Things we couldn’t say

by Diet Eman with James Schaap

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, 398 pages

To survive the war, Diet Eman had to become hard. There was no time to feel; there were too many people depending on her. So Diet continued her work for the Dutch Resistance, even while her friends were being arrested, even after she was imprisoned, and even while her fiancé Hein was locked away in a concentration camp.

But as hard as she became, diary entries through the book testify to how Diet was sustained not by her own strength, but rather her dependence on God. She was constantly confronted with danger but carried on in the confidence that she was doing what her Father wanted her to do, that whether she lived through the war, or was killed, that she was safe in His keeping.

And as hard as she became, Diet was also a woman deeply in love with her Hein. Things we couldn’t say consists of two parallel stories: the first is a drama, telling of how, through the courage of Diet and Hein hundreds of Dutch Jews were saved, and the second a romance, telling of the good and godly passion of these two Christian young people.

This is a powerful biography that will make most anyone cry, particularly those of Dutch descent.