Posted on 04/03/2019 1:11:41 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The world fell in love with her doe-eyed beauty and stylish perfection in such films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Sabrina, but Audrey Hepburn‘s real-life story was always far more complicated.
“When my mother told us about her life, she never talked about Hollywood or her films,” says her younger son Luca Dotti, 49. “She would tell us stories about the war. And she spoke about good and evil.”
Even as a young boy he says, “I knew from her eyes, her expressions, and her shaky hands that there was more to the story.”
26 years after her death, a new book, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II, by historian and biographer Robert Matzen, excerpted in this week’s PEOPLE, tells the harrowing tale that Hepburn long kept hidden.
How she barely survived Germany’s five year occupation of Holland, and how she risked her life secretly working for the Dutch Resistance to help fight the Nazis.
According to Matzen, Hepburn was a young girl of 14 when she was asked to help the Resistance.
“Audrey once said that one of her jobs was ‘running around with food for the pilots,” he notes, referring to the American and British fliers shot down over Holland. “As a fluent English speaker, she could communicate with the pilots, tell them where to go and who would help them,” he says.
On one occasion, when she saw the German police approaching, Matzen describes how she kept her wits about her and began picking wildflowers as a diversion tactic.
“When the Germans…reached her,” he writes, “she remained silent and sweetly presented her flowers to them. After a check of her identity card, she was allowed to pass.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Candice Bergen (not Ingrid Bergman) was in “The Sand Pebbles”.
Yes, yes indeed.
Hollywood ruined her and of course it was all just film.
She was a very awesome woman.
“Wait Until Dark” with an extremely frightening Alan Arkin.
True.
Tulip bulbs, iris bulbs, camas lily bulbs can be boiled & eaten like potatoes, a good thing to know if the SHTF.
Most people think they’re just flowers.
Oh, Julia was a Force Of Nature, to be sure! Ever seen her hack apart a chicken? LOL! Fearless! :)
Re: ‘Wait Until Dark.’
One of my favorite films, and I’ve seen the play on and off Broadway.
The last scene is worth the price of admission. Anywhere!
Cutting up a whole chicken for frying is becoming a lost art.
Brilliant mind: frequency hopping for allied torpedoes, leading ultimately to cellular phones.
Hence, “Operation Manna”...
A writer now attests that Glenn Miller was spying for the allies, was captured, and tortured to death. What is known is that his scheduled flight on a Noorduyn Norseman never arrived in France.
bump for later
Did not know that. Thanks!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L93WIFW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
SOME camas. White camas is also known as death camas. You will die a painful death if you eat white camas bulbs.
True dat. I erred in failing to mention this.
But very few nurseries sell camas, & those who do usually post warnings.
Something about white flowers in general makes a lot of them poisonous.
White Oleanders was a novel about a woman who murdered her unfaithful boyfriend by distilling the juice from the plant & smearing it all over his doorknobs.
I’ve read that Native American tribes regarded blue camas as a food staple.
..................
An interesting book, imo more for the insight to wartime Holland than her actions which are related but without a lot of detail. Both parents were supportive of Hitler, mom traveled to Nuremberg where she met Hitler. Interesting the CIA/FBI files which would have been generated by the OSS and to a lesser extent the Dutch government in exile and underground, have vanished. Mom was more of a lipstick Nazi, who changed her tune after a few years of the occupation, and wasn't punished by the underground when the Nazis were driven out. Considered a bit of an airhead, her semi royal lineage probably helped. Her fascist dad, also a royal, maybe, spent the war in England.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.