Edith's Story

FOR READERS WHO WERE MOVED BY ANNE FRANK'S DIARY, THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, and THE CHOICE. When Hitler invaded Holland in 1939, Edith van Hessen was a popular Dutch high school student. She also happened to be Jewish. In the same month that Anne Frank's family went into hiding, Edith was sent to live with a courageous Protestant family, took a new name, and survived by posing as a gentile. Ultimately one-third of the hidden Dutch Jews were discovered and murdered; most of Edith's family perished. Velmans's memoir is based on her teenage diaries, wartime letters, and reflections as an adult survivor. In recounting wartime events and the details of her feelings as the war runs its course, Edith's Story ultimately affirms life, love, and extraordinary courage. "The most vivid evocation of the experience of Nazi Occupation that I have ever read." - The Independent (London)

Edith Velmans became a psychologist after the war and eventually settled with her husband Loet in the United States. In 1996 she was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Edith's Story is published in ten languages and won the 1998 Jewish Quarterly's Wingate Prize for nonfiction. She passed away in 2023 aged 97.