The German occupation of the Netherlands lasted until well into 1945. Following Allied offensives after D-Day in June 1944, part of the country in the south was liberated by the Allies in the autumn of 1944, followed by the east in 1945, but the provinces of North and South Holland and Utrecht, including main cities such as Amsterdam, remained occupied by the German army until it surrendered on 5 May 1945. The occupied area became an isolated German fortress.

During the final years of the war, the survivors of the groups of Nol and Ter had to remain in hiding. Ter called this ‘deep in hiding’. What the group members were thinking and doing during these two years was worded by Rosey Pool in New Year's Day 1943– 1944:

There was sadness about loved ones, family members and friends who had been killed, arrested or deported and had already died. In The Shadow Rosey wrote about her mother:

Survival became increasingly difficult. There was a growing food shortage, with biting hunger, and it was deadly during the last winter months. There was bitter coldness, because fuel was no longer available. There was constant dread about detection, betrayal, punishment and transport. There was loneliness. A seemingly never-ending nightmare, wrote Rosey in Awakening: