Henri Knap (1911–1986)

On a rainy Sunday in the autumn of 1943, pharmacist Theo gets an unexpected visit from his Amsterdam contact, accompanied by a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl. Roosje, who is going under the name Tillie, is in danger in Amsterdam and needs somewhere to stay for a couple of nights before she can move to a more permanent clandestine address. Unfortunately, Theo has a full house and Roosje's presence might endanger the other people he's sheltering, so he sets off, with Roosje on the back of his bike, for an epic tour of the unnamed town (obviously Arnhem) to visit trusted people who might be able to take her in. And of course they all have good reasons not to...

Knap's leisurely and rather old-fashioned Good Samaritan story, apparently largely autobiographical, was quite controversial at the time, partly because it was known that the CPNB had turned down the story they originally commissioned for that year, Gerard Reve's De vierde man, on the grounds of its "unsuitable" (read "gay") subject-matter. But also because one high-profile reviewer — who might have been unaware of his later work for the resistance — accused Knap of having collaborated earlier in the war by writing plays for a German-run radio station. The resulting row completely overshadowed any discussion of the actual merits of the story.… (altro)