The Diary Keepers

World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It

De: Nina Siegal

Narrado por: Nina Siegal, Maggi-Meg Reed, Nan McNamara, Catherine Taber, Jenna Lamia, Rob Shapiro, Mike Ortego, Robert Petkoff, Steven Jay Cohen, Jim Meskimen

A riveting look at the story of World War II and the Holocaust through the diaries of Dutch citizens, firsthand accounts of ordinary people living through extraordinary times

Based on select writings from a collection of more than two thousand Dutch diaries written during World War II in order to record this unparalleled time, and maintained by devoted archivists, The Diary Keepers illuminates a part of history we haven’t seen in quite this way before, from the stories of a Nazi sympathizing police officer to a Jewish journalist who documented daily activities at a transport camp.

Journalist Nina Siegal, who grew up in a family that had survived the Holocaust in Europe, had always wondered about the experience of regular people during World War II. She had heard stories of the war as a child and Anne Frank’s diary, but the tales were either crafted as moral lessons—to never waste food, to be grateful for all you receive, to hide your silver—or told with a punch line. The details of the past went untold in an effort to make it easier assimilate into American life.

When Siegal moved to Amsterdam as an adult, those questions came up again, as did another horrifying one: Why did seventy five percent of the Dutch Jewish community perish in the war, while in other Western European countries the proportions were significantly lower? How did this square with the narratives of Dutch resistance she had heard so much about and in what way did it relate to the famed tolerance people in the Netherlands were always talking about? Perhaps more importantly, how could she raise a Jewish child in this country without knowing these answers?

Searching and singular, The Diary Keepers mines the diaries of ordinary citizens to understand the nature of resistance, the workings of memory, and the ways we reflect on, commemorate, and re-envision the past.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Nina Siegal (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Well done

Difficult topic, but very well done. I applaud the writer and all her support for the research they must’ve had to do to compile this information from the diary writer’s point of view.

Informative and interesting

Likes: All the diary entries were presented chronologically. Dislikes: The author's pronunciation of the letter B (bay).

Superior work!

This is a book that will have a place in history.
Do not trifle. Read!

Not surprising but extraordinary research

I haven't quite finished this book yet, and will admit that I skipped some chapters in total, as I found them to be redundant in nature, but the author's research and information given are very impressive and important. I say "not surprising" as the Netherlands were never a Jew-loving country; historically, a part of the German region, I believe, so it is no surprise that it has the highest death rate of Western Euro countries. And, in addition, their so-called resistance movement was anemic at best. Nothing like the Russian, the Croatian partisans, the French, and Polish. The Dutch "went along", collaborated, supported and whole-heartedly agreed, for the most part, with the deportations and "cleansing" of the population: of Jews, of Roma, and anyone else who wasn't "them". There is no surprise at all that someone ratted out the Frank family. Surprised it didn't happen earlier. The Dutch have always been rule followers, in my opinion, not ones to rattle cages so to speak. The rule breakers are undercover. So, all in all, of course the vast majority of Dutch Jews died terrible deaths; few returned. And frankly, why should they, to a country that didn't give a damn about them? I do think her last chapters on the increasing telling of the Holocaust by survivors, the archives, the books, etc, is very interesting, and so true in her analysis. People didn't want to speak of it, or denied it, or diminished it, didn't believe it was as bad as survivors said, etc etc etc. As every day, more survivors die of old age, it becomes increasingly important to keep talking, especially in today's world and overt rise of antisemitism.