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Meisje: I Met God in Hell is the true story of Charlotte Van Steenbergen, a WWII concentration camp survivor, written with the perspective of a wise woman, reliving memories of a very young child in an abusive, brutal environment. Not only is Charlotte a survivor but she is also a thriver. Charlotte’s memoir is a powerful and beautiful story set in a concentration camp so infamously known for the horrific atrocities perpetrated on the prisoners that it was nicknamed Hell. It was here in Hell that Charlotte first meets God by those who called on Him on a daily basis, and those who cursed Him daily.
Known as Meisje (MAY-sha) in the memoir, Charlotte’s story opens with the infamous day-September 11, 2011-when America was attacked. Not only were the cracks in security in our nation revealed but Charlotte also experienced a crack in her suppressed memories that releases a bombardment of mental images from when she was a young child in a concentration camp.
A flashback brings the reader on the journey with Charlotte as she remembers loud bangs on her front door, heavy boots, and men armed with rifles as she, her mom, and two siblings were taken by gunpoint to an unknown destination, stepping over a dead body as they were forced into the back of a military truck.
Poetry and journal excerpts create an intimate setting for the dear Reader as Charlotte writes as she speaks from the heart with loving care and hard-earned wisdom. Meisje follows Charlotte’s journey from toddler to grandmother and reveals the bombshell secret of her father, that he was secretly recruited by US intelligence for a covert operation for which he was sworn to secrecy until twenty to twenty-five years after the war had ended; a horrific story of a servant who only wants to help by sneaking food to the family is punished by having her hands chopped off; as well as Charlotte’s friendship with Holocaust survivor, Corrie ten Boom, who helps Meisje to forgiveness for her Japanese captors. How does one overcome survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and molestation?
How does one not become bitter and stay rooted in pain? Through her writing, Charlotte shares how she can finally see how her heavenly Father orchestrated her life turning it into a beautiful symphony in which He planned and purposed for such a time as this (Jeremiah 29:11 and Esther 4:14).
