The Assault Summary

In 1945, in the final months of World War II, Anton Steenwijk is 12 years old and lives with his family in Haarlem, the Netherlands. One night, as the Steenwijk family is playing a board game, they hear gunshots ring out. They see their neighbors, Mr. Korteweg and his daughter Karin, moving the body of Chief Inspector Fake Ploeg (a notorious Nazi collaborator) from the front of their house to the front of the Steenwijk house. Peter, Anton’s older brother, insists that they must move Ploeg’s body away from their house. Though his family tries to keep him from going outside, Peter bursts through the glass doors and runs to the body. As police officers come, Peter grabs Ploeg’s gun and runs away.

The Steenwijks hear a knock on the door. When they don’t answer, an officer kicks the door in and orders the family to show their papers. When the officer asks where Peter is, and the Steenwijks tell the officer that he ran away. The police drag Anton and his parents out of the house, separating Anton from his parents and putting him in a car. From the car, Anton sees an officer bomb his house and burn the rest of it down with a flame thrower.

Anton is driven to the police station and questioned. They throw him into a dark cell, where he hears the voice of a woman (later revealed to be Truus Coster). She asks him what happened and embraces him. The woman does not tell Anton any details about herself, but she talks to him about the war and morality. She advises him to never forget that it was the Germans who burned down Anton’s house, not the fault of whoever shot Ploeg.

The next day, Anton wakes up to officers dragging him out of his cell. There is blood on his face, which must have been the woman’s. A German officer named Schulz drives Anton to the regional commander’s office, as Anton falls asleep in the back of the motorcycle. At the Regional Command, Anton sees Mr. Korteweg walking through the hall. The regional commander questions Anton about the night and decides that Anton will move in with his aunt and uncle in Amsterdam. However, on the way to Amsterdam, an ally plane attacks the car. Anton manages to survive, but the blast kills Schulz and many of the other men with whom they were traveling. At the next office in Amsterdam, Anton’s Uncle Peter picks him up and takes him to his new home. Anton puts his hand in his pocket and feels one of the dice from the game his family was playing the night Anton was taken. Anton later learns that his parents were shot and killed that night, too.

Years later, in 1952, Anton has been living with his aunt and uncle for seven years and is currently studying medicine. He spends little time or energy thinking about the war. In September, a friend invites Anton to a birthday party in Haarlem, where he has not been since the night his family is killed. At the party, Gerrit Jan, the host’s brother, suggests that Anton and the other guests join the army to fight communism. Anton, not wanting to discuss the war, leaves the party and walks to the site of his old house and family tragedy. As he gazes at the empty lot where his house used to be, his former neighbor Mrs. Beumer sees him and calls him inside. She tries to discuss the past with him, telling him about a monument dedicated to his parents and the other victims of that night, but Anton rushes out after a cup of coffee.

Anton takes the train back to Amsterdam and asks why his uncle and aunt did not tell him about the monument. They say that they did, years ago, but that Anton angrily refused to see it. Anton doesn’t remember the incident.

In 1953, Anton moves out of his aunt and uncle’s house and into his own apartment. He enjoys seeing theater productions, playing the piano, and writing poetry. 1956, Anton passes his final exams and chooses to specialize in anesthesiology, fascinated by the space between life and death that patients occupy when they are under anesthesia. Though Anton takes very little interest in politics, he is aware of the conflict around communism in Amsterdam, as he lives near the headquarters of the communist party and often hears loud protests.

One day, Anton is returning to his apartment when he is crushed against his door by a mob. He looks up to see that the person pushing him into the door is Fake Ploeg, son of Chief Inspector Fake Ploeg. Anton invites Fake inside. They catch up, but the conversation quickly becomes fraught when the subject turns to politics. Fake and Anton argue about Fake’s father’s innocence until Fake bursts out crying and runs from Anton’s apartment, throwing a stone at a mirror on his way out.

In 1960, while on vacation in London, Anton meets Saskia De Graaff, the daughter of a diplomat and former Resistance fighter. Anton gets to know De Graaff, Saskia’s father, and tells him his family’s story. A year after they meet, Anton and Saskia get married.

In 1966, Anton, Saskia, and their four-year-old daughter Sandra attend the funeral of one of De Graaff’s friends from the Resistance. After the funeral, a group of mourners go to a café. There, as De Graaff playfully argues with his former Resistance comrades, Anton hears a man, Cor Takes, describing shooting Chief Inspector Fake Ploeg. Anton tells him that he was there. Anton and Cor walk outside together. They discuss what happened that night, with Cor attempting to justify his actions to Anton. Cor maintains that although they knew the Nazis would retaliate against the death of Ploeg, their act of resistance in killing Ploeg probably saved thousands of lives. Cor also tells Anton that he lost his girlfriend, Truus Coster. Anton realizes that Truus was most likely the woman in the cell. Both men start to cry. When Anton leaves, Cor gives him his number and address.

Back home in Amsterdam later, Amsterdam calls Cor. The next day, Anton goes to Cor’s apartment, which is chaotic and messy. Cor angrily tells Anton that the former head of the Gestapo in the Netherlands, Willy Lages, is appealing for release from prison due to illness. Cor tells Anton more about his life and takes him down to his basement. In the basement, Anton sees a photo of Truus and thinks she resembles Saskia. Cor tells Anton more about his relationship with Truus, who was a philosophical person concerned with morality. Later, Cor takes a phone call and learns that his friend from the resistance killed himself because of the news that Lages was getting out of jail.

A few years later, Anton and Saskia divorce, and Anton marries an art history student named Liesbeth. The two of them have a son named Peter. They spend their summers vacationing at Anton’s house in Tuscany. One day in Tuscany, Anton has a panic attack after looking at a lighter with dice markings. Liesbeth calls the doctor, who gives him a tranquilizer. After this attack, Anton’s panic symptoms ease.

When Sandra is 16, she asks Anton to take her to Haarlem, where her grandparents and uncle died. They go to the spot of his childhood home, where a modern house now sits. The owners invite them to look inside. Afterward, Anton and Sandra look at the memorial monument. Later, on Sandra’s suggestion, they visit Truus Coster’s grave.

One day in 1981, Anton wakes with a toothache. He begs his dentist friend Gerrit Jan to help him, and Gerrit Jan agrees—on the condition that Anton accompanies him to the peace march to protest nuclear weapons. Anton agrees. After Gerrit Jan fixes his tooth, the two go to the peace march, where they meet up with Anton’s son Peter. At the march, Anton is amazed by the crowd and feels like a part of the world.

At the march, Anton runs into Karin Korteweg. They catch up, and then they discuss the night that Anton’s family died. Karin tells him that after the liberation, her father forced her to move to New Zealand with him out of fear that Anton would take revenge on him. A few years after they moved to New Zealand, Mr. Korteweg killed himself. Karin tells Anton that Mr. Korteweg’s first thought when Ploeg’s body was in front of their house was to protect his pet lizards. When Anton asks Karin why they put the body in front of the Steenwijk house instead of the other neighbors, the Aartses. Karin tells him that her father would not put Ploeg’s body in front of the Aartses house because he knew that they were hiding a Jewish family. Anton marvels at the moral complexity of the situation, and he decides that Korteweg, in the end, was a good man. Anton says goodbye to Karin and walks through the march with his son, feeling like a very small part of the world and of history.