Monday, March 12, 2007

The Von Trapp Dutch Connection


DutchNews.nl -- The Von Trapp family, made famous in the musical The Sound of Music, spent several months during World War II hiding in the Dutch town of Warmond, near Leiden, according to writer Miep Smitsloo.

Smitsloo says she made the discovery while researching for her book, Het Tolhuysch (The Toll House). The Von Trapps fled Austria, after it was annexed by Hitler in 1938, and ended up in America.

Smitsloo said the Von Trapps stayed with a family called Menten, whom they knew through the Salzburg festival.

Volkskrant story in Dutch.

2 comments:

  1. Complete bulls.... from Miep Smitsloo. The Von Trapps visited in 1938 for a series of regular concerts, a full 2 years before Holland got involved in the War. Smitsloo' assertion that the Von Trapps had to hide in the barn during bombardments is even more absurd. She falisfies history to draw attention to an otherwise boring book about her husbands officebuilding. Hidious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is hypocritic! To this day the website of Smitsloo asserts that they were in hiding in Holland in 1938. They were not. And ''Arthur Graaff'' is whom? Miep's maiden name is De Graaff, so undoubtedly an attempt to whitewash a opportunistic adventure based on complete lack of knowledge of WWII events. She is ignorant of the most basic facts but still tries to sell a book based on here nonsense stories.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting.

Please be considerate... no off-topic, racist, sexist or homophobic comments.

Comment moderation is on.

No anonymous comments will be accepted..