Dutch Defense by Johanna Kinney

a mesmerizing true WWII story

If his friends' resistance activities are exposed, he will be shot and they may be tortured to death. His houseguest happens to be a Nazi officer...

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About the Book

If his friends’ resistance activities are exposed, he will be shot and they may be tortured to death. His houseguest happens to be a Nazi officer…

Against his will, Alex has to share his home in The Hague with Gunther Blechmann, an SS officer of the occupying German forces. Liberation of the Netherlands by the advancing Canadians seems imminent, but meanwhile the Dutch are struggling to survive a particularly harsh winter, the Hunger Winter.

While living in the house, the Kommandant noticed that Alex has friends in the Dutch Resistance, but lacks sufficient evidence to imprison them. He will not rest until he catches the entire group…

In Dutch Defense, Alex’s and Gunther’s dispassionate shared interest in chess contrasts starkly with the worsening oppression and hunger in the Netherlands in the chokehold of German occupation.

The author’s memories from 1940-45 bring to life the dizzying twists and turns of this episodic story, showing the courage and ingenuity of ordinary young people who created their own resistance cell against the Third Reich.

RELEASED: 1 June 2023

Details

Author: Johanna Kinney
Series: WWII Historical Fiction
Genre: WWII Hist Fic
Tags: Audio rights available, Foreign Rights Available
ASIN: B0C38QYPJ1
ISBN: 9789493322073
List Price: $16,95
eBook Price: $4,95

Dutch Defense is a thoroughly satisfying read even without its historical context. The characters are clearly drawn and readily identifiable. The episodic nature of the narrative creates a rapid pace at the same time as it allows the reader to delve into the impact each incident has on the people involved. When one views the story in its historical context the impact of resistance to an invading army is put into very human terms. The courage, wisdom, sacrifice, and defiance of ordinary young men and women is what we take away from this novel even as its pages close with a hope for the future.

– Jan Boogerd, retired Chair and Professor at Algonquin College

Kinney’s book Dutch Defense is a memoir of the heart and soul of Holland, its people, and her family during the German occupation 1940-1945. Kinney’s storytelling ability and well-developed characters, together with her perspectives into the themes of loyalty, betrayal, consequences of choices, and forgiveness, make this book a must-read for reflective readers and discussion groups.

– Marjorie J. Hinds, Ph.D., retired school principal and researcher

A thrilling page-turner set in the Netherlands during the final year of WWII, Dutch Defense is a richly detailed semi-fictional account by Johanna Kinney. This novel is full of lively escapades that will hold readers spellbound from its first terrifying opening scene until its dramatic climax. Dutch Defense should be on the shelf of every person hoping to gain greater insight into the struggle to survive in the German-occupied Netherlands during the final year of WWII. I strongly recommend Johanna Kinney's Dutch Defense. It offers an abundance of insight and inspiration to all who delve into its pages.

– Peggy Anne McLeese, author of The Magic Seven (Xlibris)

In Dutch Defense, Johanna Kinney gives readers a great gift: a world of historical fiction enriched by her own knowledge and dramatic lived experience. Her characters leap from the page, animated by firsthand terror, suffering and tremendous courage. Whether we grew up hearing stories about World War II or we learned the facts in school, Kinney makes us feel deeply what the Dutch endured at the hands of the Nazis in a way that snippets of stories and history books cannot. That is the power of fiction: to enable us to viscerally imagine another’s struggles. Dutch Defense is a cautionary tale, for all time but particularly our own, about infinitely relatable people whose rights, and, in many cases, lives, were snatched away when they never saw it coming.

– Doreen Vanderstoop, Author of Watershed (Freehand Books 2020)

A riveting story from the beginning, Johanna Kinney’s Dutch Defense is a must read. The author entertains with compelling characters and an intense plot against the very real background of World War II in the Netherlands, accomplishing this feat from an insider’s view based upon her recollections of living through the German occupation during her young adult days.

– Elaine Stock, Author of the Resilient Women of WWII Trilogy (Amsterdam Publishers 2022)

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Johanna Kinney

Johanna Kinney was born in 1925 in Java, Indonesia, in what was then a Dutch colony. In 1930 her family returned to live in the Netherlands. During wartime both she and her brother Evert were involved in the Underground, her brother subsequently knighted for distinguished service and bravery. Her own lived experience and those of her associates during wartime inspired Dutch Defense.
Je Maintiendrai (French, roughly “I will keep up”) is both the motto of the Dutch monarchy and the slogan of Evert’s Resistance cell, which ultimately had only two survivors.

After the war, Johanna married and had two children in Belgium. Her Dutch husband died; she eventually remarried, this time wedding a Canadian officer she’d met 15 years earlier during the time of liberation. Though widowed a second time only 15 years later, she remained persistent: returning to a full-time career at age 50; providing for her five sons while earning degrees in psychology and education; becoming an accomplished educator; and ultimately designing a program for, and instructing, gifted students. She remained an educator into her late sixties.
After retiring in 1993, she wrote the first complete version of this book, both at her house in Montreal and largely while she was caring for a new grandchild in Boston. Today she lives in Ottawa, Canada.

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