Tuesday, April 16, 2019

On My Radar:

Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II
by Robert Matzen
GoodKnight Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Charade. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has attempted to cover her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, where she spent the entirety of World War II.

According to her son, Luca Dotti, "The war made my mother who she was." Audrey Hepburn's war included the brutal execution of her uncle and cousin on August 15, 1942, participation in the Dutch Resistance, work as a doctor's aide during the "Bridge too Far" battles for Arnhem and Oosterbeek, and the ordeal of the Hunger Winter of 1944-45. She also had to contend with the fact that her father sided with the Nazis and her mother was pro-Nazi for the first two years of the occupation.

The war years also brought triumphs as Audrey became Arnhem's most celebrated young ballerina. New interviews with people who knew her in the war plus wartime diaries and research in classified Dutch archives shed light on the riveting, untold story of Audrey Hepburn in World War II.


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