How did the author react when she met her brother?
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Answer:
Marga Minco is a Dutch journalist and author. She lives and works in Amsterdam. She was born on March 31, 1920 in the village of Ginneken, in the southwest of the Netherlands. As a young girl she moved to Breda, a town near her birthplace, together with her parents, her brother Dave and her sister Bettie. Her pious father Salomon held the position of parnas (warden) in the local Jewish community and probably made a living as a salesman. Minco’s mother Grietje Minco-van Hoorn was trained as a teacher. Minco’s parents, who married in 1914, remained enamored throughout their livesIn the early part of World War II Minco lived in Breda, Amersfoort, and Amsterdam. She contracted a mild form of tuberculosis and ended up being treated in hospitals in Utrecht and Amersfoort. In the autumn of 1942 she returned to Amsterdam and her parents, who were forced by the German occupiers to move into the city’s Jewish Quarter.
Later in the war, Minco’s parents, her brother, and her sister were all deported, but having escaped arrest herself she spent the rest of the war in hiding and was the family’s only survivor. Minco married the poet and translator Bert Voeten (who died in 1992) whom she had met in 1938 and with whom she hid during the war. After the war, they worked on a number of newspapers and magazines. They have two daughters, one of whom is the writer Jessica Voeten.
Her youth and her experiences during the war inspired her to start writing novels and short stories. In 1957, a year after the birth of her second daughter, Jessica, Minco made her literary debut with the short novel Het bittere kruid, translated into English as Bitter Herbs. Minco’s books are distinguished by her sober, reserved way of using words and emotions..
Marga Minco is the only member of her immediate family to have survived the Second World War. Her father, mother, brother Dave and his fiancée, her sister Bettie and husband – all were deported to concentration camps. None returned.
She dies, nevertheless, just before her 85th birthday, by falling accidentally into an unprotected well.
Introduction
During World War II, the Germans (the Nazis under Hitler) invaded Holland where ninety percent of the people were Jews. Many of the Jews fled in fear to other countries. Thousands were imprisoned in concentration camps. A woman and her little daughter had also to leave their home. The woman left all her things with a woman known to her. After some time, the woman died. However, her daughter remembered the place where she used to live with her mother. Long after the war, she came to the town where she used to live with her mother. She went to meet the woman with whom her mother had left all her things. But the woman refused to recognize her because she didn’t want to return the things she had taken. Then she gives up the idea of getting them back again and decides to leave all of them behind with her. She resolves to forget the address where those belongings lie in unpleasant surroundings
Characters
1. The narrator – Marga Minco
2. Mrs. S – mother of the narrator
3. Mrs. Dorling– an acquaintance of the narrator’s mother
4. A girl of 15 – daughter of Mrs. Dorling
Summary
After ringing the bell of House Number 46 in Marconi Street, a woman opened the door. On being introduced, the woman kept staring at her in silence. There was no sign of recognition on her face. The woman was wearing her mother’s green knitted cardigan. The narrator could understand that she had made no mistake. She asked the woman whether she knew her mother. The woman could not deny this. The narrator wanted to talk to her for some time. But the woman cautiously closed the door. The narrator stopped there for some time and then left the place.
In the subsequent sections, the memories of the narrator’s bygone days come to light. Her mother had provided the address years ago during the war. She went to home for few days. She could find that various things were missing. At that time her mother told her about Mrs. Dorling. She happened to be an old acquaintance of the narrator’s mother. Lately she had renewed contact with her and had been coming there regularly. Every time she left their house she took something home with her. She told that she wanted to save all their nice possessions. The next day the narrator saw Mrs. Dorling going out of their house with a heavy suitcase. She had a fleeting glimpse of Mrs. Dorling’s face. She asked her mother whether the woman lived far away. At that time the narrator’s mother told about the address: Number 46, Marconi Street. After many days the after the war, the narrator was curious to take record of the possessions that must still be at Number 46, Marconi Street. With this intention she went to the given address.