Dancing with the Enemy

I mentioned in my last post how good the main museum is in Bastogne. It really is well worth a visit. It's informative, interesting and enjoyable - and it's free. You just have to remember, you can't show yourself around unguided but, to be honest, the guide we had was fantastic and we had a much better visit as a result.

The tank museum on the site was crammed full of vehicles of every shape and size.

And the canteen building is being added to each year - quite a remarkable achievement for the Belgium army and its staff although many of the exhibits are very much tinged with sadness. 

The American Memorial and Museum is another 'must see' place. It's a tad bigger than most other places you might see in the vicinity and, on the day we visited, the car park and paths were being used as a go-cart race track for some sort of youth organisation. I'm not sure this would have been allowed in the UK but then...when in Rome...

Now just a small item I should have mentioned in my post about the Vught Concentration Camp. Apparently a young woman called Rosie Glaser was held captive there during the war (along with thousands of others) and she decided to use her many skills and attributes to stay alive, including teaching some of her German guards how to dance. Her diary was found by a family member and he wrote about her life there. I have ordered a copy and look forward to reading it.

Paul Glaser was an adult when he learned the truth about his heritage. Raised in a devout Roman Catholic home in the Netherlands, he had never known his father was Jewish and that their family had suffered great losses during the World War II. When Paul inquired, his father refused to provide details about the war, the camps, and especially Rosie, Paul’s estranged aunt.

Shortly after this discovery, Paul started an investigation into his family’s past, desperate to get to the bottom of the long-standing rift between his father and Rosie. His research led him to a collection of Rosie’s wartime diaries, photographs, and letters, which told the dramatic story of a woman who was caught up in the tragic sweep of World War II.

Rosie Glaser was a magnificent woman; despite everything, she remained hopeful, exuberant, and, most importantly, cunning. When the Nazis seized power, Rosie, a nonpracticing Jew, entered dangerous territory, managing a hidden dance school and participating in whispered conversations and secret rendezvous. She was eventually caught and sent to a series of concentration camps.

She survived, though, in part by giving dance and etiquette lessons to her captors, who favored her and looked out for her in return. Of the twelve hundred people who arrived with her in Auschwitz, only eight survived.

Dancing with the Enemy recalls an extraordinary life marked by love, betrayal, and fierce determination.