So this means that Audrey Hepburn and Anne Frank were second cousins once removed. During World War II, Audrey Hepburn and Anne Frank both lived in the Netherlands, just 60 miles away from each other. Hepburn lived in the Arnhem area and supported the resistance by bringing food and messages to downed pilots.
She raised money for the Resistance through illegal dance performances, called 'black evenings' because the windows were blacked out. The audiences weren't allowed to make a sound at the end of the dance.
Only active resistance in the form of spying, sabotage, or with arms was what the Dutch considered resistance. Nevertheless, thousands of members of all the 'non-resisting' categories were arrested by the Germans and often subsequently jailed for months, tortured, sent to concentration camps, or killed.
During the Battle of Arnhem, Audrey brought a paratrooper into the family home to escape. Like much of the Netherlands, things got worse before they got better for her family. After the D-Day landings of 1944, food and fuel restrictions led to a massive famine.
Biographer Reveals Audrey Hepburn's Secret World War II Past
Why was the Dutch army so weak in ww2?
Although the state of the Dutch army was not as poor as is sometimes claimed, the Dutch armaments were outdated and inadequate. Moreover, the Netherlands did not have the strong military tradition Germany did.
"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."
Throughout World War II, Audrey endured hardships in Nazi-occupied Holland. She still managed to attend school and take ballet lessons, however. During this time her mother temporarily changed Audrey's name to Edda Van Heemstra, worried that her birth name would reveal her British heritage.
On May 4, 1929, Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston—who will one day be better known to legions of film fans as Audrey Hepburn—is born near Brussels, Belgium. The daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, Hepburn was attending school in London when World War II erupted in Europe.
From her childhood activism to her role as UNICEF Ambassador, Hepburn was a true hunger hero. She worked tirelessly on behalf of the millions around the world — especially children — who needed a helping hand and a voice.
For those that don't know, Hepburn welcomed two sons: one named Sean Hepburn Ferrer, born July 1960, with her ex-husband Mel Ferrer, and another son named Luca Dotti, born Feb 1970, with her second husband Andrea Dotti.
How old was Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's?
Audrey Hepburn was 31 years old when playing Holly. Holly Golightly wears the same dresses all the way through the movie, simply changing the accessories to give each outfit a different look. Her black shift dress features through the movie at least four times.
It introduced the world to the 24-year-old Audrey Hepburn, a Brussels-born ballet dancer who would win the best actress Academy Award in her first leading role.
In 1980, Hepburn began dating Dutch actor Robert Wolders after meeting him at a party. They were together for 13 years up until Hepburn's death at age 63 from cancer.
While she did not profess an established religion, Audrey said she had faith. We cannot doubt that since she lived the Gospel truths, particularly caring for those who were ill, poor, hungry or suffering in any way.
In “Dutch Girl,” Robert Matzen describes how the young Audrey Hepburn survived both famine and fighting in World War II. But what brings this history home for me personally is the connection with a third woman, less well-known, who also lived in Holland during those times.
As a mother, Audrey Hepburn cared deeply about the world's children. But the movie star had another personal reason for choosing to work with UNICEF – the children's organisation helped her survive malnutrition as a child. UNICEF was created in the aftermath of World War II to help children in crisis.
As the generation that elected Adolf Hitler and fought his genocidal war dies away, most Germans today see World War II through the prism of guilt, responsibility and atonement. And almost all agree that the defeat of the Nazis was a good thing. That hasn't always been the case.
The Liberation of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 20 September 1944. Civilians dancing in the square. In 1944 & 1945, the Netherlands was liberated by Canadian, British, Polish, Dutch, and American troops. This page focuses on the U.S. contributions to the liberation of the Netherlands.
Amsterdam had no military value. Rotterdam had strategic value as both a major industrial center and a port. Additionally, Dutch soldiers were defending the city against the German army. The bombing and subsequent fires devastated the city center.
How old was Audrey Hepburn in the My Fair Lady movie?
Although playing a 21-year-old flower girl, Hepburn was actually 34 in real life. The opera that was playing the night Professor Higgins and Eliza meet in Covent Gardens was Faust. The inspiration for the library in Professor Henry Higgins' home was a room at the Château de Groussay, Montfort-l'Amaury, in France.
Hepburn met her first husband, actor Mel Ferrer, when they performed in a Broadway production of Ondine. The couple married in Switzerland in 1954, had a son – Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Emma's father – and divorced 14 years later. “My father was a difficult and demanding man,” admits Sean.
