I’ve been thinking frequently how history repeats and how vital it is that we explore our past with courage and learn from both our failures and successes. When I recently recorded DUTCH GIRL: AUDREY HEPBURN AND WORLD WAR II by my friend Robert Matzen for Blackstone Audio, I was struck by how Hepburn’s renowned beauty — inside and out — grew out of her experience of the horrors of World War II. Especially in light of the current cruelty and inhumanity inflicted upon children and families on our country’s Southern border, I was particularly moved by Hepburn’s chilling description of what she witnessed as a young girl: “And on the platform were soldiers herding more Jewish families with their poor little bundles and small children. There would be families together and they would separate them, saying, ‘The men go there and the women go there.’ Then they would take the babies and put them in another van.”
