The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es, Penguin Random House © 2018; 194 pages plus acknowledgments; $28.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Author Bart Van Es knew about Lien de Jong, the Jewish girl who was provided a home and a new identity with his grandparents during the time the Nazis occupied Holland. However, after such intimate contact, his family had become estranged from Lien. He decided to learn her story, and to understand the silence that fell like a heavy curtain between her and his family.
De Jong, still alive, was willing to narrate her history to Van Es, even though it meant dredging up some painful memories, not only about how her biological parents were taken away to their deaths in the concentration camps, but how, as a child, she was raped by a neighbor. That was not the last time her childhood innocence was taken advantage of.
For Van Es, a literature professor at Oxford University, the story would also be emotional. His grandfather, a man of stature and public position in Holland, had his own shortcomings, according to Lien. So did an uncle. His grandmother could at times be quite intolerant. Publicly reporting Lien’s side of the family feud would be certain to cause discomfort and embarrassment in his family; yet Van Es was determined to uncover the truth, even if painful.
This book is far more than a “family feud” suitable for airing on a daytime American television show. It is also both a quest for Holocaust history and a modern-day travelogue, as Van Es follows the footsteps of Lien de Jong to various cities, homes, and buildings in Holland. He brings us along on interviews, and we sit with him in research archives, as he learns facts crucial for setting the scene for Lien’s story and then carrying it forward.
All along, Van Es also closely observes how these places appear currently, and as travelers often do, he juxtaposes modern serenity with World War II chaos.
He also helps us understand the impact Lien’s experiences during the Holocaust had on her personality, and why, later in life, she turned to Buddhist practice to help her cope with her memories.
What is a “cut out” girl? The term has multiple meanings. Lien de Jong has been “cut out” of his family. In some photos, she stands to the side, as if to make it easier to cut out her image if necessary. The Nazis by murdering her family and leaving her an orphan cut out her possibility of a normal existence.
This is an unusual, multilayered story about interpersonal and family dynamics set against the horrors of the Holocaust. It is well worth reading.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via Donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com