The book about the Organ atticks tells this story: three Jewish couples hide for almost three years in the attics diagonally above the organ of the protestant Breeplein Church in Rotterdam. The sexton, the pastor and their families take care of the people in hiding. The youngest couple has a child. A Surinamese ophthalmologist turns out to be a midwife, and together with the vicar’s wife and a Dutch resistance woman, he helps bring the baby into the world.
All survive World War II
Who makes up such an improbable story? Nobody. It didn’t have to be, it actually happened.
Anja Matser (1961) is a theologian and knows the Breeplein Church well. The grim fairytale of the people in hiding gripped her and she did not rest until she had completed the story and it could be published in book form.
