Memories of World War II

A teenager’s experiences during the Second World War in the Netherlands

Han van Nijen, 90, returned to pay a nostalgic visit to his parental home in the Diepenveenseweg in the town of Deventer in 2019. His visit unlocked a flood of memories that give the reader an extraordinarily intimate picture of the rigours of wartime life in the Occupied Netherlands. Despite his youth, Han played a part in the Dutch Resistance together with his brother Wim, his father, an uncle and even the landlord, although at the time Han was unaware of the full extent of their involvement. Wim, who suffered a gunshot injury during the war as a resistance fighter, died from complications relating directly to his wound in 1947.