Boy Between Worlds - The story of a love that overcame all

Annejet Van Der Zijl wrote the moving and inspring novel 'Boy Between Worlds' based on the true story of Rika and Waldemar.

In 1928 in the Netherlands Rika and Waldemar fell in love. But they were completely different, Rika was a 37 year old Dutch-born married mother who was estranged from her husband and he was her immigrant boarder, a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves who was not yet 20 years old. Their relationship caused Rika’s family to disown her and two of her four children were so angry they ran away to their father. Rika’s ex-husband was so outraged by his ex-wife’s new relationship he successfully gained custody of the two remaining children. But despite their differences and the problems they faced they fell in love and Rika fell pregnant. They child they had together, Waldy, had brown skin and blue eyes brings the couple love and joy but raises eyebrows. During the Great Depression they opened a guest house which became popular with holiday makers and was remarkably successful despite the depression. They even managed to upgrade to a larger property. But in 1940 the Germans occupied the Netherlands and whilst some people opposed the occupation many saw it as a pragmatic adaptation and the police and civil service Complied with the deportation of Jews. In the Spring of 1942 the Germans took their guest house whilst building the ‘Atlantic Wall’ and they were moved to another property. It was in this property that Rika and Waldemar decided to hide Jews from the Nazi’s. The Dutch Resistance saw them as ideal candidates to hide Jews as they had a large property and didn’t share the anti-Semitism that other people had. In August 1943 they moved again but continued to hide Jews, but they were betrayed and the police arrived to interrogate all occupants including young Waldy. Waldemar admitted to hiding Jews and ended up at a concentration camp in Germany, Rika refused to give a statement before being badly beaten and taken to the prison dubbed ‘Orange Hotel’ before going to camp vught. Camp Vaught was evacuated when the allies advanced and Rika was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she died in February 1945. Waldemar’s camp was evacuated in April and the prisoners were put onto a ship which the Nazi’s had intended to sink. But the RAF sunk it for them after mistaking it for a troop ship. Of the 4,500 prisoners only 350 survived the sinking including Waldemar. But when he made it to the shore he was shot by child soldiers. Waldy was originally taken in by an uncle but like a lot of kids he was sent to the country to live with a host family. It was a struggle to place him as many families were reluctant to take in a mixed race child. Waldy later went on to get married, have children and learn about his parents fate. He sadly passed away aged 85 in 2015.