the Netherlands
-
The 12th of May 1942, is the date that changed my life. I know some of you will find this an odd statement because it was 26 years before I was born. 12 May 1942 was the date that my paternal Grandfather died at the hand of the German occupiers, either by execution or suicide.…
-
It is important to tell the stories of those who collaborated with the Nazis. Regardless of what some governments want you to believe, there were collaborators in all occupied countries. Some were even more evil than the occupiers. However, it is equally important to honour those who helped their fellow citizens, often at risk of…
-
A small boy named Jacques Maurice Duizend was just a baby—a toddler. His last name is also a number, Thousand. That is the number of years the failed Austrian artist had envisaged his ‘Reich’ to last. To achieve that two-year-old children like Jacques Maurice Duizend had to be murdered. Jacques Maurice Duizend was born in…
-
Nelly Vega was a Dutch from Amsterdam minding her own business. She was a little girl doing her homework in front of a painting with some cows, a bridge and a field. A little Dutch girl. Little did she know she would become an enemy of the state. There were men, and perhaps women, who…
-
Nico Peeters was born on 12 April 1893 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and lived in The Hague. He grew up with his brothers and sister in a family with deaf parents. He was an entrepreneur and resistance member. Nico owned a cigar factory with his brother Ben. The Peeters family was idealistic and active in the resistance.…
-
Caroline Stella Os was born in Rotterdam on 8 October 1940. Her life ended when she was murdered at Westerbork, by the Nazis, on 8 June 1943. She reached the tender age of two years old. How can I write about a girl who only lived for 32 months? What can I write about a…
-
I came across an excerpt from the book Wiswassebeesjes by author Dieta Kalk. I can’t think of a proper translation for the word, but that doesn’t really matter. In the book the writer, recalls the removal of the Wallage family from Aprikozenweg 21 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, a day after seeing the Star of David.…
-
The worst crime the Nazis committed was the murder of children. An estimated 1.5 million children were murdered by the Nazis. This number is just an estimate, although I have no data to back this up, I believe the number is higher. Not all children who died on the transport are included in this number.…
-
When I do posts on the Holocaust, I always try to do them with as little emotion as possible. I try to be objective as humanly possible. The reasoning I use to write without emotions is if I didn’t, I think I would get mental problems down the line. However, sometimes, I let my emotions…
-
Between 1816 and 1949, the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, was a Dutch colony. Between 1941 and 1945 it was occupied by Japan. On 19 and 20 July 1940, 231 people who were on leave from the Dutch East Indies in the Netherlands were arrested by the Germans. They were called ‘Indian hostages’. It was…
History of Sorts 