The Mastmakers' Daughters (english edition)

The Mastmakers' daughters are cousins. They have the same name: Rennie de Vries. The oldest, the Autobiographer of this book, is born in Sneek, Friesland in 1901 and grows up above the mastmaker shop of her father in De Lemmer. Her cousin grows up in Germany where her father starts a mastmaker shop in Holtenau in 1906. Rennie writes with feeling and often very personal about her memories. This was the time before the Zuiderzee was transformed into a freshwater lake. When ships were moved by the wind and muscle. Rennie embraces the emancipation. Her German cousin and her family come back to Holland in the depression. Rennie joins Hitler’s NAZI party. And our Rennie joins the Resistance, against the German invaders. Rennie, as a young mother, is arrested. In October 1944 she is sent from Ravensbrück, with 200 other Dutch women prisoners to a satellite camp of Dachau to work in the AGFA factory. This is the first complete account of this so called AGFA-Kommando and how they managed to survive by standing united and looking after each other. The NAZI Rennie flees to Germany on “Mad Tuesday” with her two sons. Above all this is the profession of Rennie’s Faith and her gratitude to be a child of God.