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by Barth Hoogstraten (Author)
Throughout history, students and artists have been in the forefront of struggles against tyranny. In Nazi-occupied Holland, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, non-believers, and Communists joined these patriots. Together, they fought Nazi efforts to plunder their county, suppress the people, and send more than 100,000 Dutch Jews to concentration camps.
In this riveting narrative, author Barth Hoogstraten tells the stories of eleven ordinary citizens- a sculptor, a young female student, a middle-aged housewife, a banker, and a postal worker-who suddenly found themselves fighting for freedom. They were among the 1,671 Dutch men and women who paid the ultimate price for their heroism. Two were later declared national heroes and posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hoogstraten, a survivor of the Nazi Occupation, provides rich details of the hardships, terrifying suspense, and sacrifice that characterized life during the Dutch resistance. Interspersed in this personal and spellbinding account, The Resistance Fighters captures the moments of humor, simple beauty, and love that persevered even in the darkest of days.Author Biography
Barth Hoogstraten, a retired Professor of Medicine, was one of the pioneers of cancer chemotherapy and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London. In early 1943, he refused to sign a loyalty decree to the German Nazi occupiers and went underground instead in the home of two blind music teachers. He narrowly escaped when the Gestapo raided the house. In 1946 he returned to Holland as a British trained military officer and restarted his medical education in 1949. He immigrated to the United States in 1956, completed his specialty training at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and in 1970 was appointed the first American Cancer Society Professor of Clinical Oncology.
