My Sins Go With Me

In the darkest days of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anna-Maria van der Vaart sheltered Allied pilots, gave refuge to persecuted Jews and participated in audacious acts of sabotage. She survived when others did not, a witness to their courage and to the terrible treachery that betrayed so many of them to the Nazis.

Tens of thousands of Dutchmen elected to fight with the Germans, while many civilians turned over their Jewish neighbours to an almost certain death. Holland’s Jewish leaders prevaricated, hoping to save their people and their own skins. But the exploits of the Dutch Resistance produced unimaginable heroism and unparalleled self-sacrifice.

A chance meeting with Martin Sixsmith in 2019 led to Anna-Maria telling him her story. In Dutch and German archives, interviews with survivors, personal diaries and contentious memoirs by those with things to hide, Sixsmith came across a drama on a scale he could never have imagined.

My Sins