Vanderpol World War II The Netherlands Natick Veterans Oral History Project YouTube sharing

James Vanderpol was a high school student in the Netherlands when it was invaded by Germany in 1940. Labeled as Jews by the Nazis soon afterward, he and his family would spend the next four years in hiding, separated from each other, often hungry, always in fear of being discovered. Vanderpol tells of this period, especially of the cruelty leveled by the Germans. When the war ended, his family was reunited in Amsterdam. In 1946, he immigrated to the United States, where he built a career as an auditor and international consultant. Vanderpol would later vice president of Bennington College in Vermont, as well as Bradford and Emerson colleges in Massachusetts. He is the author of "And the Money Went over the Railing: How a Dutch Survivor Made it in the U.S."