Kasia De Vydt-Jillings on NZ Woman’s Weekly…
How Kiwi Marcel found the child his mum and dad hid from the Nazis
More than 80 years ago in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, young Dutch couple Jo and Frits Hakkens risked everything, hiding and raising a Jewish toddler named Elli Szanowski as their own. Their actions saved little Elli’s life – even though after 1944, they never saw her again.
But decades later in New Zealand, Jo and Frits’ son Marcel and his wife Gloria started searching – and against all odds, finally found Elli alive and well on the other side of the world in Brazil.
Bravery in the face of danger
“They were just doing the right thing,” Marcel, 74, explains simply of his parents’ bravery and resistance efforts during World War II.
Read the full story on NZ Woman’s Weekly HERE. And read more on the book HERE.
