48 pages • 1-hour read
The Winged Watchman
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Background
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, religious discrimination, and racism.
Authorial Context: Hilda Van Stockum
Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1908, Hilda van Stockum was an author and illustrator of children’s books. Because her father was in the Royal Dutch Navy, she lived in the East Indies, Holland, and eventually Ireland, where she studied art. Known for her realistic depictions of family life, van Stockum often used her own experiences as fodder for her writing. The Winged Watchman reflects her knowledge of the Netherlands and also draws upon her Catholic upbringing and the stories from her relatives who lived through the Germans’ occupation of the Netherlands.
Van Stockum’s study of art also profoundly influenced her writing. While in Dublin, she studied the effects of light on a subject, and this artistic awareness infuses her descriptions of Joris’s nighttime expeditions, as when the narrative states, “The moonlight threw dark shadows, and in its pale shimmer even familiar objects looked weird and a little frightening” (51). In passages such as these, van Stockum uses the interplay of darkness and light in the physical landscape to engage with the more abstract idea that the figuratively “dark” times of the Nazi occupation also transformed people’s perceptions. Because she describes how the citizens learned to live with less and unconditionally supported their neighbors, The Winged Watchman is widely praised for its accurate portrayal of Dutch life during this difficult historical time frame. Similar to other middle grade texts that address the influence of the Nazis—such as Lois Lowry’s historical fiction Number the Stars and Anne Frank’s autobiographical account, The Diary of a Young Girl—van Stockum’s novel provides young readers with realistic depictions of the grim realities that ordinary citizens had to navigate during World War II.
Historical Context: Dutch Resistance to the German Occupation
On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Holland, and the Dutch surrendered five days later. The German occupation lasted five years, and during this time, the Nazis enforced many restrictions—particularly on the Jewish population. As a result, a network of resistance called the Dutch Underground sprang up and organized many disparate forms of rebellion, such as distributing illegal newspapers, coordinating armed resistance, and hiding Jews and other endangered citizens (who were known as onderduikers, or “underdivers”).
Within the world of the novel, the character of Uncle Cor is a fictionalized version of the real-life hero Cornelis Pieter “Kees” Kreukniet, a celebrated leader of the Underground who published the resistance newspaper Ons Morgenblad (“Our Tomorrow”) and was eventually arrested and killed because of his resistance activities. In the story, Cor hides British pilots, organizes weapons drops, helps others escape the Nazis’ grasp, and destroys German documents.
Although the efforts of adults drove the majority of the resistance movement, Reina and Dirk Jan’s courier activities in the story reflect the reality that children also played a role in the Underground. The Winged Watchman takes place during the final year of the German occupation, and the so-called Hunger Winter of 1944-1945 depicts the devastation caused by widespread food shortages and forced labor. To combat these hardships, many citizens did what they could to support each other, and they actively worked to provide for the desperate “underdivers,” who were forced to go into hiding in order to survive.
During the occupation, the Dutch Underground also used windmills to communicate key information. Historically, the mills were meant to help remove excess water from the land and boost the productivity of various industries, but during the German occupation, the Underground sent coded messages across the countryside by strategically altering the windmills’ wing positions. For example, an upright cross leaning to the right signaled joy—or, for the Underground, a message indicating either safety or a simple affirmative to a question. By contrast, an upright cross leaning to the left could communicate sorrow or answer a question in the negative. In the novel, Dirk Jan learns about this system when he delivers a message to Leyden for Uncle Cor in order to change the location of a weapons drop. He assists in moving a windmill to the “joy” position to communicate that the resistance members will proceed with the change of plans. This message is received by another windmill, which then relays it to another one within Cor’s line of sight. This is one of the many ways in which Dutch citizens exhibited solidarity and resilience as they found creative ways to rebel against the Germans.
Cultural Context: Pieterbaas, or “Black Peter”
Celebrated on December 6, St. Nicholas Day (also called the Feast of St. Nicholas) is a holiday that honors an early Christian bishop who was known for his generosity and kindness toward children. To mark the day, Dutch adults would sometimes dress as St. Nicholas and his servant, a Black man named Pieterbaas, in order to deliver gifts to children. In some cultures, this holiday is more significant than Christmas. As van Stockum describes in The Winged Watchman,
Anywhere you looked, those early December days, you might see St. Nicolas coming toward you on his splendid white horse, the red of his coat contrasting with the white frosty trees, his miter with its gold cross glittering in the twilight. Beside him he would have his black Moorish servant in a gorgeous red velvet suit (101).
At one point in the novel, Uncle Cor and Reina don these costumes and surprise the Verhagen children. Van Stockum’s book was originally published in 1962, and her writing reflects the accepted traditions of the period and makes use of the outdated and now derogatory term “Moors,” which historically referred to African Muslims of mixed Arab, Spanish, and Amazigh descent. However, the practice of dressing up as Black characters is highly controversial within modern culture because it perpetuates racial stereotypes, and many Dutch have protested the practice of dressing up as Pieterbaas as racist and have suggested a change to this tradition.
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