Breakfast at Tiffany’s: The Story of America’s Sweetheart, Audrey Hepburn

Moving to Holland to Escape the War

Audrey was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929, at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Brussels, Belgium. She was known to her family as Adriaantje. While Hepburn was born in Brussels, her family moved to Holland during the war. Her mother was Dutch, and she believed they would be safe in a country that stayed neutral. But, as you may know, the Germans invaded anyway.

/human-stories/the-woman-from-breakfast-at-tiffanys-audrey-hepburn-in-all-her-grace-and-glory/img/Audrey2-700x468MobileImageSizeReigNN.jpg

Ella van Heemstra, Audrey’s mother, and Audrey as a child. Source: purpleclover.littlethings.com

Hepburn and her family suffered the famine when all food supplies were cut off. In the mid-1930s, her parents recruited and collected donations for the British Union of Fascists.
While people may envy her very slender figure, it was actually the result of being malnourished during her youth. But she didn’t waste away; she actually helped the Dutch resistance…

© 2019 History by Day all rights reserved