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My Mother’s War: The Incredible True Story of How a Resistance Fighter Survived Three Concentration Camps

My Mother’s War: The Incredible True Story of How a Resistance Fighter Survived Three Concentration Camps

The extraordinary story of Sabine Zuur, a beautiful, young Dutch resistance fighter who spent over two years in three concentration camps during World War Two, told by her daughter using an astonishing archive of personal letters.

After her mother’s death, Eva Taylor discovered an astounding collection of documents, photos and letters from her time as a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Holland. Using the letters, she reconstructed her mother's experience in the underground resistance movement and then as a prisoner in the Amersfoort, Ravensbruck and Mauthausen concentration camps.

The letters reveal an amazing story of life during wartime, including declarations of love from her fiancé before his tragic death as a Spitfire pilot, prison notes smuggled out in her laundry, and passionate but sometimes terrifying messages from a German professional criminal who ultimately would save Sabine’s life.

A one-of-a-kind story of survival, My Mother’s War captures a remarkable life in the words of the young woman who lived it.

Preface

Chapter 1. The Hague After the War

Chapter 2. From the Dutch East Indies to Holland

Chapter 3. Taro

Chapter 4. War

Chapter 5. Taro’s Death

Chapter 6. The Resistance

Chapter 7. Peter Tazelaar

Chapter 8. Her Majesty’s Courier

Chapter 9. Failure and Disaster

Chapter 10. Betrayal and Arrest

Chapter 11. Amsterdam—Utrecht-Amersfoort Polizeigefängnis Amsterdam

Chapter 12. Letters to Moeder Bien

Chapter 13. Kriegswehrmachtgefängnis Utrecht

Chapter 14. Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort

Chapter 15. Ravensbrück Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück

Chapter 16. The Siemens Factory

Chapter 17. Developments at the Front

Chapter 18. Ravensbrück to Mauthausen

Chapter 19. Mauthausen Konzentrationslager Mauthausen

Chapter 20. Amstetten

Chapter 21. Gebele

Chapter 22. Monday, March 26, 1945

Chapter 23. Wednesday, March 28, 1945

Chapter 24. Gebele’s Letter to Moeder Bien

Chapter 25. Wednesday, April 4, 1945

Chapter 26. Thursday, April 5, 1945

Chapter 27. Friday, April 6, 1945

Chapter 28. Sunday, April 8, 1945

Chapter 29. Monday, April 9, 1945

Chapter 30. Tuesday, April 10, 1945

Chapter 31. Wednesday, April 11, 1945

Chapter 32. Thursday, April 12, 1945

Chapter 33. Friday, April 13, 1945

Chapter 34. Sunday, April 15, 1945

Chapter 35. Saturday, April 21, 1945

Chapter 36. Free at Last

Chapter 37. Home Gebele

Chapter 38. Moeder Bien and Sabine

Chapter 39. Peter

Chapter 40. Peter and Sabine

Chapter 41. Sabine

Chapter 42. Last But Not Least

Chapter 43. And Finally

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