Narrated slideshow of published book "Why? A True WWII Saga of Dutch Resistance" by Kathleen Kattus.

1. At 90 years old, Diny
Hoogendoorn broke her silence
and divulged the heartaches and
thrills of her true WWII saga of
Dutch resistance in the book
WHY?
WHY? was Diny’s heart cry to
her God of love and compassion
when teetering on the brink of
insanity after having witnessed
the murder of an infant by a
German soldier in her home town
of Amsterdam, Netherlands,
during Nazi occupation.
1

2. Diny was born in 1912 as
Gardena Margaretha Wolf.
Diny (seated) at age 4
with sister Annie, age 3.
2
In 1919, Diny’s parents
choose to take in seven-
year-old Clara for 1½
years, in response to a
plea by their minister to
help their WWI devastated
neighbor, Germany. Six-
year-old Diny opened her
heart and befriended her
new German sister
thereby endearing herself
to Germany.
1912 - 1920
Diny was the eldest of four
sisters and had an intense
rivalry with her sister Annie.
At age 11, Diny physically
lashed out at Annie’s
deriding. Their father read
from the Holy Bible to
correct their behavior,
leaving Diny in a quandary
about the words of her Lord
Jesus to “love your
enemies” while intensely
disliking her sister.
1920 - 1927

3. Diny in one of her
designed dresses.
Gelda circa 1975.
During the Great Depression, Diny lived her dream
as a seamstress and clothes designer with C&A
Brennick-Meyer. During her 11-year career, she
met Gelda, who eventually became her lifelong
friend and confidant.
1925 - 1939
3

4. Johan and Diny with their wedding party, Herma
(Johan’s sister), Ida and Kitty (Diny’s sisters) .
4
After six years of engagement, Diny married Johannis Hoogendoorn in May of
1939. On their three-month anniversary, he left for military duty because of the
Dutch mobilization. One year later he returned and they began again, this time
under Nazi occupation.
1933 - 1941

5. Diny and Johan with
10-day-old Eddy.
Eddy at 8 months.
5
In May 1942, Diny gave birth to their first child, Eddy, a blond-haired, blue-
eyed, 11-pound son. Three months later, Johan was sent to a forced-labor
camp in Germany. Shortly afterwards, her future brother-in-law, Gerrad, never
returned home from work.
1942

6. Diny’s ration card from the 1940s.
6
After a trip to countryside farmers
to subsidize her rations, Diny’s
goods are confiscated at a
roadside check. The police
commissioner, whom Diny
suspected to be a Dutch Nazi
sympathizer (NSBer), showed up
at her house that evening.
Winter
1942 – 1943

7. Eddy and Diny in 1943 during
their underground days.
7
Diny deciphered Morse code for the
British Intelligence while training for
Underground work, which included
learning to shoot a semi automatic
pistol with a six bullet magazine. Her
son, Eddy was the perfect decoy to
carry the teddy bear containing
microfilm.
August - September
1943

8. November 1943
Having witnessed the
brutal murder of a Jewish
infant by German police
during a razzia caused
Diny to question her God.
“WHY would you, a loving
God, allow such treatment
of an innocent child?”
became the unanswered
cry of her heart.
Diny was sent on a
mission to help escort 30
Jewish children from the
Jewish Theater to safety
in the countryside.
Around this same time,
Diny’s 16-year-old cousin,
Nico, did not return from
his morning paper route.
October 1943
8
During a razzia
Nazis freely
searched homes
and seized who and
what they wanted.

9. The Allied success at
Normandy infused Diny
with renewed hope of
liberation. Around this
same time, she was
disturbed by a job riddled
with lies and murder by the
Underground.
June 6, 1944
Diny was inundated with
escorting Jews to new
hiding places. The Ten
Boom’s watch shop in
Haarlem, featured in the
movie and book “The
Hiding Place,” was one of
her destinations. She was
shocked when they were
shut down in 1944 by the
Nazis.
1943 - 1944
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Eddy befriended a
German soldier who
gave him apples.

10. The Arnhem Slaughter
demolished Diny’s hope
of Amsterdam being
freed. The Germans left
all public transportation
at a standstill thereby
cutting off all mail trains,
Diny’s only contact with
her husband in Germany.
When Diny visited her
parents for her youngest
sister’s 13th birthday, Ida
was missing.
September - October
1944
Because of Annie’s
affiliation with Nazi
sympathizers, Diny cut
back on her already
infrequent visits with her
parents. On Christmas
morning, with a Jewish
baby hidden in a
breadbox underneath
Eddy’s stroller seat, Diny
set out for the
countryside town of
Halfweg.
December 1944
10
The Allied attempt to
free the Netherlands
became known as the
Arnhem Slaughter.
German troops shot
thousands of Allied
paratroopers out of
the sky and a Panzer
division destroyed the
city of Arnhem.

11. In the midst of starvation
and the most brutal
freezing winter claiming
thousands of lives in
Amsterdam, Diny was
sent to pose as the wife
of an imprisoned
resistance worker in
order to pass escape
instructions to him.
1944 - 1945 Diny was sent on more and
more unusual jobs. During one
such mission, with incriminating
papers under her son’s sweater
and just minutes from curfew,
Diny took a shortcut across a
dike. With water on one side and
a steep rocky slope on the
other, she was suddenly faced
with a critical decision when a
German kubelwagen escorting a
tank turned onto the dike from
the other end.
February 1945
11
During the
Hunger Winter
of 1944, 18,000
people died in
the Netherlands.

12. The Gestapo picked up
Diny’s Underground
boss, Egge, which
catapulted her into a
deep despair. “Will he
talk? Am I next? What
do I do now?” were
questions that haunted
her continually.
March – May
1945
After liberation The
Underground received a
letter of accusation, which
caused a disheartened
Diny to turn up her nose at
The Medal of Honor from
Prime Minister Churchill
presented to her for her
involvement with the
British Intelligence.
May - August
1945
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Diny’s mother
and father after
liberated from
Nazi occupation.

13. Diny and Eddy
1944
Diny and Eddy
2004
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The war wasn’t over for Diny until September 1945 when she finally found out
what happened to her husband. In this last chapter, his fate is told along with
that of the other four missing people:
Gerrad (Diny’s future brother-in-law),
Nico (Diny’s cousin),
Ida (Diny’s youngest sister), and
Egge (Diny’s Underground boss).
September
1945

14. Diny in 2004 at age 92.
This book was written in such a way as to
allow the reader to experience what I did at the
time. Never was it my intention to provoke hatred
or prejudice toward any group of people. Although
I fell prey to such temporarily, my desire is to give
you my experience so you may avoid my pitfalls.
As I look back at what happened sixty years
ago, it’s hard to believe that I am the same
person, fighting for one and hating the other. But
that’s what happened with me being involved in
the war the way I was.
At times I thought, “There’s no God anymore
who cares for me.” I started hating and distrusting
people who were not on my side. And when it
was all over, trying to forgive the people, like the
Bible says, “Forgive your enemies,” was very
hard.
But sitting here, at ninety-two-years-old, in
my sunny Florida home, I thank God that I could
forgive, but never ever forget. And I wish, like the
song says, “Let there be peace on earth and let it
begin with me.”
-Diny
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