Geleen
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The picture is of a vacant building in the town center of Geleen in the Netherlands. The building wasn’t always empty. It used to be a clothes shop called “Modehuis” or Fashion House. It was a shop that catered more for the older ladies, my mother liked to shop there A few doors next to…
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Croonenberg Family of Grevenbicht (a small village near Sittard) Before I go into the main story I have to explain the geographical history of the Westelijke Mijnstreek (Western Mining area). It is situated in the province of Limburg, the most southern province of the Netherlands, in the southeast of the country. It is also the…
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This is something I do not usually do, but because it concerns the son of one of my cousins—who was murdered 20 years ago—I am sharing this cold case. ———————————————————————— On Monday, January 3, 2005, a local resident of the Lindenheuvel neighborhood made a shocking discovery when he came across the dead body of Henri…
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In the fall of 1944, South Limburg was liberated by American troops. Many young men subsequently volunteered for the Domestic Forces to contribute to the liberation of the Netherlands after years of occupation. Among them were veterans Cor van Wageningen (1918–2013) and Frits Faro (1921–2012). In the fall of 1944, they were assigned as guards…
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Margard (Marga) Kaufmann, born in Gronau, Germany 10 November 1928. Murdered in Auschwitz on 3 September 1943, reached the age of 14 years. Marga’s parents were married in 1923 in Gronau, where her mother, Adele, had taken over her grandmother’s grocery store in 1918. Marga never knew her grandparents, Zilversmit. Her mother had four brothers,…
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I am Dutch, and I always will be proud to be Dutch, but there are some things in my country’s history that really trouble me, even to the extent that it nearly sickens me. The Dutch bureaucracy is well known to be very efficient, which can be very beneficial, but it can also be destructive…
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I can never understand people who are ashamed or embarrassed of where they are from or where they were born. You should always be proud of your roots. Even if you live somewhere else you should never lose your pride of your birth place. It is perfectly possible to be proud of the place you…
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The photograph above might appear strange for a Holocaust story, but I posted it for a good reason. It is a chemical plant called DSM. At the edge on the top of the photo, you can see a few apartment blocks where I grew up, in the town of Geleen in the Netherlands. The DSM…
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I always get frustrated when people try to excuse the actions of thugs and criminals by blaming their difficult childhoods or lack of places to play. These photos are from a petrochemical plant in Geleen, the Netherlands. When I was growing up, it was known as DSM (Dutch State Mines), even after the actual mines…
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I came across this death notification of Jacob Rosenboom. The reason why it drew my attention was the date. Jacob died on 10 April 1968, the very day I was born. Then when I did more research, I discovered that Jacob had lived in my hometown of Geleen in the Netherlands. The Rosenboom-Wolf family lived…
