This thesis presents a textual edition of the diary letters written by the young Dutch woman Catharina Philippina Ouwens (1925-2005). She started writing the letters in February 1945, having lost...Show moreThis thesis presents a textual edition of the diary letters written by the young Dutch woman Catharina Philippina Ouwens (1925-2005). She started writing the letters in February 1945, having lost contact with her boyfriend Hendrikus Johannes Schutten (1924-2014), who had been sent to Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany) to work for the Germans in the summer of 1943. Catharina, who lived in Amsterdam at the time, never posted the letters, but hoped to share them with Hendrikus once he had returned. She wrote the largest part of her diary during the final stages of the German occupation of the Netherlands, describing the last months of occupation, the liberation, and the weeks after the liberation (including an eyewitness's account of the Dam Square shooting on 7 May, 1945). This textual edition contains an introduction that describes the historical context of the letters and provides insight into Catharina and Hendrikus' personal lives, a transcription of the majority of the diary letters, with footnotes to elaborate on the context of the events or people described, and an appendix containing letters from Hendrikus to Catharina as well as a poem written by Catharina.Show less
