Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir by Shulamit Reinharz

Buy this book at Amazon or for Kindle or at Bookshop

Holocaust Survivor True Stories

The authors of this striking memoir, Hiding in Holland, survivor Max Rothschild and his daughter Shulamit Reinharz, tell the story of a Jewish man who saved his life repeatedly during the Holocaust, eventually being hidden by Dutch Righteous Gentiles for three years. Hiding in Holland presents Max’s roller-coaster ride of living and almost dying in Holland, exploring in depth what it meant to be an onderduiker. What was it like to hide in a brothel or with someone you didn’t like? What was it like to switch hiding locations repeatedly? How did outsiders help? How did hiders deal with Nazi raids? And how did Max retain his sanity?

Max answers these questions by offering a new definition of “resistance” understood in terms of the Jewish person’s experience. Shulamit introduces historical contexts that challenge the exaggerated stereotypes of the valorous Dutch. Together, this inner and outer perspective helps explain why the Netherlands had the worst record of Jewish annihilation of all Western European countries. Only now are Dutch government leaders acknowledging the truth.

Year first published: 2024