09/24/2006
'Life in Shadow' emerges
Story recalls peril of Dutch Jews
By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOSRecord-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY — Frieda Roos-van Hessen can recall with startling clarity the day in 1940 when her family's life changed.
Sleeping soundly after having given a concert the night before, she awoke at 2 a.m. to her brother's screaming. German war planes were racing over her family's home in Amsterdam on their way to bomb Schipol, Holland's biggest airport.
"We flew to the basement of the house and from that moment on, we were at war," said Roos-van Hessen, now an American citizen.
A former concert and opera singer, Roos-van Hessen was 25 and at the threshold of a successful career when the Nazis invaded Holland during World War II. At 19, she sang the lead for the Dutch version of Walt Disney's "Snow White." At 24, she was the soloist in a performance of Verdi's "Requiem" for the Dutch royal family.
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Autobiography of Frieda Roos-Van Hessen: Life in the Shadow of the Swastika