On a trip earlier this year to pay a visit to his widow, my 'adopted' aunt Martha, I learned a surprising story of the role my uncle played in his town during Germany's WWII occupation of Holland. My uncle had originally married my mother’s crazy younger sister, but later in life found a soulmate in my Aunt Martha.

She showed me a school composition notebook he used, or more accurately, that he had made to conceal a Dutch-German dictionary. My uncle studied German in concealment so that if he was apprehended when he was out he could speak the language well enough to pass for a German, as all the Dutch men were conscripted for forced service in the German military.

For years my uncle lived in hiding in the forests during the day and at night stayed in the basement of the town hall, listening to the forbidden radio broadcasts of the BBC and others, relaying the information to Vriezenveeners and the townsfolk each night.

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