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Black Book (novel)
Encyclopedia
Black Book is a Dutch-language 2006 thriller novel
by Laurens Abbink Spaink. It is the novelization
of the Dutch film Black Book (2006). It tells the story of a young Jewish woman, Rachel Stein, and her struggle for survival during and after the Second World War
. The book has a photo section, and an afterword
by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman
.
and epilogue
, the story is a first-person narrative
told by Rachel Stein, a young Jewish woman. The novel is set at the end of World War II
in the Netherlands
.
In September 1944, Rachel is 26 years old, and the Stein family is in hiding from the Nazi
authorities. Rachel is living with a Christian family in the Biesbosch
, an area of rivers and creeks, separated from the rest of her family. Here she is not allowed outside, but one day she goes sunbathing near the water. Here she meets Rob, a man about her own age, who was on the water sailing. As they enjoy themselves on his boat, a crippled British bomber flies over while dropping its payload so it can climb to escape a pursuing fighter, and one of its bombs hits Rachel's hideout. While she is staying with Rob, they are approached by a Dutch policeman named Van Gein, who offers to help them flee to liberated Belgium
. She needs money for her escape, so she visits a lawyer named Smaal in The Hague
. During the escape, she is reunited with her parents and brother; but their escape boat—with Rachel, Rob, the rest of the Stein family, and other Jews on board—is ambushed. Rachel hides in the water and gets a good view of the SS officer who was responsible. Everyone except Rachel is killed.
Rachel is smuggled into The Hague disguised as a corpse in a coffin. There, she joins a resistance group led by Gerben Kuipers. She dyes her hair blond and takes the alias
Ellis de Vries. While she and the resistance group are trying to smuggle medicine and weapons, they are intercepted by German security forces. All the Germans are killed by resistance group member Hans Akkermanns. Rachel and Hans travel by train with the contraband. In the train Rachel meets a Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
officer, Ludwig Müntze, who helps her with her suitcases. Tim, Kuipers' son, and several other members of the resistance group, are later captured by the Germans when their weapons supply truck covered with vegetables crashes. The weapons are exposed when the vegetables are scattered everywhere. The rest of the group plans to have Rachel make contact with Müntze and enlist him in helping them get the prisoners released.
Rachel goes to the SD headquarters to meet Müntze, bringing him Netherlands East Indies stamps for his collection. (He has been collecting stamps for every country he's been stationed in, including Poland.) He invites her to a party. At the party she spots the officer responsible for killing her parents, Günther Franken. He is playing the piano. Rachel feels sick and runs out of the room to throw up in a bathroom. After the party, she sleeps with Müntze, and he tells her how he lost his wife and children in an air raid
on Hamburg. Rachel and Müntze fall in love. Rachel is offered a job at the SD and bugs the office with a British device. Franken wants to execute the captured resistance group members, but Müntze refuses to sign the order. Using the hidden mike, Rachel and the other resistance group members learn that Van Gein has been collaborating with the Germans - trapping escaping Jews, murdering them and keeping their money. The resistance decides against saving the Jews from Van Gein, weighing the lives of Jews against imprisoned Dutchmen. Others in the group decide to kidnap the traitor, but their plan fails because the chloroform
they use expired in 1941. Van Gein overpowers his kidnappers, who are forced to kill him. "Ellis" returns to Muntze, but finds the German convinced that she is Jewish and a mole for the resistance. Rachel tells Muntze that he is correct but also how she lost her family. He does not arrest her.
With Rachel's information, Müntze accuses Franken of hoarding loot stolen from murdered Jews, inviting General Kauntner to open Franken's safe. While Nazi law allows for the killing Jews, failing to turn over their property is a capital offense. Nevertheless, Franken is cleared when a search of his office safe fails to turn up the stolen loot. Realizing the danger Muntze poses, Franken has him arrested, telling Kauntner of Muntze's negotiating with the resistance, a charge Muntze wearily concedes. Angrily, Kauntner orders Muntze's execution.
Later, a party is held at the SD office to celebrate Hitler
's birthday. Rachel persuades the resistance group to free Müntze during an operation to rescue Tim and the other imprisoned members. During the party, Rachel helps the rescue group get into the building, but the mission proves a trap, as heavily armed German soldiers overpower the would-be rescuers, and virtually annihilate them. Franken, apparently tipped off to the resistance operations, has Rachel brought to his office. Knowing of the hidden microphone, he "congratulates" Rachel for her efforts, knowing that the resistance will overhear the conversation and conclude that Rachel betrayed them to the Germans. During the early morning hours, Müntze's driver rescues Rachel and Müntze, and they flee to Rob's sailboat. Rachel and Müntze talk about the war, about who could have informed on them to Franken, and what they would do after the war. On May 5, 1945, they hear Dutch nationalist songs on the radio and learn that the Netherlands has been liberated. Franken escapes Holland by sea, taking his loot with him, but his boat is sabotaged and he is murdered by Hans Akkermans.
During the chaos following liberation, suspected traitors
and collaborators
are arrested and publicly paraded in disgrace. Rachel and Müntze suspect Smaal as the informant and visit. While they are at his house, Smaal and his wife deny the charges but are murdered. Rachel snatches a little black book of his notes from Smaal's body. Müntze chases Smaal's murderer into the liberation parades but is recognized by the Resistance and captured. Seen by the Resistance in Smaal's house, Rachel is captured as well. Imprisoned, Rachel endures horrific abuse before being liberated by Hans and a Canadian officer. Muntze proves less lucky. Returned to his old office, now being used by Canadian troops, Muntze finds the Canadian officers working with Kauntner. Far from defeated, Kauntner appears to retain significant power through the Canadians. Producing Muntze's death warrant, Kauntner persuades the Canadian officers to allow him to have Muntze executed, citing British Military law requiring a defeated enemy be permitted to discipline its own troops. Muntze is almost immediately executed by firing squad.
Lauding Hans as a resistance hero, and lured by chocolate he's received from allied officers, a crowd of jubilant Dutch follows his jeep as he takes Rachel to his home. There he shows her the recovered loot, a fortune in gold, jewels and cash. Learning of Muntze's death, Rachel collapses in grief. Hans gives her something to calm her down. Too late, Rachel realizes that Akkermans has injected her with insulin
, leaving her to die as he greets a joyful crowd below. Slipping into unconsciousness, Rachel grabs some of Hans's chocolate bars to prevent insulin shock. While Hans is being cheered by a joyous crowd on his balcony, Rachel appears from behind him and jumps off the balcony into the crowd. Escaping, she reaches Canadian officers who bring her to Kuipers. Using the Black Book, Rachel and a Canadian officer successfully convince a grieving Kuipers of her innocence and Akkermans's guilt. The black book - with Smaal's notes - proves all too convincing, documenting wealthy Jews seeking to escape from the Germans. Hans himself had been arrested by the Gestapo, released officially due to lack of evidence, but in fact because he had made a deal with Franken. Kuipers and Rachel figure out that Hans is trying to get away in a coffin, taking with him the riches stolen from murdered Jews. They track him down and seal the coffin suffocating him. As they wait for Hans to die, Kuipers and Rachel calmly debate what to do with Hans's stolen treasure.
In the epilogue Rachel is living on a kibbutz
in Israel
, which was funded with the money, jewels, and other articles stolen from the Jews, where she works as a school teacher. Suddenly, shooting and the sound of jet aircraft is heard in the background - the Suez Crisis has begun.
written by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman
. When writer Laurens Abbink Spaink was asked in NRC Handelsblad
whether the book is just a commercial product or also a literary work, he answers: "Black Book is a literary thriller. Its form is in between the typical American novelization, describing only what the camera sees, and a literary novel. The novelization adds something to the film. I gave Rachel Stein a past, memories and a house. In the film she had no personal space."
: "The novel Black Book thoroughly puts into words what the film shows you. In black and white is confirmed what you half missed in the crisscross of story lines while you were watching: the piano is played by the left hand and people are tortured by the right hand, monsters can appear as soft people, and justice is easily off the right track. I have read the book as the bleak minutes of the chaotic massacre I saw in full colour. It made the film more immoral, and better."
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Laurens Abbink Spaink. It is the novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
of the Dutch film Black Book (2006). It tells the story of a young Jewish woman, Rachel Stein, and her struggle for survival during and after the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The book has a photo section, and an afterword
Afterword
An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed....
by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman
Gerard Soeteman
Gerard Soeteman is a Dutch screenwriter. He worked together with Paul Verhoeven on several films, such as Turkish Delight and Black Book...
.
Plot summary
Apart from the prologuePrologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
and epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
, the story is a first-person narrative
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
told by Rachel Stein, a young Jewish woman. The novel is set at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
In September 1944, Rachel is 26 years old, and the Stein family is in hiding from the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
authorities. Rachel is living with a Christian family in the Biesbosch
Biesbosch
De Biesbosch , is one of the largest national parks of the Netherlands and one of the last freshwater tide areas in Europe. The Biesbosch consists of a rather large network of rivers and smaller and larger creeks with islands. The vegetation is mostly willow forests, although wet grasslands and...
, an area of rivers and creeks, separated from the rest of her family. Here she is not allowed outside, but one day she goes sunbathing near the water. Here she meets Rob, a man about her own age, who was on the water sailing. As they enjoy themselves on his boat, a crippled British bomber flies over while dropping its payload so it can climb to escape a pursuing fighter, and one of its bombs hits Rachel's hideout. While she is staying with Rob, they are approached by a Dutch policeman named Van Gein, who offers to help them flee to liberated Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. She needs money for her escape, so she visits a lawyer named Smaal in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. During the escape, she is reunited with her parents and brother; but their escape boat—with Rachel, Rob, the rest of the Stein family, and other Jews on board—is ambushed. Rachel hides in the water and gets a good view of the SS officer who was responsible. Everyone except Rachel is killed.
Rachel is smuggled into The Hague disguised as a corpse in a coffin. There, she joins a resistance group led by Gerben Kuipers. She dyes her hair blond and takes the alias
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Ellis de Vries. While she and the resistance group are trying to smuggle medicine and weapons, they are intercepted by German security forces. All the Germans are killed by resistance group member Hans Akkermanns. Rachel and Hans travel by train with the contraband. In the train Rachel meets a Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
officer, Ludwig Müntze, who helps her with her suitcases. Tim, Kuipers' son, and several other members of the resistance group, are later captured by the Germans when their weapons supply truck covered with vegetables crashes. The weapons are exposed when the vegetables are scattered everywhere. The rest of the group plans to have Rachel make contact with Müntze and enlist him in helping them get the prisoners released.
Rachel goes to the SD headquarters to meet Müntze, bringing him Netherlands East Indies stamps for his collection. (He has been collecting stamps for every country he's been stationed in, including Poland.) He invites her to a party. At the party she spots the officer responsible for killing her parents, Günther Franken. He is playing the piano. Rachel feels sick and runs out of the room to throw up in a bathroom. After the party, she sleeps with Müntze, and he tells her how he lost his wife and children in an air raid
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
on Hamburg. Rachel and Müntze fall in love. Rachel is offered a job at the SD and bugs the office with a British device. Franken wants to execute the captured resistance group members, but Müntze refuses to sign the order. Using the hidden mike, Rachel and the other resistance group members learn that Van Gein has been collaborating with the Germans - trapping escaping Jews, murdering them and keeping their money. The resistance decides against saving the Jews from Van Gein, weighing the lives of Jews against imprisoned Dutchmen. Others in the group decide to kidnap the traitor, but their plan fails because the chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
they use expired in 1941. Van Gein overpowers his kidnappers, who are forced to kill him. "Ellis" returns to Muntze, but finds the German convinced that she is Jewish and a mole for the resistance. Rachel tells Muntze that he is correct but also how she lost her family. He does not arrest her.
With Rachel's information, Müntze accuses Franken of hoarding loot stolen from murdered Jews, inviting General Kauntner to open Franken's safe. While Nazi law allows for the killing Jews, failing to turn over their property is a capital offense. Nevertheless, Franken is cleared when a search of his office safe fails to turn up the stolen loot. Realizing the danger Muntze poses, Franken has him arrested, telling Kauntner of Muntze's negotiating with the resistance, a charge Muntze wearily concedes. Angrily, Kauntner orders Muntze's execution.
Later, a party is held at the SD office to celebrate Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's birthday. Rachel persuades the resistance group to free Müntze during an operation to rescue Tim and the other imprisoned members. During the party, Rachel helps the rescue group get into the building, but the mission proves a trap, as heavily armed German soldiers overpower the would-be rescuers, and virtually annihilate them. Franken, apparently tipped off to the resistance operations, has Rachel brought to his office. Knowing of the hidden microphone, he "congratulates" Rachel for her efforts, knowing that the resistance will overhear the conversation and conclude that Rachel betrayed them to the Germans. During the early morning hours, Müntze's driver rescues Rachel and Müntze, and they flee to Rob's sailboat. Rachel and Müntze talk about the war, about who could have informed on them to Franken, and what they would do after the war. On May 5, 1945, they hear Dutch nationalist songs on the radio and learn that the Netherlands has been liberated. Franken escapes Holland by sea, taking his loot with him, but his boat is sabotaged and he is murdered by Hans Akkermans.
During the chaos following liberation, suspected traitors
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
and collaborators
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
are arrested and publicly paraded in disgrace. Rachel and Müntze suspect Smaal as the informant and visit. While they are at his house, Smaal and his wife deny the charges but are murdered. Rachel snatches a little black book of his notes from Smaal's body. Müntze chases Smaal's murderer into the liberation parades but is recognized by the Resistance and captured. Seen by the Resistance in Smaal's house, Rachel is captured as well. Imprisoned, Rachel endures horrific abuse before being liberated by Hans and a Canadian officer. Muntze proves less lucky. Returned to his old office, now being used by Canadian troops, Muntze finds the Canadian officers working with Kauntner. Far from defeated, Kauntner appears to retain significant power through the Canadians. Producing Muntze's death warrant, Kauntner persuades the Canadian officers to allow him to have Muntze executed, citing British Military law requiring a defeated enemy be permitted to discipline its own troops. Muntze is almost immediately executed by firing squad.
Lauding Hans as a resistance hero, and lured by chocolate he's received from allied officers, a crowd of jubilant Dutch follows his jeep as he takes Rachel to his home. There he shows her the recovered loot, a fortune in gold, jewels and cash. Learning of Muntze's death, Rachel collapses in grief. Hans gives her something to calm her down. Too late, Rachel realizes that Akkermans has injected her with insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
, leaving her to die as he greets a joyful crowd below. Slipping into unconsciousness, Rachel grabs some of Hans's chocolate bars to prevent insulin shock. While Hans is being cheered by a joyous crowd on his balcony, Rachel appears from behind him and jumps off the balcony into the crowd. Escaping, she reaches Canadian officers who bring her to Kuipers. Using the Black Book, Rachel and a Canadian officer successfully convince a grieving Kuipers of her innocence and Akkermans's guilt. The black book - with Smaal's notes - proves all too convincing, documenting wealthy Jews seeking to escape from the Germans. Hans himself had been arrested by the Gestapo, released officially due to lack of evidence, but in fact because he had made a deal with Franken. Kuipers and Rachel figure out that Hans is trying to get away in a coffin, taking with him the riches stolen from murdered Jews. They track him down and seal the coffin suffocating him. As they wait for Hans to die, Kuipers and Rachel calmly debate what to do with Hans's stolen treasure.
In the epilogue Rachel is living on a kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, which was funded with the money, jewels, and other articles stolen from the Jews, where she works as a school teacher. Suddenly, shooting and the sound of jet aircraft is heard in the background - the Suez Crisis has begun.
Novelization
The novel was written by Laurens Abbink Spaink and editor Erik Brus in two and a half months. The story is based on the screenplayScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
written by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman
Gerard Soeteman
Gerard Soeteman is a Dutch screenwriter. He worked together with Paul Verhoeven on several films, such as Turkish Delight and Black Book...
. When writer Laurens Abbink Spaink was asked in NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
whether the book is just a commercial product or also a literary work, he answers: "Black Book is a literary thriller. Its form is in between the typical American novelization, describing only what the camera sees, and a literary novel. The novelization adds something to the film. I gave Rachel Stein a past, memories and a house. In the film she had no personal space."
Reception
Herman Franke writes positively about the novel in de VolkskrantDe Volkskrant
de Volkskrant is a national daily Dutch morning newspaper, the leading centre-left broadsheet, although now in tabloid size.-History:...
: "The novel Black Book thoroughly puts into words what the film shows you. In black and white is confirmed what you half missed in the crisscross of story lines while you were watching: the piano is played by the left hand and people are tortured by the right hand, monsters can appear as soft people, and justice is easily off the right track. I have read the book as the bleak minutes of the chaotic massacre I saw in full colour. It made the film more immoral, and better."
External links
- Zwartboek at website of the publisher