A missing person in the family feels to me like a link lost or broken in a chain. There is a ‘not there’, an emptiness that appears nearly physical. If I feel it this strongly, and I know more members of my generation do, just think about what it felt like for a mother, a father, for siblings. Continue reading A broken chain
As I was watching a performance of the opera Don Carlos by Verdi this week I realised that Jan’s life has all the ingredients of a grand literary tragedy. Based on a story written in 1787 by Friedrich Schiller, Verdi’s Don Carlos relates an imposing mix of power abuse, politics, occupation, heroism, idealism, oppression and cruelty. And there is music. The deeper I delve into Jan’s story, the more I touch upon these very themes. Continue reading Singing in a monastery
so far away in silent graves they lie waiting to be heard my perspectives formed by empty spaces my freedom paid with loss blood bonds pull … Continue reading letting his/story be
His dream is to fight the Nazis from the skies, and he is planning to run off to England. How did Jan spend those months preparing for his flight to Belgium? Luckily we have some of his diaries and oral family history to rely on. Continue reading Off to England and the great unknown
In the past couple of days so much information is coming in about my uncle Jan van Boeckel that I can just about keep up with reading and making sense of it, but am not yet able to write it all down. Continue reading More than expected…
My quest started with the urge to put the memory of this NN-prisoner back into the light and to explore a family myth. Little did I know what a wealth of information was actually available. Continue reading The quest for Jan van Boeckel: an overview
One night, around three in the morning, the mill inhabitants woke up to a lot of noise. A forty-strong German police contingent encircled the mill. They hunted everyone down and gathered them outside the mill. Continue reading Arrested at the Mill of Rahimont
Starting in November 1944 prisoners from the main-camp Flossenbürg were transported to Saal, and a number of transports followed, including the one on the15th of February 1945 which brought Jan van Boeckel. Continue reading Ringberg Messerschmitt: Ring-Me
mogromo 