Sabine's War by Eva Taylor

 

Sabine's War by Eva Taylor.

Published 31st March 2022 by Harper North.

From the cover of the book:

Sabine’s War is the previously untold story of a remarkable resistance fighter and her incredible story of survival against the odds.

When Germany invaded Holland in May 1940, Sabine Zuur joined the resistance movement without a moment’s hesitation aged just 22. Helping to hide those avoiding the German authorities, she was soon betrayed and subjected to repeated violent interrogations. Many of her friends were executed but Sabine was instead sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp, via the Amersfoort and Ravensbrück camps. Enduring gruelling conditions and backbreaking forced manual labour, she survived through a combination of guile and good fortune.

But it was only after Sabine’s death that her daughter Eva discovered an archive of letters detailing her extraordinary life, revealing a rich inner world and a past she had discussed little. Amongst them were declarations of love from pilot Taro, shot down in his Spitfire over northern France aged just 26; notes from Sabine’s second love Gerard, executed by the Germans; letters to her mother smuggled out in her prison laundry; and passionate, creepy missives from a German professional criminal named Gebele who would ultimately save Sabine’s life. She emerges from this correspondence as a woman with an indefinable aura, somehow in control of her own destiny even when to all intents and purposes she was not.

A transfixing story of survival, Sabine’s War captures a remarkable life in the words of the young woman who lived it.

***********

Sabine's War is the story of Sabine Zuur a young woman who became involved in the Dutch resistance movement during World War II, and somehow managed to survive imprisonment in three Nazi concentration camps after being betrayed to the German authorities.

The truth about Sabine's life was discovered by her daughter Eva Taylor when she found a comprehensive archive of documents and letters left behind by her mother after her death. Eva's relationship with her mother had been a difficult one and Sabine had been reluctant to talk much about her wartime experiences, but what Eva discovered eventually convinced her that her mother's story deserved to be told to the world - especially since Eva's father, Peter Tazelaar, was a celebrated Dutch war hero whose life had already been written about. 

This is Sabine's detailed and heartbreaking story. It tells of a young, vivacious woman who was compelled to join the Dutch resistance, after her country was invaded by Germany in 1940. Sabine's own fiancé Taro had been shot down in his Spitfire and killed after escaping to England, and helping to shelter those hiding from the authorities became a way for her to aid the war effort. 

Unfortunately, Sabine was betrayed and subsequently subjected to brutal interrogations and imprisonment for her activities. Her wartime archive tells of the executions of many of her close friends, and of the years that follow when she is sent to three Nazi concentration camps Amersfoort, Ravensbrück and Mauthausen as a political prisoner, as she struggled desperately to survive the increasingly gruelling conditions that inmates were forced to endure. 

Taylor has pieced together the details of her mother's life from the information she left behind, especially the intimate letters from her first love Taro, notes from her second love Gerard who was executed by the Germans for his role in the resistance, and from creepy correspondence from a German career criminal called Gebele who was able to help Sabine survive during the terrible final months of the war when concentration camp prisoners were being indiscriminately slaughtered in their thousands. The gaps between what she has been able to construct from these intriguing bundles of paper have been filled by detailed research into wartime events and the dreadful treatment and mass slaughter of prisoners, as well as visits to what remains of the camps themselves. 

The resulting book, although relatively short at under 200 pages, is an impressive and informative account of not only one very brave woman's life, but of the strength of the human spirit during very dark times. Even as someone who has read many books about this period of history, including the incredible, and seriously hefty If This Is A Woman by Sarah Helm that Taylor references in these pages, there were many things I learned about Holland during its occupation, and some of the lesser known happenings during the dying days of the Second World War - such as the sheer scale of asset stripping from countries like Poland in the face of the Russian advance.

Taylor also manages to convey quite how much the previously untold events of Sabine's wartime experiences impacted her remaining years physically, mentally and emotionally, looking back on her own relationship with with her mother with understanding and forgiveness now she fully understands about the events that shaped her.

There is no denying that this book is full of heartbreak and loss, but it is also fascinating and strewn with touching moments of the kindness of strangers, of romance under the impending cloud of doom, of quiet and staunch resistance, and of admirable bravery. In addition, this is a book that is very accessible for anyone wanting to learn more about the terrible human toll of World War II, particularly for those who have previously only read fictional works about this period of history.

Sabine's War is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Harper North for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Midas PR for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Eva Taylor-Tazelaar is the daughter of Sabine Zuur and Peter Tazelaar, a major Dutch war hero. She was born in Utrecht, but has lived in Cheshire, England ever since she was eighteen. She wrote and translated this book herself.