In the brutal heart of the Dutch Hunger Winter, survival wasn’t just about food—it was about courage, resistance, and choosing to risk everything for others.

Welcome to Episode 8 of Woven in Courage—a gripping journey into January 1945, one of the coldest and deadliest months of World War II in the Netherlands. As the Nazi occupation tightened its grip and famine swept across the nation, young resistance couriers like Freddie Visser—a 22-year-old Dutchman and grandfather of host David Visser—faced an impossible choice: hide and survive… or fight and risk everything.

Through the chilling pages of Freddie’s wartime journal, this episode reveals the hidden operations of Group 2000and the Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (LO)—the national resistance network dedicated to saving lives and sabotaging Nazi control. With coded Bible verses, secret messages, and close calls with betrayal and death, this was war in the shadows.

You’ll hear:

• Harrowing details of the Hongerwinter (Hunger Winter), where families ate tulip bulbs and froze in silence.

• The execution of known collaborators, including Berbus Oosterhof, and the chilling consequences that followed.

• The role of ministers turned resistance fighters, like Ds. Lammers and Minister Hoekstra, who delivered salvation with scripture and, when necessary, a bullet.

• A growing web of underground operations in Groningen, as Nazi forces closed in—and the Dutch spirit refused to break.

• Emotional journal entries that blend fear, faith, and fierce defiance—showing a young man transforming into a freedom fighter.

As Freddie hides in a boat, spins wool to survive, and runs through snow-stained streets under fire, this episode lays bare the life-or-death stakes of Dutch resistance in WWII. It’s a deeply personal and historically rich narrative that reminds us: freedom was never free.

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