The Walls Came Tumbling Down
A journey of bravery, heroism, and unbowed humanity
Henriette Roosenburg
The Walls Came Tumbling Down
A journey of bravery, heroism, and unbowed humanity
Henriette Roosenburg
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‘You feel the life seeping back into these wasted, emaciated, exhausted friends like spring itself … You marvel at the capillary action that one caring human being can create in another with simple kindness, but in the end, pure luck, like a blessing, rains down from the heavens.’
‘You feel the life seeping back into these wasted, emaciated, exhausted friends like spring itself … You marvel at the capillary action that one caring human being can create in another with simple kindness, but in the end, pure luck, like a blessing, rains down from the heavens.’
‘Gripping and beautiful, Roosenburg’s memoir is a tale of bravery that will make you care deeply about its protagonists, even make you weep at their ordeal and homecoming. It is one of the unjustly neglected gems of Second World War literature.’
‘Here is a book full of utterly unselfconscious heroism.’
‘I wept — tears of pride — while reading Henriette Roosenburg’s The Walls Came Tumbling Down. Pride? Yes, pride that human beings can rise to such heights.’
‘Scribe has done readers a great service by reprinting the unjustly forgotten The Walls Came Tumbling Down by Henriette Roosenburg, nicknamed ‘Zip’ for the frequency with which she once secretly criss-crossed Nazi-held borders, narrates the incredible events that follow her liberation from a German prison by the Soviet military with casual simplicity and a touch of humour … [A] moving, often funny book, despite the circumstances, told by a brave and truly remarkable woman who deserves to be remembered.’
‘[A] gripping memoir.’
‘[R]eading Henriette Roosenburg’s gripping memoir of her postwar journey home to Holland from the Waldheim camp in Germany, I feel … awe at the human courage and indefatigable quest for home that pervades the book … The tone of this memoir is upbeat, and surprisingly amusing. The joy of freedom and her delight in being able to take independent action after their long captivity pervades each chapter … Highly recommended.’
Henriette Roosenburg (1916–1972), known as ‘Zip’, was part of the Dutch resistance during World War II, collecting news for the underground press and helping maintain an escape route for crashed Allied pilots. After being arrested in 1944 and condemned to death, she survived internment in a Gestapo prison in Germany before being liberated by the Russian army in May 1945. After the war, she emigrated to the United States, and started to work for Life Magazine. She wrote the first draft of what would later become The Walls Came Tumbling Down for The New Yorker.