🎙️ Episode 9: The Aftermath of Silence — Woven in Courage

In this gripping episode of Woven in Courage, host David Visser takes listeners deep into one of the most harrowing and pivotal moments in Dutch history.

Following the unintended ambush of SS General Hanns Albin Rauter, the highest-ranking Nazi official in the Netherlands, the Dutch resistance—and the nation—braced for retaliation. What came next was one of the largest Nazi reprisals of World War II: the execution of 263 innocent Dutch hostages.

Through powerful storytelling, first-hand journal entries, and historical analysis, Episode 9 explores the days of fear, silence, and unimaginable courage that followed. As Allied forces closed in and the Battle of Groningen loomed, civilians faced starvation, violence, and the collapse of everything familiar. Meanwhile, resistance members—like David’s grandfather—continued to hide, to help, and to hope.

🔸 The secret meetings and coded messages

🔸 The courtroom reckoning of Rauter and his chilling final defense

🔸 The haunting beauty of flowers laid at forbidden graves

🔸 And the quiet resilience that echoed louder than gunfire

This is not just a story of war—it’s a story of humanity under siege, of voices defying silence, and of what it means to resist in the face of darkness

Dutch Resistance, SS General Hanns Rauter, Battle of Groningen, WWII Netherlands, Holocaust history, World War 2 podcast, hunger winter, Nazi occupation, war crimes, resistance fighters, historical storytelling podcast.