Stumbling Across History with Imogen Matthews

In November, I received some mail from Nunspeet, Holland.  Imogen Matthews posted an article to Books in my Handbag Blog, during her annual holiday. On opening the email, I was delighted to read about how she stumbled upon history and the real hidden village.

Imogen Matthews is the author of The Hidden Village, an intriguing historical fiction, and it is a pleasure to hand over my blog to her, today.

 

 

The real hidden village and why I wrote a novel about it

The Pas-Opweg: Inspiration for the front cover of The Hidden Village

The woods are perfectly quiet at this time of year and the only sound is our bikes crunching over fallen beech nuts. We’re on the long straight avenue of tall beech trees arching upwards to meet in the middle. Their leaves still cling on, burnished gold by the sun’s setting rays. It’s a scene I never tire of.  At the crossroads, we stop briefly to take photos, as we always do, and carry on towards the hidden village. We know it well after discovering it only a few years ago.

 

 

Signpost to Het Verscholen Dorp -the real hidden village

I always look forward to our annual holidays in Nunspeet, where we stay in gezellig holiday houses tucked away in the woods. We know all the cycle routes that track across the heath, past improbable sand dunes and along narrow paths leading deep into the woods.

 

At least, we thought we did until one day back in 2011, we cycled past a large boulder with something written on it. I stopped to discover it was a memorial stone to the local community who had sacrificed so much to help people persecuted by the Germans in World War 2. I was astonished to learn this piece of history. In 21 years of cycling holidays, no one had ever mentioned this place, nor had I ever read anything  about it.

Across the path was a sign to Het Verscholen Dorp, Dutch for hidden village. It wasn’t easy to see what was there, which was probably the point. We followed a rough path through the trees and ahead of us was a hut of some sort, only partly visible. The roof was covered with moss, vegetation and branches to look like the ground beside it. It was a reconstruction of an underground hut that had stood on this spot.

 

Reconstruction of an underground hut

These huts were as dark and secluded as the one shown here, designed to be invisible to the naked eye. Whole families lived inside these cramped spaces and many were so relieved to have somewhere safe to live that they were prepared to put up with less than perfect conditions.

After discovering Het Verscholen Dorp, I was enthused to find out more, but there was very little written material or information on the internet. This made me even more intrigued: so few people today know about what happened on this spot that I wanted to write my own story visualising the events and their effect on these brave people. I knew I didn’t want to write a historical account, but a narrative based on imagined characters who flee to safety inside the village and others who put their own lives at risk to help them. The reality was that there was a huge community who devised the plans to build the village, clandestinely helping to bring people there and provide them with everything they needed, including food, clothing, medicines books and news from the outside. It was remarkable that this village stayed hidden for so long from the Germans patrolling these woods. They suspected something was going on but were unable to uncover the village however hard they tried.

Every year we go back and I walk around the “village” which today consists of three underground huts. There would have been more back in 1943-1944, housing nearly 100 Jewish men, women and children, fallen English and American pilots, Dutch men who resisted going to Germany to work for the Germans and other nationalities looking to escape the Nazis. People were in hiding all over the Veluwe woods, in farmhouse attics, cellars, outbuildings and other purpose-built dwellings, but this was the only organised village.

Today, the woods are a haven for people looking to escape busy lives in towns and cities. The Veluwe is a popular holiday destination, but deep in the woods  it’s always tranquil. I imagine how quiet it must have been 74 years ago, although for many the peace was tempered by an undercurrent of threat and fear.

In my story, Tante Else and her helpers do all they can to keep up people’s spirits by visiting every Sunday with coffee, cakes and news.

Tante Else put down her basket and took out a packet of coffee and a cake wrapped in a tea towel. The smell of cinnamon filled the room. She must have baked it that morning. Everyone crowded round to see and soon the hut filled with chatter and laughter.

‘It’s real coffee,’ cried Corrie, taking a deep sniff as she spooned it out into the pan. Tante Else smiled, but wouldn’t let on where she’d obtained such a rare commodity. None had tasted real coffee for months. Everyone had grown sick of the ersatz stuff made from roasted chicory that didn’t taste at all like coffee, just burnt. The smell of coffee filled the air and its effect was as intoxicating as alcohol.

Soon their conversation becomes subdued as Liesbeth, Oscar and tante Else bring them the news from outside. Sofie, just 16 years old, has recently moved to the village and is having difficulty settling in and following all the rules.

‘They’re forcing Jews to wear a big yellow star when they go out. Everyone and anyone can be stopped and searched and if they don’t have ID on them, they’ll be arrested. Every day we’re hearing about people disappearing,’ said Liesbeth.

‘My uncle was arrested in Amsterdam last month. He only just avoided being sent to Vught. Father’s been so angry about this. It’s why he wants this village to be a success,’ said Oscar quietly.

‘This is why it’s best you’re here for the time being. I hope you understand now why we have these rules, which might seem petty, but are for everyone’s safety,’ said tante Else, whose gaze landed on Sofie.

It was too much to bear. Sofie looked away…

 

Contact Imogen at:

https://twitter.com/ImogenMatthews3

https://m.facebook.com/TheHiddenVillagenovel/?locale2=en_GB

 

Visit my Author Chat Room to meet Imogen Matthews.  Please see my review of The Hidden Village at My Reading.

 

Please see my blog at jessiecahalin.com.

 

A forgotten history in my handbag

The Hidden Village

 

Imogen Matthews

 

 

 

 

This novel takes you back in time to World War Two, in Holland, and is based on fact.  You will find yourself in the village of Berkenhout, hidden deep inside the woods.  Reading this narrative, with the hindsight of a 21st century reader, you fear for the people throughout the book.  Turning each page with dread, you try to hope…

From the outset, Jewish people disappear in the Dutch village.  There is ‘A windowless van parked up ahead, its back doors open and the German soldiers were shouting at the elderly couple to get in.’  Such occurrences become part of everyday life for a community that decides to ‘stand up’ and support their Jewish neighbours.   It is an incredible story!

The community hide their Jewish neighbours in attics and summerhouses. Eventually, an entire village is constructed, in the woods, to protect these vulnerable people.  It is intriguing to observe how a community work together.  In turn, Matthews examines how the hidden villagers feel trapped.  It is sad that ‘freedom seemed an impossible dream’ yet we know it is better than the fate of their counterparts outside of the village.  How could they have realised the danger?  The German occupation is an ever-present menace that pursues the characters.  ‘All it took was a stray German to bump into’ one of children running through the woods with supplies.  Will they be caught?

The pathways, the darkness and the sounds of the forest help to personify the menace that is present throughout the novel. Sofie observes that:

‘for now, the sun was shining and it filled her with the warmth she’d forgotten existed’

The woods that symbolised freedom and adventure for children become an uncertain place.  As in a nightmare, the shadows of fear begin to dominate but will the monsters ever become real?

A society is developed with rules, regulations and leaders but there is tension.  Matthews explores the pressures of a community within a community.  She presents some very strong central characters who grow up in this unnatural world.  It is heart-breaking to observe how the children lose their innocence.  These children live with uncertainty and broken families – they have to find an inner strength.  The community spirit is heartening yet wanes under the burden of war.  Some of the younger characters rely on friendships to support them but they learn about cold, brutal betrayal.

This isn’t a fairy-tale in the woods and ‘you just have to keep hoping’.   You won’t go hurtling from one resolution to another.  You know that not all the characters will survive.  But you will take a look at how brave, unselfish people can work together in the face of injustice and discrimination.  Children will play a real game of cat and mouse, with the Germans, as they risk their lives to deliver food to hidden villagers.

The woods also conceal a village that provides sanctuary for lost souls. You will find Englishmen, Russians, a defective German, an American. World War Two was fought in villages by brave people. Sometimes these brave people feel the weight of responsibility; sometimes these people go missing and sometimes they return.  The narrative successfully captures the world of chaos.  There are raids by German soldiers and some news of the outside world but even this information is in the shadows.  The reader is distanced, with the villagers, from the outside world but niggled by their twenty first century knowledge.

Imogen Matthews

As more and more refugees arrive in the village to seek sanctuary, one cannot fail to see the parallel with the refugees in Europe.  Matthews gives an insight into how desperate people are driven into circumstances. The author guides you towards the uncertain ending.  Find out about Lisebeth, Sofie, Jan and Oscar as they ‘soundlessly’ creep through their adolescence, in a chaotic world.  Get inside of the hidden village and find out more about the impact of the exceptional circumstances on the very real characters and dilemmas.  The characters of this book will never leave your memory and it will make you reassess the terrors in our own world.

Click to buy on Amazon

 

 

Please see all my reviews at Books in Handbag and my blog at jessiecahalin.com.