Diet Eman (courtesy of Diet Eman)
At Vught (a Dutch concentration camp), Diet was given a job cleaning bloody civilian clothing. As she was handed these garments, day after day, she made enquiries and discovered that she was washing the clothes of executed Dutch resistance men. She examined the clothing closely and discovered that the bullet holes were at the abdomen level. The resistance men had been deliberately shot in a manner that would cause a long, agonizing death.
At this point Diet's hatred for the Nazis ballooned until it threatened the very core of her Christian identity. It seemed that the painful execution of these Dutch men was the only reward she would ever know for all her Resistance work and her fervent prayers for everyone's safety. She began to doubt God's goodness and became physically paralyzed for several days.
Soon it was time for Diet's hearing. A fellow prisoner had promised to "storm the gates of heaven" for Diet so that her hearing would go well. As Diet went through the hearing, pretended to be uneducated Willie Laarman, she gradually realized that the healthy German officers seated comfortably in that room, who were there to decide her fate, were the real prisoners, not she. She became convinced that God was on her side. Her hatred for these Germans melted into pity, and she was filled with an overwhelming peace.
She answered all of the questions asked of her with her carefully memorized details. Finally, when she was finished, one of the Germans who hadn't said a word during the session looked at her closely and said, "I have done nothing else my whole life by hearings and interrogations. That is my area of expertise...and I have developed a sixth sense. I can feel what is true and what isn't true. I can't put a needle through your story. It fits--all the way through. .But my sixth sense tells me it's all made up."
Excerpt from "Diet Eman: Courier for the Dutch Resistance" from Women Heroes of World War II.
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