Behind the Fireplace

Memoirs of a Girl Working in the Dutch Resistance

By: Andrew Scott, Grietje Okma Scott

Narrated by: Esther Wane

As World War II progressed, the Okma family took six Jewish refugees into their house, hiding them in a secret room behind their fireplace. The youngest daughter, Kieks, joined the Resistance, delivering illegal newspapers, guiding British parachutists around The Hague and preparing safe houses for Special Forces who were dropped in from England.

As the war continued, she fell in love with a Resistance commander, and worked with him to rescue wounded colleagues, steal weapons from German arms dumps, and move weapons around the country. They had a tumultuous parting and she continued her work, acting as a courier with a two hundred km bike ride to the north of Holland. When she returned home, she appreciated how much the war had changed her and her boyfriend, and prepared to try a reconciliation.

She escaped a firing squad four times, and survived the war, mentally scarred by her experiences. She sought help, but the help she was offered came in a poisoned chalice, and she kept her secret to herself for almost 50 years. Her family in Holland was recognized by Yad Vashem, the Israeli organization that records those who saved Jews from the Holocaust, and she was awarded a pension for her work in the Resistance by the Dutch foundation Stichting 1940-1945.

©1992 Andrew Scott and Grietje Scott (P)2020 Tantor

Brave heroes and heroins, in The Hague NL

Verry important price of history.
Not much is known about resistance in the Hague and not much about hiding Jews in the Hague.
This story is an important marker in the history of the Hague and ww2 in the Netherlands.

My thanks to family Okma for there sacrifice during the dark years of ww2.

Truth of Difficult Situation

The story is unique in many ways, but I don't want to give much away. I had surprises regarding the aftermath of the war, honesty in the day to day tension of hiding people, the extreme starvation, though I knew of all of these.
It is interesting, too, that the story is not told in first person. I think it helped advance the more mundane, and truth, of existing in occupied Europe at the time.
I would love to hear this same story in her mother's voice: the gripping accounts of danger at every turn, how she managed the fear, the relationships, shame, exhaustion, starvation, love and loss. I realize there would be some license, but a fascinating juxtaposition to this account.

thank you for writing this book

I have read WW2 books all my life. The healing and trauma of living through these horrors is vivid in this book. I am moved to tears for the way main character was treated after the war. I know from my readings this is how many peoples efforts were denied. In light of current world events..I can honestly say... here we go again. Read and learn so you are wiser.

Both sides of the story

This is one of the first accounts I have read where women in the resistance played such a large part, but were so totally disregarded by the outside world! Her experience in Scotland with the physiologist and church officials angered me! It was also interesting how the Jews in hiding felt so different than the ones hiding them. I guess for security sake they didn’t talk together about their experiences.