Hendrika de Vries - When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew: A Memoir

This gripping story of survival in Amsterdam during World War II is a tribute to the fiercely courageous mother who keeps her child (the author) and herself alive after her husband is shipped off to a Nazi work camp. Hendrika de Vries writes, we were a generation of children raised in war and oppression who learned that people disappeared from their homes, from school, and off the street, and you did not ask questions. This beautifully crafted memoir reminds us that we are never far from oppression by those who wish to silence us.

Maureen Murdock, author of The Heroines Journey: Womans Quest for Wholeness

Reading Hendrika de Vriess memoir of her childhood in WWII Amsterdam was a real adventure for me, one that stirred up many memories of my own, less traumatic, experience of those years. I am especially impressed by how superbly she communicates both the perspective of the child she once was and of her present self and by her richly detailed memories of the Hunger Winter of 1944 to 45, the absence of the father she loved, and her mothers bravery. She writes honestly, too, of the postwar difficulties for each of themmother, father, childwhen the father returned and they had to rediscover how to be a family once again. Hendrika is a fine, fine storyteller.

Christine Downing, PhD, scholar and author of The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine and The Luxury of Afterwards

A nail-biting tale of female strength, spiritual resilience, and resistance to evil that is relevant today. You wont forget this beautifully written story.

Dr. Betsy Cohen, psychoanalyst and author of Snow White Syndrome

DeVriess book is a beautifully told story of the madness and joys circling everyday life in a childs neighborhood in wartime. The vividness of her memories serves to frighten in one moment and nourish the next. In that way her narrative is like a Northern European fairy talethe old kind: gripping, devastating, and enchanting. Her understanding of the psyche of a family will be fascinating to people working with trauma and family therapies and epigenetic transmission of experienceeven though she intentionally never leans on the language of these fields. Her inspiring story speaks eloquently for itself.

Nor Hall, author of The Moon and The Virgin: Reflections on the Archetypal Feminine

This invaluable memoir is written in the authentic voice of a child but informed by a mature adult sensibility that continues to bring insights as it progresses. It portrays a real-life, ordinary woman who risks her life and her daughters to hide a Jewish girl who becomes a stepsister in the home. This eminently readable book illuminates the bonds that develop between mother and daughter in wartime, the daily grind of home life under the Nazis, and the devastating consequences of the war even for a family where everyone survives. Dont start it in bed. You wont be able to put it down.

Mary Fillmore, author of Sarton Womens Book Award winner An Address in Amsterdam

A riveting memoir of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam as seen through the eyes of a young Dutch girl. A hidden Jewish girl, a Gestapo interrogation at gunpoint, betrayals of neighbors, and near starvation during the Hunger Winter make this harrowing saga a tale of moral choice, spiritual stamina, and resistance that has relevance for our times.

Patricia Reis, author of award-winning Motherlines: Love, Longing, and Liberation

From the first page, DeVriess book left me holding my breath at what she and her parents went through when the Nazis took over Amsterdam, one of the worst times in western history. When age five, she lost a comfortable and safe world. DeVriess storytelling makes this nonfiction book read like a good novel. Readers almost live what she and her family experienced, and how they rebuilt their life.

Susan Miles Gulbransen, book columnist for the Santa Barbara News-Press and Noozhawk

The title of Hendrika de Vriess memoir made me instantly curious about what it could mean; I wondered what myth could be lurking in its folds. But I could not have grasped the fierce pull of the narrative describing her world in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1950, which covers the horrific brutality of the Third Reich in her city and the suffering it engendered in inhuman forms of barbarism. But even more, it relates the astonishing strength of her mother, who kept the two of them alive during horrific conditions of survival, starvation, and then starting over. Hendrika is a master storyteller.

Dennis Patrick Slattery, PhD, author of Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story, and A Pilgrimage Beyond Belief: Spiritual Journeys through Christian and Buddhist Monasteries of the American West

When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew...

Copyright 2019 by Hendrika deVries

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published August 2019
Printed in the United States of America
Print ISBN: 978-1-63152-658-9
E-ISBN: 978-1-63152-659-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019934428

For information, address:
She Writes Press
1569 Solano Ave #546
Berkeley, CA 94707

She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

In memory of my parents
They showed me what strength of character looks like.

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

Corrie ten Boom, Dutch resistance fighter in WWII

T his is a work of nonfiction. The events and experiences described are historically true and recounted as faithfully as I remember them; with an acknowledgment that early childhood experiences and often-repeated family stories have a tendency to blend in memory. I have changed some names for the sake of privacy, but have intentionally left others as they still live inside of me. To change them would feel inauthentic and dishonorable. Conversations and dialogues occurred originally in Dutch and have been reconstructed in English from recollections and childhood impressions. They do not represent word-by-word accounts or translations; rather I have retold them in the way that preserves the meaning of what was said and conveys the emotional spirit of our encounters and relationships.

Amsterdam, October 1944

Y ou are seven years old and have never known your mother to be anything but disciplined and in control, even when interrogated at gunpoint, so why is she suddenly marching through the house flipping on every light switch? Like a woman possessed, she strides with determination from room to room: first into her bedroom where she flicks on the lamp on the dresser and the reading light next to her bed, then into your bedroom where she pushes up the wall switch, and then, with a quick yank, pulls the knobby chain on the white ceramic cat with the crooked lampshade on his head that makes everyone smile. With an abrupt turn, she enters the hallway as you walk behind her, your questions silenced by the grim set of her mouth and the intimidating force of her swinging arms that almost hit your head. Now into the bathroom, after which she stomps into the living and dining rooms to turn on more wall switches, yank chains, and push buttons for ceiling lights and single lamps.