In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II, young Hendrika de Vries witnessed extraordinary courage. Her family hid a Jewish child in their home, and she watched her mother join the Dutch Resistance and withstand interrogation at gunpoint after the child was discovered and taken away. These experiences would shape a lifetime devoted to resilience, hope, and helping others find their strength.
Hendrika’s remarkable journey spans continents and generations. From her childhood in wartime Holland to her teenage years as an immigrant and champion swimmer in 1950s Australia, and later as a young wife and mother in the turbulent United States of the 1960s, her life story is one of perseverance, adaptation, and purpose.
As a young swimming instructor in Australia, Hendrika experienced a defining moment when she helped a boy whose legs had been paralyzed by polio learn to trust his upper body and move through the water. Watching him discover his own strength revealed a calling that would eventually lead her to become a family therapist in the United States.
Today, Hendrika de Vries is a retired family therapist, teacher, and writer with a background in theology and depth psychology. She is the author of two memoirs, including one about a little Dutch girl who journeys from the shadows of war to a new life in Australia, confronting loss, shattered dreams, and inner struggles before discovering her unique path forward.
Through her writing and speaking, Hendrika inspires audiences with a powerful message: even in the darkest times, hope and possibility remain. She believes that by sharing our stories, we become witnesses to resilience and agents of change. Her life and work remind us that courage, compassion, and the human spirit can endure—and flourish—against all odds.
Henny was just a little girl when she experienced brutal violence and hunger in WWII Amsterdam, but she is now a teenage immigrant swimmer in 1950s Australia, where she must learn to turn challenges into success. She is smart, she swims fast, and she has definite opinions about the kind of woman she intends to be.
She hears the timeless Land speak and sees the Southern Cross as a beacon when she walks in the bush with her father. She enjoys swimming star fame and championship victories and turns to the pool in her search to belong, to face fears and dashed hopes, until at every turn she sees more clearly her unique path ahead.
When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew
Born
in the Netherlands at a time when girls are to be housewives and mothers and
nothing else, Hendrika de Vries is a “daddy’s girl” until her father is
deported from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to a POW camp in Germany and her mother
joins the Resistance. In the aftermath of her father’s departure, Hendrika
watches as freedoms formerly taken for granted are eroded with escalating
brutality by men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem
“inferior” and those who do not obey.
As
time goes on, Hendrika absorbs her mother’s strength and faith, and learns
about moral choice and forced silence. She sees her hidden Jewish “stepsister”
betrayed, and her mother interrogated at gunpoint. She and her mother suffer
near starvation, and they narrowly escape death on the day of liberation. But
they survive it all—and through these harrowing experiences, Hendrika discovers
the woman she wants to become.
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