Margo Minco

[Thenop]

Dutch literary writer Marga Minco has passed away at age 103.

Growing up her 90 page chronicle of Jewish people suffering during WW2 was never far away. Published in 1957 it created quite a shock in Dutch society that til then had shied away from dealing with the aftermath of the war in other terms than rebuilding houses and infrastructure.

I read it in school, it was mandatory, and it is still an impressive read. It is sober in style, near factual and that is where it's power lies. The most famous line in the book is when her father asks her to 'go get the coats' while the Germans are there to pick all of them up. She disappears into the house, goes out the back door and 'closed the garden fence behind me and ran out the street'.
Such is the fine line between life and death. She lived because of this, her entire family was deported and murdered.
The newspaper obituary impressively lists them all:
Her parents were murdered in Sobibor in 1943, het brother in Warsaw in 1944. Her sister, sister in law and brother in law in Auschwitz, september 30th 1943.
When the war ended she had no one left.

I will be re reading her novel, 'het Bittere Kruid' (English translation 'Bitter Herbs').

[Thenop]