Inspiring WWII Memoir Co-Authored By Fairfax City Woman And Her Mother

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Caroline Crocker and her mother, Meta Evenbly, were standing outside a house in a small fishing village in the Netherlands last summer. That, according to Evenbly, was where she had witnessed her first murder. She was just 6 years old.

"She described the murder for me," Crocker said. "She said it was very healing for her to be validated in that way. She had all these memories, but she felt like nobody would believe her."

Evenby and her daughter's journey to the Netherlands began five years before, with the death of Crocker's father. That's when the longtime Fairfax City resident realized she knew very little about her father's early life during World War II.

"His mom was half Jewish, and I didn't really know why he wasn't taken away," she said. "His cousins were — and killed at Auschwitz. I never found out, and so I thought I should write down what happened to mom, because she's still here."

Crocker began by writing down the stories her mother had shared about being a Dutch/German child living in The Netherlands during the war.

"They were very innocuous stories about her spitting in the dessert so she would get the biggest one," Crocker said. "So I wrote them down. I showed it to her and I said, 'Hey, Mom, let's do a book about your life."

Evenbly agreed and through their conversations, the story of Evenbly's childhood began to unfold. Crocker prompted her with questions and Evenbly would fill in the gaps with the things she could recall.

"I would ask her, 'OK, how did you know your mom was upset?'" Crocker said. "Because I'd met these people, but did not really get to know them well.' [Evenbly replied], 'Well, she said she was going to go drown herself," and I'm like, 'Whoa!"

Once the COVID-19 pandemic began, Evenbly came to live with Crocker's family in Fairfax City. Then every afternoon, the two would sit down together in front of the computer, read through what they had already written, and continue filling in the gaps.

Crocker had to do additional research about what happened in the Netherlands during the war, because all of her mother's memories were from when she was 5- to 10-years-old.

"They had Dutch people who were Nazis, but they spoke Dutch," Crocker said. "Because her dad was involved with some resistance stuff, they were very frightened of that, and that has lasted her whole life."

After about four years of collaborating, Crocker and Evenbly are celebrating the Nov. 1 publication of their book "Brave Face: The Inspiring WWII Memoir of a Dutch/German Child" by Amsterdam Publishers.

Last summer, Crocker and her mother traveled to the Netherlands and visited many of the places her mother had talked about. That's how they ended up at a fishing village recalling a murder. Evenbly told her daughter that by sharing these memories and experiences, she felt validated.

Toward the end of the war, as parts of the Netherlands were liberated, Evenbly had been told that other areas needed to be liberated first because where she lived was not strategically important.

"Mom always had an idea for her whole life that she was insignificant. She was not important," Crocker said. "Now, with the book coming out, all of a sudden people want to talk to her, and she's the star. She just can't believe it."

On Saturday, Nov. 5, at 3 p.m., Crocker and Evenbly will host a Book Launch Party and Book Signing at Truro Anglican Church, 10520 Main St. in Fairfax City.

For more information about "Brave Face: The Inspiring WWII Memoir of a Dutch/German Child" visit https://iammeta.org.