Inside Audrey Hepburn's Childhood: How She Survived Near Starvation During WWII
Iconic Hollywood ingenue Audrey Hepburn sprang to fame after appearing in the 1953 Gregory Peck film “Roman Holiday,” but the reason for her casting proved somewhat shallow. Director William Wyler, who didn’t want a sex symbol in the role, praised her for her lack of a curvy figure.
Talk about objectifying. Over the years, Hepburn would remain famous for the slim, stylish figure she cut.
Still, there was a lot more to the legendary starlet that her striking looks and many people forget that she dedicated the final years of her life to helping children ravaged by war. Now a new biography highlighting her own childhood experiences during World War II explains why.
Robert Martzen’s “Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II,” which releases on April 15, highlights the starlet’s little-known early years, according to People. In fact, the more details that come to light about that section of Hepburn’s life, the more it makes sense why the actress chose not to focus on it.
In the mid-1940s, Hepburn and her family lived in Nazi-occupied Holland. They ended up experiencing and surviving the infamous “Hunger Winter” of 1944-1945.
“We had no light, no heat, no water,” Hepburn recalled. “We had no food because all the shops were closed.
“We ate what we could find. During the day we merely existed.”
She later would say that those months had been “the nearest I could come to saying I’ve seen starvation.”
“I went as long as three days without food, and most of the time we existed on starvation rations. For months, breakfast was hot water and one slice of bread, made from brown beans,” she said.
“Broth for lunch was made from one potato, and there was no milk, sugar, cereals of any kind.”
Still, Hepburn and her family survived, but that wasn’t the only harrowing experience she had.
The Daily Mail reported that Nazis once approached her as she picked wildflowers.
Afraid for her life, Hepburn kept her cool and presented the soldiers with an impromptu bouquet. They didn’t bother her.
She also aided the Dutch resistance at the tender age of 14. She would serve food to Allied pilots downed by German fighters and, since she was British and spoke English fluently, tell them where they could find aid.
Hepburn also delivered the underground newspaper. She would stuff the periodical into her clogs and distribute copies while biking about.
Her son, Luca Dotti, recalled how his mother used to speak to him about the war.
“I knew from her eyes, her expressions, and her shaky hands that there was more to the story,” he said. “I imagine how brave she was, working for the Resistance and also how easily she could have died from lack of food or from a bomb or a bullet.
“To imagine my mother in these conditions was a shock. You can feel her trauma, but also her strength.”
Dotti also added, “My mother always repeated there was no greater evil than war. Because it affects the children.”
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