Interview With Hendrika de Vries, Author Of When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew

Once, there was war in Europe. The Nazis invaded the Netherlands among other countries, forced Jewish and resistant inhabitants into concentration camps, and let the survivors starve during a long winter. One mother joins the Resistance when the Nazis take her soldier husband away, and her daughter watches as the city of Amsterdam glimmers despite the darkness.

Hendrika de Vries writes about her childhood in this sweet, sobering and endearing memoir When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew. It recounts the Hunger War in Amsterdam, which most of Europe overlooked in the wake of World War II. She is also a therapist who wants to help others with their traumas.

When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew is a story about courage, and what we can accomplish in the best [worst] of times. What inspired you to put this story to paper, and to immortalize the dog you gave your father and that bright full moon?

I have been a family therapist for over 30 years. I also taught graduate students in the Counseling Psychology and Mythological Studies…