Ingrid Hoogendijk / Ingrid Hoogendijk – In Any Case, We’re Still Doing Fine

Ingrid Hoogendijk – In Any Case, We’re Still Doing Fine

Ingrid Hoogendijk – In Any Case, We’re Still Doing Fine

About the book

In 1922 the Rotterdam cloth merchant Michiel Hoogendijk came into possession of the country estate of Schakenhof in East Prussia. There he, his wife and seven children experienced the rise of National Socialism, the war, the coming of the Russians and the collapse of the Third Reich.

Decades later, his grand-daughter, Ingrid Hoogendijk, acquired a large collection of letters, written by members of the family to each other in those turbulent times. This book tells the gripping story of a family torn apart by war, and the story of East  Prussia,  a  country  that  has vanished from  our   collective   memory.

Excerpt from the letters:

Schimmelchen was the first horse we had to leave behind. I found it really hard to have to say goodbye to the sweet creature. Other carthorses had trampled one of her hooves and she could no longer walk. For the next seven days we were driven across the fields like cattle. The main highways were blocked and the only through road was closed at Elbing. We were hemmed in. It was a chaos beyond description.

Schimmelchen war die erste, die wir stehen lassen mussten von unseren Pferden. Es fiel mir schwer, mich von dem lieben Tier zu trennen. Andere Gäule hatten ihr den Fuß kaputtgeschlagen, so dass sie nicht mehr laufen konnte. Dann kamen sieben Tage, an denen wir wie das Vieh auf den Äckern herumgejagt wurden. Die Hauptstraßen waren gesperrt, der einzige Durchgang bei Elbing abgeschlossen. So saßen wir im Kessel. Ein Chaos wie man es nicht schildern kann.

Author

Ingrid Hoogendijk is the granddaughter of Michiel Hoogendijk. After a varied business career she spent more than ten years researching her family’s past.

Additional book information

  • Historical non-fiction
  • ISBN 9789400405356
  • Number of pages: 368
  • World rights: De Bezige Bij
  • Price: €22,99