Black Book () is a Dutch language 2006 thriller novel by Laurens Abbink Spaink. It is the novelization of the Dutch film Black Book (2006). It tells the story of a young Jewish woman, Rachel Stein, and her struggle for survival during and after the Second World War. The book has a photo section, and an afterword by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman.
Plot summary
Apart from the prologue and epilogue, the story is a first-person narrative told by Rachel Stein, a young Jewish woman. The novel is set at the end of World War II in the Netherlands.
In September 1944, Rachel is 26 years old, and the Stein family is in hiding from the Nazi authorities. Rachel is living with a Christian family in the Biesbosch, an area of rivers and creeks, separated from the rest of her family. Here she is not allowed outside, but one day she goes sunbathing near the water. Here she meets Rob, a man about her own age, who was on the water sailing. As they enjoy themselves on his boat, a crippled British bomber flies over while dropping its payload so it can climb to escape a pursuing fighter, and one of its bombs hits Rachel's hideout. While she is staying with Rob, they are approached by a Dutch policeman named Van Gein, who offers to help them flee to liberated Belgium. She needs money for her escape, so she visits a lawyer named Smaal in The Hague. During the escape, she is reunited with her parents and brother; but their escape boat—with Rachel, Rob, the rest of the Stein family, and other Jews on board—is ambushed. Rachel hides in the water and gets a good view of the SS officer who was responsible. Everyone except Rachel is killed.
Rachel is smuggled into The Hague disguised as a corpse in a coffin. There, she joins a resistance group led by Gerben Kuipers. She dyes her hair blond and takes the alias Ellis de Vries. While she and the resistance group are trying to smuggle medicine and weapons, they are intercepted by German security forces. All the Germans are killed by resistance group member Hans Akkermanns. Rachel and Hans travel by train with the contraband. In the train Rachel meets a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) officer, Ludwig Müntze, who helps her with her suitcases. Tim, Kuipers' son, and several other members of the resistance group, are later captured by the Germans when their weapons supply truck covered with vegetables crashes. The weapons are exposed when the vegetables are scattered everywhere. The rest of the group plans to have Rachel make contact with Müntze and enlist him in helping them get the prisoners released.
Rachel goes to the SD headquarters to meet Müntze, bringing him Netherlands East Indies stamps for his collection. (He has been collecting stamps for every country he's been stationed in, including Poland.) He invites her to a party. At the party she spots the officer responsible for killing her parents, Günther Franken. He is playing the piano. Rachel feels sick and runs out of the room to throw up in a bathroom. After the party, she sleeps with Müntze, and he tells her how he lost his wife and children in an air raid on Hamburg. Rachel and Müntze fall in love. Rachel is offered a job at the SD and bugs the office with a British device. Franken wants to execute the captured resistance group members, but Müntze refuses to sign the order. Using the hidden mike, Rachel and the other resistance group members learn that Van Gein has been collaborating with the Germans - trapping escaping Jews, murdering them and keeping their money. The resistance decides against saving the Jews from Van Gein, weighing the lives of Jews against imprisoned Dutchmen. Others in the group decide to kidnap the traitor, but their plan fails because the chloroform they use expired in 1941. Van Gein overpowers his kidnappers, who are forced to kill him. "Ellis" returns to Muntze, but finds the German convinced that she is Jewish and a mole for the resistance. Rachel tells Muntze that he is correct but also how she lost her family. He does not arrest her.
With Rachel's information, Müntze accuses Franken of hoarding loot stolen from murdered Jews, inviting General Kauntner to open Franken's safe. While Nazi law allows for the killing Jews, failing to turn over their property is a capital offense. Nevertheless, Franken is cleared when a search of his office safe fails to turn up the stolen loot. Realizing the danger Muntze poses, Franken has him arrested, telling Kauntner of Muntze's negotiating with the resistance, a charge Muntze wearily concedes. Angrily, Kauntner orders Muntze's execution.