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De Meelstreep
Terugkeer en opvang na de Tweede Wereldoorlog
by Bossenbroek, Martin
What was coming home like to exiles, 'colonials', deportees and concentration camp survivors? A royal welcome for them too? This book starts of with the Dutch royal family and then focuses on other returnees. Queen Wilhelmina crossed the socalled "meelstreep" on March 13, 1945, when she returned to the Netherlands from exile at the Zeeuws-Vlaanderen town of Eede. This line marked the border which has been used in the tile as the imaginary line for all those who reentered the Netherlands from a German concentration camp. As former prisoners returned home from their ordeal, they were met by strict rule-book conscious officials, frequently with little or no empathy for these documentation-scarce victims of war. The author examined an overwhelming amount of information, classified policy directives and confidential reports, revealing documents and gripping testimonies about personal losses, psychological confusion, injustice and a surprising lack of empathy. The book reveals how deep the rift in Dutch society ran as a result of the occupation and WWII. Those being evacuated from the Dutch East Indies tropics experienced their welcome by officialdom as a frosty blast from the Arctic, little or no empathy for their uprooted situation.
Hardcover, 687 pages, Bibliography, notes, register, Dutch language, special import
USD 22.95 / CAD 29.95