Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
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.
Carolyne Van Der Meer is the author of Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience (WLU, 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, was published by Inanna in 2022.
Table of Contents for Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience by Carolyne Van Der Meer
Preface
Prologue
1: Finding the Motherlode
Journal Entry–18 July 2010
Going Home
Parched
Journal Entry–19 July 2010
Letters from a War Child
The Dig
Nine Ways to Happiness in Wartime
Marijke's Song
Journal Entry–20 July 2010
Marijke's Song
The Poem About Hiding Jews
Cat Got Your Tongue?
How Do You Know?
My Education
Journal Entry–21 July 2010
The Librarian
The Hiding Place
The Hunting Game
Negotiating with the SS
Journal Entry–22 July 2010
Motherlode
My Mother's Voice
The Root Cellar
The Hunger Winter, 1944–45
A Conversation
The Walls Have Ears
Where We Hid Them
Journal Entry–22 July 2010
Stimpie Stampie at the New Dorrius
The Bartender
The Red Boots
Listening to the Radio
The SS Came at Night
Journal Entry–23 July 2010
Speculaas on the Prinsengracht
Alarm
Journal Entry–24 July 2010
2: The Children
The War Begins
Onderduik, 1944
We All Took Part
The Risks He Took
Learning Curve
Soldier Boy
Christmas Eve 1943
The Beef Tongue
Wool Was Hard to Get
The Collection
The Walnut Tree
The American Soldier
What Lisbeth Knows
No Visible Injury
God in de hemel
Bittersweet
The Bouquet
Liberation in Nijmegen
Institut Henri Jaspar, Brussels
3: The Survivors
Manna from Heaven
A Dutch Jew Looks at the Facts
Real Estate Value
Riches to Rags
Staas
Teaching Kindergarten
Accuracy
Thunder and Lightning
The Department Store
War's Insidious Bite
Altje, 1942
4: The Fighters
The Story Wasn't True
Girl in a Flowered Dress
Lotte's Journey
The Namesake
Dear Folks, Love Ralph
The Outline
Homage to a Canadian Soldier
Stationed in Veghel
The Solider Watches Retribution
Occupation Duty
Afterword: The Complexity of Belonging
Acknowledgements
Glossary of Dutch Terms