Uncle Audrey Hepburn's diary reveals how the actress lived under the Nazis

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For many years, there were persistent rumors and vivid legends about Audrey Hepburn's participation in the Nazi resistance. For many years, the Audrey Hepburn Museum regretted that there was almost no evidence found. But in 2019, a book was published that proved that rumors and legends were true.

Daughter of the Nazis

Audrey was born into a Nazi family. No jokes. Her mother, Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra, and her British father, Joseph Victor Anthony Hepburn-Ruston, attended Nazi meetings for years. Before the war, Audrey's mother was more active as a Nazi than her father, even writing articles for the Black Shirt. But during the war, Ella renounced her beliefs and cut ties with those who supported Hitler. She had divorced her husband by that time because of his relationship with the nanny. Joseph, on the other hand, having left for London, became an active pro-Nazi propagandist and, most likely, a spy of the Third Reich. To live somehow without her husband's money, Ella moved with her children to the Dutch city of Arnhem, where she had a large family home.

In the meantime, Holland was occupied. Death threatened thousands of Dutch citizens, as well as refugees, among whom was, for example, the writer Irmgard Coyne ("The girl with whom the children were not allowed to hang out"), whose books were burned in the squares. Unlike many others, she escaped because, upon learning of the German invasion, an English radio broadcaster immediately reported the "news" on the radio that Coyne had committed suicide. So she dropped out of the Gestapo's wanted list.

Van Heemstra's house was occupied too. Ella and her children were allowed to huddle in the most modest corner of it. Around, some surrendered Jews, others hid them, and still others tried to transport them across the sea. Food supply became tight in the country. Audrey, plump before, became thin before her eyes, as if she was collected from twigs. Before the war, she adored Belgian chocolate. During the war, she told herself every day that she hated eating.

Later, the Netherlands will survive a blockade that will cause real famine. Audrey's family will have to grind flour from peas with a pod, eat tulip bulbs … Then, when the Netherlands is liberated and humanitarian aid is distributed, Audrey will almost die, because she will make herself such terribly sweet oatmeal out of the food given out that there will be enough sugar to cement it into a lump. Then she will fight hunger in African countries.

Messages in ballet shoes

There are several legends about what Audrey did during the occupation. On one of them, she will jump for half a day in the city square over a rope, watching the cars of the Germans. Run away from the Gestapo, hiding for several days in the basement with a bag of food that she was carrying to those whom the Gestapo had just arrested. Pass the notes hidden in the shoes in the same town square.

Audrey's official biographers have so far confirmed only two facts about Audrey's complicity in the resistance. First, she organized charity concerts as a ballerina. At these performances, she collected money for the resistance - with this money, the underground bought food for the hidden Jews. The costumes for the performances were sewn by my mother. Secondly, in her ballet shoes Audrey often carried messages from one underground group to another.

For many years, biographers have tried to find any other evidence of folk legends and myths around Audrey Hepburn, but with regret they were forced to admit that they could not do this. Until one of the researchers had the idea to study the personal diary of the executed Uncle Audrey - the uncle himself was not an underground worker, and yet he was executed to intimidate the resistance, because he was a very famous person and a representative of the Dutch nobility. In 2019, Robert Matzen presented the book "Audrey Hepburn of the Netherlands", in which he spoke about the facts that he managed to find in the diary of her uncle Otto.

Others were bolder

When Audrey talked about her childhood during the war, she talked more about the shootings she witnessed - shootings right on the streets. She spoke sparingly about what she did herself: all the children in Holland did something to help the country cope with the Nazis. Many others were bolder than her, there is nothing to talk about. It would be strange, of course, to expect that Audrey did nothing at all after the Nazis killed her uncle, brother and many of her family acquaintances. She herself, just in case, had to change her name to Edda van Heemstra, because for the English name - after all, England was at war with Germany - one could suffer.

After the death of her uncle, Ella and her children moved to live with relatives in Velp. It was there that Audrey joined the resistance. It is now believed that she contacted the underground in addition to her mother, volunteering to work at a local hospital, which, as it turned out, was the center of resistance in Velpa. Audrey became one of the young assistants of Dr. Hendrik Visser Hooft, who managed to save hundreds of Jews by organizing shelter and food. Hooft probably came up with the idea of collecting money through ballet. But Audrey not only danced to raise money, but also distributed an underground newspaper that called for the rescue of as many persecuted by the Nazis as possible.

Audrey and ballet began to study in order to escape from the terrible things. In addition, she read a lot - this drowned out hunger, and painted - when it was, what and on what. The girl was suffocating from hunger, she developed anemia, sometimes she was swollen. The family sometimes ate tulip bulbs, tried to bake grass bread. Many other townspeople were in the same position. And yet Audrey was looking for action. It was unbearable for her to just wait at home when and how everything would end.

Of course, no one allowed the child too much. The only time Audrey was assigned something very dangerous was when the Germans shot down several English pilots in the Netherlands. They were hidden outside the city, in the forest. Audrey used her bike to take them messages and food - not a lot of food, her bag was just enough. When it was necessary to save the wounded English paratrooper, he was hidden in the house of van Heemstra. And, although Audrey was hardly the initiator, she kept this secret and nursed the wounded along with others.

She really had to run away from the Germans, as the legends say. The Germans grabbed girls and women right on the streets of the city to work in the field army kitchens. Audrey did not want to feed the Nazis. She managed to escape, but the chase was short-lived anyway. One girl didn't mean too much.

The war resonated in Audrey's life for a long time. The actress suffered from lingering depression that could not be explained by the events of her adult life - but which are most likely related to the horrors of her childhood. She had severe eating disorders that prevented her from tolerating pregnancy. She could not act in films about the war, no matter how lucrative the offers were. And everyone around saw only a slender, always calm young beautiful woman. During the war, Audrey promised herself: if this nightmare ends one day, she will never, never, never complain about anything in her life …

There are many beautiful legends about the Second World War, and many of them are true stories. For example, behind the legend of how Denmark saved 98% of its Jews: The Yellow Star of the Danish King.