Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience

by Carolyne Van Der Meer

Overview

Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience is Carolyne Van Der Meer’s creative reinterpretation through short stories, poems, and essays of the experiences of her mother and other individuals who either spent their childhoods in Nazi-occupied Holland or were deeply affected by wartime in Holland. The book documents the author’s personal journey as she uncovers her mother’s past through their correspondence and discussion and through research in the Netherlands. Motherlode also considers mother–daughter relationships and the effect of wartime on motherhood.

Motherlode is not about recording precise historical data; rather, it attempts to recover and interpret the complex emotions of the individuals growing up in wartime. The book is based on interviews with the author’s mother and other Dutch Canadians, interviews with and letters from Canadian Jewish war veterans, and information provided by individuals with direct or indirect experience of the Dutch Resistance. The creative pieces explore onderduik (going into/being in hiding), life in an occupied country, the work of the Dutch Resistance, liberation, collective and individual cultural memory, and the way in which wartime childhoods shaped adulthood for these individuals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771120050
Publisher:	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication date:	12/18/2013
Series:	Life Writing , #50
Pages:	110
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Carolyne Van Der Meer is the author of Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience (WLU Press, 2014); Journeywoman (Inanna, 2017); and Heart of Goodness: The Life of Marguerite Bourgeoys in 30 Poems | Du coeur à l’âme : La vie de Marguerite Bourgeoys en 30 poèmes (Guernica, 2020), which was awarded second prize in the Poetry Category of the Catholic Media Association's 2021 Annual Book Awards. Another poetry collection, Sensorial, is forthcoming from Inanna in 2022.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Prologue 1

1 Finding the Motherlode

Journal Entry - 18 July 2010 8

Going Home 9

Parched 10

Journal Entry -19 July 2010 11

Letters from a War Child 13

Nine Ways to Happiness in Wartime 14

Marijke's Song 15

Journal Entry - 20 July 2010 20

The Poem about Hiding Jews 24

Cat Got Your Tongue? 25

How Do You Know? 26

My Education 27

Journal Entry - 21 July 2010 28

The Librarian 30

The Hiding Place 31

The Hunting Game 32

Negotiating with the SS 33

Journal Entry - 22 July 2010 34

Motherlode 40

My Mother's Voice 41

The Root Cellar 42

The Hunger Winter, 1944-45 43

A Conversation 45

The Walls Have Ears 46

Where We Hid Them 47

Journal Entry - 22 July 2010 48

Stimpie Stampie at the New Dorrius 51

The Bartender 52

The Red Boots 53

Listening to the Radio 54

The SS Came at Night 55

Journal Entry - 23 July 2010 56

Speculaas on the Prinsengracht 58

Alarm 59

Journal Entry - 24 July 2010 63

2 The Children

The War Begins 66

Onderduik, 1944 67

We All Took Part 68

The Risks He Took 69

Learning Curve 70

Soldier Boy 71

Christmas Eve 1943 72

The Beef Tongue 73

Wool Was Hard to Get 74

The Collection 75

The Walnut Tree 76

The American Soldier 77

What Lisbeth Knows 78

No Visible Injury 79

God in de Hemel 80

Bittersweet 81

The Bouquet 82

Liberation in Nijmegen 86

Institut Henri Jaspar, Brussels 88

3 The Survivors

Manna from Heaven 90

A Dutch Jew Looks at the Facts 91

Real Estate Value 93

Riches to Rags 94

Staas 95

Teaching Kindergarten 96

Accuracy 97

Thunder and Lightning 98

The Department Store 99

War's Insidious Bite 100

Altje, 1942 102

4 The Fighters

The Story Wasn't True 106

Girl in a Flowered Dress 107

Lotte's Journey 108

The Namesake 109

Dear Folks, Love Ralph 110

The Outline 111

Homage to a Canadian Soldier 112

Stationed in Veghel 114

The Soldier Watches Retribution 115

Occupation Duty 116

Afterword: The Complexity of Belonging 119

Acknowledgements 123

Glossary of Dutch Terms 127

Editorial Reviews

‘‘A mesmerizing journey through occupied wartime Netherlands; the voices emerging from the pages are haunting: replete with powerful emotions and modernity.''

Isabelle Laflèche

‘‘In reading Carolyne Van Der Meer's remarkable work, Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experiences, I was reminded of the intricate lace curtains found on the windows throughout Holland. In this creative reinterpretation of memories and experiences, Van Der Meer has eloquently succeeded in intertwining short stories, poems, and essays with the delicate touch of a fine Dutch lace maker. Based on the recollections of the author's mother and other Dutch Canadians, as well as letters from and interviews with Canadian soldiers and resistance fighters, Van Der Meer takes these accounts and her first-hand research to craft a compelling view of what we are left with after war's end.''

The Rover, February 23, 2014 - Gina Roitman

‘‘Motherlode is Carolyne Van Der Meer's Orphic journey to reclaim the past of her mother, a child during the five years of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The mosaic of poetry, fiction, and reminiscence is her Dodenherdenking, a remembrance of the dead, but also her immersion in the Lake of Memory. Her quest to understand a loved one expresses the need of every child and every parent to know and to be remembered. If the past is a foreign country, Van Der Meer shows us that with empathy and imagination we can enter that land as more than mere tourists.''

Steven Manners

‘‘Content determines form, or, more precisely, the multiple forms that comprise Carolyne Van Der Meer's unique and moving new book Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experiences. Juxtaposing essays, poems, journal entries, letters, interviews, and short stories, Van Der Meer demonstrates how our life story is seldom, if ever, set in stone. Instead, it's a moving target, a kaleidoscope of the complicated ways in which we choose to remember... Motherlode is part of Wilfrid Laurier University Press's Life Writing Series. With more than 50 titles to its credit, the series aimes to ‘foreground the stories of those who may never have imagined themselves as writers.’ That said, this is a writerly book. Van Der Meer may not have started out with literary intentions, but by mixing fact and fiction, by involving a cast of peripheral characters—including other Dutch war children, participants in the Dutch Resistance, and Canadian war veterans—she gives a voice to the previously silent ‘voices of the time.’''

Montreal Review of Books, Spring 2014 - Joel Yanofsky

''A mesmerizing journey through occupied wartime Netherlands; the voices emerging from the pages are haunting: replete with powerful emotions and modernity.''

Isabelle Laflèche