Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience

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.

Preface

Carolyne Van Der Meer

The author introduces the work as a collection of poems, short stories and essays that aim to examine the dutch experience during Nazi occupation. She concedes that the book is a mix of fact and fiction, with fictional reconstructions of real events.

Prologue

Carolyne Van Der Meer

The author tells a story that raises questions of memory, inheritance and her relationship with her mother.

1

Finding the Motherlode

Carolyne Van Der Meer

This section specifically explores the author’s research into her mother’s past. In addition to essays, poems and short stories, it includes her reflections on mothering, motherhood (hers and her mother’s) and accounts of her research in the Netherlands through journal entries.

2

The Children

Carolyne Van Der Meer

The poems and short stories in this section treat Dutch wartime and Nazi occupation as seen through the eyes of children. Based on interviews with Dutch-Canadians, these pieces work to capture premature loss of innocence and the scars inflicted by war.

3

The Survivors

Carolyne Van Der Meer

This section considers the adult viewpoints of the Dutch Canadians interviewed by the author. It also interprets the stories of a Dutch Belgian Jew who escaped through the Dutch and Belgian Resistance network, and the author’s grandmother.

4

The Fighters

Carolyne Van Der Meer

This section interprets the stories of the Canadian Jewish soldiers and the Dutch Resistance fighters. It tries to capture the complexities of wartime and the struggle to find humanity and integrity in the constant presence of both cruelty and ambiguity.

Afterword

The Complexity of Belonging

Carolyne Van Der Meer

In the essay, Van Der Meer grapples questions of heritage, legacy and belonging that she faced as she wrote and researched her mother's (and others') experience during Nazi-occupied Holland.