Editing Audrey Hepburn (section)

==Early life==
===1929–1938: Family and early childhood===
Audrey Kathleen Ruston (later, Hepburn-Ruston{{Sfn|Walker|1997|p=9}}) was born on 4 May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in [[Ixelles]], a municipality of Brussels, Belgium.{{sfn|Spoto|2006|p=10}} She was known to her family as ''Adriaantje''.{{sfn|Matzen|2019|p=11}}
[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 60038552 Een gezelschap met gouverneur Van Hee.jpg|thumb|upright|Hepburn's grandfather, [[Aarnoud van Heemstra]], was the governor of the colony of [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch Guiana]].|alt=Black and White photo of Hepburn's grandfather when he was governor of Dutch Guiana.]]
Hepburn's mother, Baroness [[Ella van Heemstra]] (1900–1984), was a Dutch noblewoman. Ella was the daughter of Baron [[Aarnoud van Heemstra]], who served as the mayor of [[Arnhem]] from 1910 to 1920 and as the governor of [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch Guiana]] from 1921 to 1928, and Baroness Elbrig Willemine Henriette van Asbeck (1873–1939), a granddaughter of Count [[Dirk van Hogendorp (lawyer)|Dirk van Hogendorp]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Segers |first=Yop |title=Heemstra, Aarnoud Jan Anne Aleid baron van (1871–1957) |url=http://www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn5/heemstra |website=Historici.nl |date=10 February 2012 |access-date=23 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193921/http://www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn5/heemstra |url-status=live }}</ref> At age 19, she married [[Jonkheer]] Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford – an oil executive based in [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies]], where the couple subsequently lived.{{sfn|Paris|2001}} Before divorcing in 1925, they had two sons, Jonkheer Arnoud Robert Alexander Quarles van Ufford (1920–1979) and Jonkheer Ian Edgar Bruce Quarles van Ufford (1924–2010).{{sfn|Spoto|2006|p=10}}{{sfn|Spoto|2006|p=3}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Ian van Ufford Quarles Obituary |work=[[The Times]] |via=[[Legacy.com]] |date=29 May 2010 |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesonline-uk/obituary.aspx?pid=143195604 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160621153210/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesonline-uk/obituary.aspx?pid=143195604 |archive-date=21 June 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Hepburn's father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889–1980), was a British subject born in [[Úžice (Mělník District)|Auschitz]], [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]], Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Victor John George Ruston, who was of British and German-Austrian background, and Anna Juliana Franziska Karolina Wels, who was of German-Austrian origin and born in [[Kovarce]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Anna Juliana Franziska Karolina Wels, born in Slovakia |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~votruba/qsonhist/celebrities/hepburnaudrey.html |publisher=Pitt.edu |access-date=4 May 2013 |archive-date=10 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910172541/http://www.pitt.edu/~votruba/qsonhist/celebrities/hepburnaudrey.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1923–1924, he was an Honorary British Consul in [[Semarang]], Dutch East Indies{{Sfn|Walker|1997|pp=7–8}} and, prior to his marriage to Hepburn's mother, was married to Cornelia Bisschop, a Dutch heiress.<ref name="Oxford Bio">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/52107 "Hepburn, Audrey". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]. Oxford University Press.{{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102193227/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/52107 |date=2 January 2014 }}</ref> Joseph later changed his surname to the more "aristocratic" [[Double-barrelled name|double-barrelled]] Hepburn-Ruston, perhaps at Ella's insistence,{{sfn|Matzen|2019|p=10}} as he mistakenly believed himself descended from [[James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell]].{{efn|Spoto writes that Hepburn's maternal great-grandmother's maiden name was Kathleen Hepburn.}}{{sfn|Spoto|2006|pp=3–4}}{{Sfn|Walker|1997|p=6}}

Hepburn's parents were married in Batavia in 1926. At the time, Joseph worked for a trading company, but soon after the marriage, the couple moved to Europe, where he began working for a loan company; reportedly tin merchants MacLaine, Watson, and Company in London.{{sfn|Matzen|2019|p=11}} After a year in London, they moved to Brussels, where he had been assigned to open a branch office.{{Sfn|Gitlin|2009|p=3}} After three years spent traveling between Brussels, Arnhem, [[The Hague]] and London, the family settled in the suburban Brussels municipality of [[Linkebeek]] in 1932.<ref>{{cite web |author=vrijdag 6 mei 2011, 07u26 |url=http://www.brusselnieuws.be/cultuur/de-vijf-hoeken-van-de-wereld-amerika-elsene |title=De vijf hoeken van de wereld: Amerika in Elsene |publisher=brusselnieuws.be |access-date=14 March 2012 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002055234/http://www.brusselnieuws.be/cultuur/de-vijf-hoeken-van-de-wereld-amerika-elsene |url-status=live }}</ref> Hepburn's early childhood was sheltered and privileged.{{sfn|Paris|2001}} Due to her father's job, the family travelled back and forth between three countries, enhancing her multinational background.{{efn|Walker writes that it is unclear for what kind of company he worked; he was listed as a "financial adviser" in a Dutch business directory, and the family often travelled among the three countries.}}{{Sfn|Walker|1997|p=8}}

In the mid-1930s, Hepburn's parents recruited and collected donations for the [[British Union of Fascists]] (B.U.F).{{sfn|Spoto|2006|p=8}} Ella met [[Adolf Hitler]] and wrote favourable articles about him for the B.U.F.<ref>{{Cite news |title='Dutch Girl' shows Audrey Hepburn's wartime courage |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2019/0516/Dutch-Girl-shows-Audrey-Hepburn-s-wartime-courage |access-date=7 January 2023 |issn=0882-7729 |archive-date=7 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107174256/https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2019/0516/Dutch-Girl-shows-Audrey-Hepburn-s-wartime-courage |url-status=live }}</ref> Joseph left the family abruptly in 1935 after a "scene" in Brussels. He subsequently moved to London, where he became more deeply involved in the Fascist activity and never visited Hepburn abroad.{{sfn|Walker|1997|pp=15–16}} That same year, Ella moved to her family's estate in Arnhem with her daughter; her sons, Alex and Ian, were sent to The Hague to live with relatives. Joseph wanted Hepburn to be educated in the United Kingdom,{{sfn|Matzen|2019|pp=16–18}} so in 1937, she was sent to live in Kent, where she, known as Audrey Ruston or "Little Audrey", was educated at a small [[Private schools in the United Kingdom|private school]] in [[Elham, Kent|Elham]].{{sfn|Matzen|2019|pp=16–18}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elham.co.uk/Famous_People.htm |title=Famous and Notable People 'In and Around' the Elham Valley |publisher=Elham.co.uk |access-date=4 September 2009 |archive-date=11 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211144053/http://www.elham.co.uk/Famous_People.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Walker|1997|pp=17–19}} Her parents officially divorced the next year.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Moonan |first=Wendy |date=22 August 2003 |title=ANTIQUES; To Daddy Dearest, From Audrey |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/22/arts/antiques-to-daddy-dearest-from-audrey.html |access-date=29 March 2021 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=25 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825041326/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/22/arts/antiques-to-daddy-dearest-from-audrey.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Later in her life, she often spoke of the effect on a child of being "dumped" as "children need two parents";{{sfn|Matzen|2019|pp=11, 15–17}} she professed that her father's departure was "the most traumatic event of my life".{{sfn|Paris|2001}}{{Sfn|Walker|1997|p=14}} In the 1960s, Hepburn renewed contact with her father after locating him in [[Dublin]] through the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]]; she supported him financially until his death although he remained emotionally detached.<ref name="parade5-5-89">{{cite magazine |last=Klein |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Klein |date=5 March 1989 |title=You Can't Love Without the Fear of Losing |magazine=[[Parade (magazine)|Parade]] |pages=4–6}}<br />{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104212005/http://www.audreyhepburnlibrary.com/80s/images/parade5-5-89pg1.jpg |title=page 1 of 3 |url=http://www.audreyhepburnlibrary.com/80s/images/parade5-5-89pg1.jpg |archive-date=4 January 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=5 May 2014}}<br />{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812005439/http://audreyhepburnlibrary.com/80s/images/parade5-5-89pg2.jpg |title=page 2 of 3 |url=http://audreyhepburnlibrary.com/80s/images/parade5-5-89pg2.jpg |archive-date=12 August 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=5 May 2014}}<br />{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104211602/http://www.audreyhepburnlibrary.com/80s/images/parade5-5-89pg3.jpg |title=page 3 of 3 |url=http://www.audreyhepburnlibrary.com/80s/images/parade5-5-89pg3.jpg |archive-date=4 January 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=5 May 2014}}</ref>

===1939–1945: Experiences during World War II===
{{see also|Dutch famine of 1944–1945}}
After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Hepburn's mother moved her daughter back to Arnhem in the hope that, as during the [[First World War]], the Netherlands would remain neutral and be spared a German attack. While there, Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945. She had begun taking ballet lessons during her last years at boarding school, and continued training in Arnhem under the tutelage of Winja Marova, becoming her "star pupil".{{sfn|Paris|2001}} After the Germans [[Battle of the Netherlands|invaded the Netherlands]] in 1940, Hepburn used the name<!--her baptismal name and her mother's surname; hardly a pseudonym--> Edda van Heemstra, because an "English-sounding" name was considered dangerous during the [[German-occupied Europe|German occupation]]. Her family was profoundly affected by the occupation, with Hepburn later stating that "had we known that we were going to be occupied for five years, we might have all shot ourselves. We thought it might be over next week… six months… next year… that's how we got through".{{sfn|Paris|2001}}

In 1942, her uncle, Otto van [[Limburg Stirum]] (husband of her mother's older sister, Miesje), was executed in retaliation for an act of sabotage by the resistance movement; while he had not been involved in the act, he was targeted due to his family's prominence in Dutch society.{{sfn|Paris|2001}} These family events were the turning point in the attitude of Hepburn's mother, who had flirted with Nazism up to this point. Hepburn's half-brother Ian was deported to Berlin to work in a German [[Arbeitslager|labour camp]], and her other half-brother Alex went into hiding to avoid the same fate.{{sfn|Paris|2001}}
{{quote box
|quote="We saw young men put against the wall and shot, and they'd close the street and then open it, and you could pass by again... Don't discount anything awful you hear or read about the Nazis. It's worse than you could ever imagine."{{sfn|Paris|2001}}
|source=—Hepburn on the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands
|bgcolor=#CCDDFF
|align=right
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|width=15em
}}
After her uncle's death, Hepburn, Ella, and Miesje left Arnhem to live with her grandfather, Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra,<!--again, is the honorific needed?--> in nearby [[Velp, Gelderland|Velp]].{{sfn|Paris|2001}} Around that time Hepburn gave silent dance performances that reportedly raised money for the Dutch resistance effort.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/couture-pearls-breakfast-tiffanys-script-inside-private-collection/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/couture-pearls-breakfast-tiffanys-script-inside-private-collection/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Couture, pearls and a Breakfast at Tiffany's script: inside the private collection of Audrey Hepburn |last=Cronin |first=Emily |date=20 August 2017 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref> It was long believed that she participated in the [[Dutch resistance]] itself,{{sfn|Paris|2001}} but in 2016 the [[Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein']] reported that after extensive research it had not found any evidence of such activities.<ref>[http://nos.nl/artikel/2143538-mythe-ontkracht-audrey-hepburn-werkte-niet-voor-het-verzet.html Mythe ontkracht: Audrey Hepburn werkte niet voor het verzet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222083159/http://nos.nl/artikel/2143538-mythe-ontkracht-audrey-hepburn-werkte-niet-voor-het-verzet.html |date=22 February 2021 }}, NOS.nl, 17 November 2016 {{in lang|nl}}</ref> A 2019 book by Robert Matzen provided evidence, based on Hepburn's personal statements, that she had supported the resistance by giving "underground concerts" to raise money, delivering the underground newspaper, and taking messages and food to downed Allied flyers hiding in the woodlands north of Velp.<ref name="Tucker">{{cite news |last=Tucker |first=Reed |date=9 April 2019 |title=Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn was a WWII resistance spy |url=https://nypost.com/2019/04/09/hollywood-legend-audrey-hepburn-was-a-wwii-resistance-spy/ |work=[[New York Post]] |location=New York, NY |access-date=29 July 2022 |archive-date=29 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729152425/https://nypost.com/2019/04/09/hollywood-legend-audrey-hepburn-was-a-wwii-resistance-spy/ |url-status=live }}</ref> She also volunteered at a hospital that was the center of resistance activities in Velp,<ref name="Tucker"/> and, according to Hepburn, her family temporarily hid a British paratrooper in their home during the [[Battle of Arnhem]].{{sfn|Matzen|2019|pp=146, 148, 149}}<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/audrey-hepburn-reportedly-helped-resist-nazis-in-holland-during-wwii |title=Audrey Hepburn reportedly helped resist Nazis in Holland during WWII |last=Johnson |first=Richard |date=29 October 2018 |work=Fox News |language=en-US |access-date=29 October 2018 |archive-date=20 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120031203/https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/audrey-hepburn-reportedly-helped-resist-nazis-in-holland-during-wwii |url-status=live }}</ref> Matzen also claims that Hepburn carried messages for the Dutch Resistance, including to downed British paratroopers.<ref>{{Cite web |title='She believed you have to take sides': How Audrey Hepburn became a secret spy during World War Two |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20241231-how-audrey-hepburn-became-a-secret-spy-during-world-war-two |access-date=5 January 2025 |website=www.bbc.com |date=January 2025 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In addition to other traumatic events, she witnessed the transportation of Dutch Jews to [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]], later stating that "more than once I was at the station seeing trainloads of Jews being transported, seeing all these faces over the top of the wagon. I remember, very sharply, one little boy standing with his parents on the platform, very pale, very blond, wearing a coat that was much too big for him, and he stepped on the train. I was a child observing a child."{{sfn|Woodward|2012|p=36}}

After the Allied landing on [[Normandy Landings|D-Day]], living conditions grew worse, and Arnhem was subsequently heavily damaged during [[Operation Market Garden]]. During the [[Dutch famine of 1944|1944–45 Dutch famine]], the Germans hindered or reduced the already limited food and fuel supplies to civilians in retaliation for Dutch railway strikes that were held to disrupt the occupation. Like others, Hepburn's family resorted to [[tulip#Consumption|making flour out of tulip bulbs]] to bake cakes and biscuits,<ref name="CBSsundaymorning">{{cite news |first=Martha |last=Tichner |title=Audrey Hepburn |publisher=CBS Sunday Morning |date=26 November 2006}}</ref><ref name="nytimesobit">{{cite news |last=James |first=Caryn |year=1993 |url=https://nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/articles/hepburn1.html |title=Audrey Hepburn, actress, Is Dead at 63 |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118162914/http://www.nytimes.com/specials/magazine4/articles/hepburn1.html |archive-date=18 January 2007}}</ref> a source of starchy carbohydrates; Dutch doctors provided recipes for using tulip bulbs throughout the famine.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eating Tulip Bulbs During World War II |url=https://amsterdamtulipmuseumonline.com/blogs/tulip-facts/eating-tulip-bulbs-during-world-war-ii |website=Amsterdam Tulip Museum |date=25 September 2017 |access-date=15 March 2020 |language=en |archive-date=23 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123182613/https://amsterdamtulipmuseumonline.com/blogs/tulip-facts/eating-tulip-bulbs-during-world-war-ii |url-status=live }}</ref> Suffering from the effects of [[malnutrition]], after the war ended Hepburn became gravely ill with [[jaundice]], [[anaemia]], [[oedema]], and a respiratory infection. In October 1945, a letter from Ella asking for help was received by [[Micky Burn]], a former lover and British Army officer with whom she had corresponded while he was a [[prisoner of war]] in [[Colditz Castle]]. He sent back thousands of cigarettes, which she was able to sell on the [[black market]] and thus buy the [[penicillin]] which saved Hepburn's life.<ref>{{cite web |last=Macintyre |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Macintyre |date=6 May 2022 |title=The Colditz PoW Who Saved Audrey Hepburn |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-colditz-pow-who-saved-audrey-hepburn-nph0c7nz2 |url-access=subscription |website=The Times |location=London |access-date=22 October 2022 |archive-date=13 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913111913/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-colditz-pow-who-saved-audrey-hepburn-nph0c7nz2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="macintyre2023">{{Cite book |last=Macintyre |first=Ben |title=Prisoners of the Castle |publisher=Crown |year=2023 |isbn=9780593136355 |pages=305}}</ref>{{sfn|Woodward|2012|pp=45–46}} The Van Heemstra family's financial situation changed significantly through the occupation, during which time many of their properties (including their principal estate in Arnhem) were damaged or destroyed.{{sfn|Woodward|2012|p=52}}