When The Dikes Broke

Told through the harrowing experiences of the Van Rossem family of Kuyfoort, this is the story of the great flood that swept over Holland in January, 1953. The courage and heroism of the people in their fight against the encroaching sea, the search for and rescue of survivors and the reclamation of their homes and land are depicted. “How the wind blows tonight! As if it wants to tear the house up by the roots,” says Tante Anna. But the van Rossem family isn’t worried. Isn’t their house strong and solid? And the dikes that hold back the sea—aren’t they strong, too? That very night they waken to the shriek of sirens and the clang of church bells. They hear an even more frightening sound, too—the rush of water flooding the house. And then comes the cry that strikes terror to the heart of every Dutch boy and girl: “Get to your attic. The dike gave way!”

During the occupation of the Netherlands the Germans made it impossible to carry out any maintenance work on our shores or any sounding, soil investiga tion or current-measurement work off the co ast, in the estuary of the Scheldt or in the channels between the Frisian Islands. The work ofDr. Johan van Veen, then leader of this survey, therefore came to astandstill. He then came to me and asked me to give him some task, so that he, an indefatigable worker, could continue to have work, the best antidote against the German poison, which affected only permanently unemployed men. I knew his love for the history of our traditional handling of the defence against the water. An all-round study had never been published, for in normal times a man with full knowledge of this type of work cannot find time for such a study, as water is our everlasting enemy, which must be kept under continual elose observation. From Dr. van Veen's book it will be elear that the Dutch manner of dredging, draining and reelaiming is a combination of traditions inherited from our ancestors and applied science to cope with modern demands. This tradition is in our blood. A more intimate knowledge of it will, I hope, furnish a kcy to so me of the salient points in our national character.

Ghiysbrecht van Tuyl, a knight, and his wife Agnes serve the Duke of Gerle (now province Gelderland in the Netherlands) in the 14th century. In the 17th century, the line branched when descendants emigrated to the US. Each branch is traced to the late 20th century.

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Duong Van Mai Elliott's The Sacred Willow illuminates recent Vietnamese history by weaving together the stories of the lives of four generations of her family. Beginning with her great-grandfather, who rose from rural poverty to become an influential landowner, and continuing to the present, Mai Elliott traces her family's journey through an era of tumultuous change. She tells us of childhood hours in her grandmother's silk shop, and of hiding while French troops torched her village, watching while blossoms torn by fire from the trees flutter "like hundreds of butterflies" overhead. She makes clear the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest sister left her staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet Minh, and spent months sleeping in jungle camps with her infant son, fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows several family members through the last, desperate hours of the fall of Saigon-including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing the skid of a departing American helicopter. Based on family papers, dozens of interviews, and a wealth of other research, this is not only a memorable family saga but a record of how the Vietnamese themselves have experienced their times.