Bernhard A. Kats

Turmoil in Twente: a Tale of War Bernhard A. Kats

This book should be read not for its literary value, but as the subtitle indicates, as a tale. The author returns to the days of WWII when, at age ten, he had to run for his life. Although it all happened during the German occupation of his native Holland, it is not really about the Holocaust, but rather about him and the people around him. The son of a Jewish physician is suddenly exposed to a totally different environment. He is sheltered by a Dutch-Reformed family and grows up on the farm. Today he is a husband, father and grandfather. He takes his oldest son on this trip over memory lane and talks with him about experiences he never revealed before. One marvels about details that the author remembers. The chapters on the war in the air and on the V1 and V2 rockets are fascinating. A curious new fact mentioned in this book is the preparation, in 1938, for the flight of the Royal Family to Great Britain. How did they know what nobody else knew, that war would break out in 1940 and that Holland would be invaded. After all, Holland had been neutral during WWI. We may never know the answer.