Rozenberg’s Cigars” were part
of the prized possessions hidden for him by Henry’s father until they
were reclaimed after the war. “Mussels” were the last meal
Corrie’s family ever ate together. “The Curtain” hid Corrie’s
parents from the death train, but not from the final train ever to leave
Theresienstadt for Auschwitz. “In the Dark” tells of Henry’s aunt,
a collaborator. “Lilies of the Valley and Asparagus” grew on the
estate where Corrie was hidden during the summers of 1943 and 1944.

Schogt portrays the reality of life in occupied Holland, with some
working to oppose Nazi schemes for the Dutch Jews, some willingly
assisting those plans, and many indifferent to anything but their own
personal efforts to survive. His honest assessments make this book a
powerful witness to a tragic time.