A BRIDGWATER woman has written a book based on her experiences as a young girl living in Nazi-occupied Holland during the Second World War.

Helmi Wolff’s book titled Mientje is a story about the experiences of a little girl whose family gets ripped apart when her father and brother are taken by the Gestapo to work in Germany.

Helmi told the Mercury: “The book is called Mientje which is short for my full name Wilhelmina.

"I’m called Helmi because when I moved to Oxford they couldn’t pronounce my full name so everyone just called me Helmi.

“It’s not just a story about me – there are a lot of unsung heroes in the book too, like the many men who tried to help in the war and my mother who helped Jews escape the Netherlands in a submarine.”

“Of course at the time I was aged between four and seven years old so I did not fully understand what was happening.

At the end of each chapter there is an explanation of why these things happened, like why my mother was crying because as a young girl at the time I did not know.

Helmi moved to Oxford in 1953 to study medicine and trained as a nurse there.

She married a colleague and had three children and has lived in Bridgwater for the past 12 years.

She hopes that writing this book about her own life will inspire others too.

“My daughter Carolyn encouraged me to write these stories down – I wasn’t sure if perhaps she was tired of hearing me talk about them.

“It is never too late if you want to do something, anything you think you might not be able to do, just have a go.”

The book, which is dedicated to her three children – Carolyn, Michael and John – goes on sale this Thursday.