Chapter Five Aletta
Chapter Five
Aletta
‘I don’t think I can do this.’
Aletta reached for her mother’s hand. ‘You can, and you will,’ she said. ‘If you’re not comfortable once we’re in there, we can leave.’
Her mother’s eyes were caught in Aletta’s gaze. She hadn’t truly believed that her mother would come, but the following night, they were going to Aletta’s second meeting together. Usually they were held no more than once a week, but with the German forces on their shores, everything had changed.
‘Mama, if you need a reason, think about the children I’ve lost from my class.
This is about more than just us, it’s about standing up for what’s right.
’ She’d had to be so careful at school, reassuring some of the little ones who were worried about their friends, without saying anything that might get her in trouble.
Aletta had read more books to them and come up with more art projects than she ever had, in an attempt to keep them all distracted.
‘I just—’
‘Come on,’ Aletta said, leaning in to whisper to her mother. ‘What happened to that brave woman who stood beside me and declared to her husband she would support me?’
She received a sigh in response, but the feet that had been planted to the ground beside Aletta finally moved.
A little shiver of anticipation ran through Aletta as she entered the room again, and she glanced around to see if she recognised anyone from last time.
The girl she’d spoken to wasn’t anywhere she could see, but the faces around them were friendly, and although many were young, there were also plenty of men and women closer in age to her mother.
And despite their smiles, there was something about them all, a determination perhaps, that drew Aletta to them all the more.
What they were doing put them all at huge risk, but it was obvious that everyone in attendance had decided it was worth it.
‘What do we do now?’ her mother asked.
‘We make friends, I suppose,’ Aletta said. ‘Until someone stands up at the front and starts talking, anyway.’ She realised she was still holding her hand, and she slowly released it, hoping she wasn’t feeling quite as nervous now they were inside.
But they didn’t have time to mingle, as the same man who’d spoken at the last meeting called out for silence as he stood on an overturned box at the front of the room.
His voice easily carried all the way to the back where they were standing, and Aletta felt a familiar shiver run through her as she listened to him.
‘The Nazis will be walking through our city’s streets within days, as if they belong here, and we’ve seen what’s happened in the countries they occupied earlier.
We know the enemy will impose a curfew, that they will come for all our Jewish friends and neighbours, that they will seek out anyone who stands against them.
We’ve seen what’s happening in our Jewish communities already, and this is just the beginning. ’
Aletta breathed in the almost static feeling in the room, as if an electrical current was charging between all the people gathered there. There were no smiles anymore – they were all focused on the man standing before them.
‘But we’ve seen in Austria, in Poland and Czechoslovakia that what continues to connect their people is their resistance movement.
What keeps them fighting and determined to seize back control of their countries are the men and women, just like all of you here tonight, who are prepared to do whatever is needed of them.
People who aren’t afraid to work against the enemy, people who won’t baulk at danger or the challenges we face.
Who will keep turning up even when the stakes are higher, the risks greater. ’
Cheers erupted from around them and Aletta started clapping. When she looked over at her mother, she saw her hands pressed together as if she’d been about to clap but was so transfixed that she hadn’t moved.
‘We will be like those great countries who are fighting from the underground, but we will be even stronger. If they come for us, then we will be prepared. We will be ready to fight, and no one, no one will be able to stamp out the cells that we create in every pocket of our country. In every city, in every town, we will have people ready and prepared to put their lives on the line for the greater good.’
He paused, and Aletta was taken by how magnetic he was, how impossible it would be to not agree with his powerful speech.
‘So, who’s with me?’ he asked. ‘Who in this audience pledges to join our movement? To be ready to act when the time comes? To stand against the Nazis and defend not just our country and our right to freedom, but the rights of all of our people, especially those they seek to persecute?’
‘I do,’ Aletta said, her voice a rumble in her throat as she held up her hand, as the crowd of people erupted around them. ‘I do!’ she shouted, louder this time, wanting to be heard.
Her mother’s voice surprised her as she shouted her pledge as well, the crowd clapping and cheering.
I do, thought Aletta. For how could I not vow to defend my country and the people in it?
‘Everyone, every single one of you, can make a difference,’ he said.
‘We’re going to start creating newspapers and flyers to spread among our communities, and we need people to write those articles, to type them, to print them.
We need explosives set for ambushes, we need men and women to place them and detonate them.
Whatever you can do for us, we will find a way to put you to work. ’
‘The newspapers and the posters,’ Aletta murmured, leaning close to her mother so she could speak into her ear. ‘What do you think? That’s something we could do, isn’t it?’
‘We could do some of the writing, or even just all the typing,’ her mother said, her eyes widening. ‘It’ll take me some time to get back into it, but I used to type when I worked for your grandfather. And you’d be excellent at typing and writing, too.’
It didn’t take them long to find someone to talk to and offer themselves forward, and when it was finally time to leave, Aletta wished they could stay. There was something about being in a room full of people who were so passionate and engaged, and she wanted to soak up the atmosphere for longer.
But she knew her father would be waiting up for them, and she didn’t want him to worry any more than she knew he already was.
And sure enough, when they arrived home, he was sitting in the living room, staring at the door in the same way he had when he’d caught her sneaking back in after the first meeting.
Only this time he knew where she’d been, and he was holding an almost empty glass of whisky in one hand as his cigarette burned in the other.
She could see the relief on his face the moment he set eyes upon them, as if he’d half expected them not to come home.
‘Well come on, tell me what you’ve signed up for,’ he said, as her mother brushed past them both, after kissing her husband’s head, to fix something for them to eat.
‘We’re to help with an underground newspaper they’re planning,’ Aletta told him, perching on the arm of his chair.
‘They said that one of the first things the Nazis will limit is the news we can access, and we need to make certain that the Dutch people know the truth. It will be our job to collate the information and type up the news, and then someone else will print the copies and distribute them.’
He stroked his chin, as if lost deep in thought, but in the end, he only nodded and patted her leg as he rose when her mother called them for supper.
It was the thumping sound that woke Aletta. She pushed herself up on her elbows and listened, wondering what she was hearing. When she still couldn’t figure it out, she pushed the covers off and padded down the hallway, realising that the sound was coming from the living room.
What on earth was happening in their apartment so early in the morning?
Her mother came up behind her, her hand skimming Aletta’s shoulder as she passed her. ‘What on earth is your father doing? He’ll wake the entire apartment block.’
Aletta shrugged and they wandered in to the living room to find her father with a hammer in hand and a number of what looked like white boards.
They usually called someone to do odd jobs around the place if needed – it certainly wasn’t her father, although she did remember that he’d worked for a builder when he was a student in need of work.
‘Jan, what are you doing?’ Emma asked, sounding exasperated.
A few moments later, looking satisfied with his work, he turned to them both. His expression was sombre, and his eyes were bracketed with a tiredness that she thought might be more from worry than lack of sleep. Or perhaps it was both.
‘I’m building somewhere for you to work,’ he said, as if he were trying to swallow down thick emotion. ‘This is my final condition.’
Aletta looked at her mother, waiting for her to say something. But when she stayed silent, Aletta spoke.
‘What is your condition?’ she asked, as it slowly dawned on her. She’d been so bleary-eyed from sleep, she hadn’t realised straight away.
‘If you’re going to work with the Resistance, if you truly intend on helping them to create their newspaper from our home, then you must be hidden,’ he said. ‘I cannot risk you being caught.’
Aletta saw his eyes fill with tears as he looked between them, and it wrenched at her heart.
‘I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t keep you safe.
No one will ever even know this wall is new, we’ll make it look as if it’s always been here.
It backs on to the wardrobe alcove in your sewing room, Emma, so I’ve been able to create a proper little room for you that is only accessible through the wardrobe door. ’
Her mother embraced him, holding him tight and whispering something she couldn’t hear.
When she stepped back, Aletta smiled and squeezed her father’s hand.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Now how about you show us this hiding place? I’d like to see exactly where we’ll be tucked away.’
The relief on his face was palpable, and she dropped her head to his shoulder for a moment, knowing that he’d done this not out of a need to control them, but from fear.
And so all three walked into her mother’s sewing room, which doubled as the spare room her grandparents had always stayed in when they’d come to visit, and discovered that the wardrobe door now opened into a large alcove that was almost big enough to call a small room.
Aletta had to duck low to get in, but she stood up tall when she was inside, surprised to find a space that was larger than expected.
‘I know it’s small, but it’s safe,’ her father said. ‘Or at least I hope it will be. It’s the best I could think of as I lay in bed awake last night, and we had that alcove in the living room that was easy enough to block off with board.’
Aletta hugged him, holding tight. ‘It’s perfect. Truly it is. Now come along,’ she said, nudging him forward. ‘It’s time for breakfast and I can already smell coffee brewing.’
He obliged and disappeared through the door, and as he did, she turned and looked back at the space he’d created. It wasn’t big, and it wasn’t much, but the fact that her father had made it meant it was all the more special.
Aletta didn’t know how long schools would stay open, or how things were going to change – no one did. And she needed every distraction she could get, because she couldn’t stop thinking about the children, and just what might happen to those who’d already left her class.
‘Aletta!’
The sound of her mother’s panicked call made her hurry to the kitchen, thinking something dreadful had happened. And from the look on her mother’s face, it had.
‘What—’
The radio crackled, the strong male voice of the announcer interrupting her.
‘Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch royal family, including the Prince, Princess Juliana and their children, as well as the government, have fled to England. We repeat, the Queen and the Dutch royal family, along with the government, have fled the Netherlands for safety in England.’
‘The royal family have left us,’ Aletta whispered, clearing her throat as her words caught. ‘It means they don’t feel safe here any longer. It means . . .’
‘They would never leave their people unless . . .’ Her mother touched her mouth as tears filled her eyes, which made Aletta’s own eyes prickle in response. ‘They must truly think the worst is about to happen, it’s the only reason they’d go.’
Aletta shuddered. If the royal family have gone, what hope is there for the rest of us?