10/21/2026
"Dutch Girl Audrey Hepburn and World War II" is one of our most popular books!
Hollywood's most elegant star once ate tulip bulbs to survive.
Audrey Hepburn was born in Brussels in 1929, but her mother was a Dutch baroness, Ella van Heemstra.
When war broke out in 1939, her mother brought her to Arnhem, hoping the Netherlands would stay neutral, as it had in the First World War. It didn't.
Young Audrey studied ballet at the Arnhem Conservatory. In 1942 her uncle was executed by the Germans in reprisal for a resistance attack, and the family moved in with her grandfather in nearby Velp.
There she gave silent dance performances that reportedly raised money for the Dutch resistance.
During the Hunger Winter of 1944–45, her family did what many Dutch families did: they made flour out of tulip bulbs to bake with.
A few years later she was a global star. Roman Holiday (1953) won her an Oscar, and she later spent her final years as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, helping hungry children around the world.
In the photo: Audrey Hepburn at a gala film evening in Amsterdam's Tuschinski theatre in 1954.
Did you know Audrey Hepburn had Dutch roots, and what is your favourite Hepburn film?
