The Black Book of Arte: The Evil Black Notebook really existed at the heart of the film

The Hague, under German occupation. When her hideout is destroyed by a bomb, the beautiful singer Rachel Stein tries to reach the now-liberated South Holland with a group of Jews. But the German patrol stops them.

All the refugees were shot except for Rachel. He then joined the resistance and infiltrated the German intelligence service under the name Alice de Vries and managed to contact Officer Munz, who offered him a job…

A 2006 fantasy film that introduced the remarkable Carice Van Houten to a bright future, Black Book marked Paul Verhoeven’s return to his native Holland, as well as 29 years after filming another powerful drama set in the background. World War II, the choice of fate.

The project, which the director also matured for more than twenty years: “The basic idea has always been the same: a group of Jews are betrayed and killed while trying to cross the Bisboch Delta, and the central character sets out to hunt down the traitor. Verhoeven explained.

“Initially, our hero was a man, which posed a problem: how could we convincingly infiltrate the German command? Gerard Sotheman A solution was found by turning our hero into a woman. If the character played by Karis van Houten is fictional, on the other hand, he is completely inspired by the real hero of the resistance. A woman named Helen Moskiewicz.

Belgian-born and 20-year-old in the early 1940s, the daughter of a Jewish tailor, she was recruited by the London Secret Service. Fluent in German, he was tasked with infiltrating no less than the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels. An absolutely incredible mission that lasted two years. He recounts his exploits in his autobiography, My war in the Gestapowhich was published in France in 1992.

Scary authentic black notebook

This famous black notebook, which lends its name to the film, really existed. It contained the names of traitors and collaborators who helped the Germans kill or capture resistance fighters during World War II.

Screenwriter Gerard Sotheman Read more about it: “This famous “little black book” was kept by Mr. de Boer, a lawyer from The Hague, who was murdered in the Goudenregenstraat after the war. His killers were never found. During the occupation, de Boer tried to broker an agreement between the German command in The Hague and the resistance to limit bloodshed. Every time he resisted killing people, the Germans took hostages in the street and shot them on the spot. he explained.