A memoir that was never written will finally be published.

The Amsterdam based author Wendy van Eijnatten will launch her book about the quest for her missing uncle Jan van Boeckel on the 11^th of February 2018.

Jan van Boeckel was born on the 11^th of February 1923 and grew up in Haarlem in the 1930’s, the years of the Great Depression, high unemployment and the surge of populist, nationalist movements in Europe. He witnessed the fabric of his country disintegrate, torn apart by the Nazis. Then, deeply troubled, he saw it slipping into outright war. Jan was in his early twenties when the Nazi web caught up with him. Faced with stark dilemmas he had to make choices. They were choices that have left scars and continue to echo through the years.

In the book Lost: The Quest for Jan van Boeckel we follow Jan up close, as he makes his way from Haarlem to Belgium, and onwards into the obscureness of the Nazi regime in Bavaria. As the story unfolds, we are repeatedly drawn back to Haarlem, where a tight-knit Dutch family waits, hopes and searches for their lost son and brother.

Wendy, Jan´s niece, started out on the Quest for Jan van Boeckel in 2015. It was a journey that would take her over two years, following Jan’s trail wherever it led. Weaving together family memories and historical facts she reconstructed the story of a youth in wartime Europe. It is a story that is both captivating and heartbreaking.

The author has created a lasting memory of a son, a brother, an uncle and an ordinary young man from Haarlem who got caught up in extraordinary times. She hopes that it will help to soften the scars of war. The book was written in English in an attempt to give more publicity to this piece of Dutch war history.

The Quest for Jan van Boeckel is a 473 page paperback book (ISBN: 978-90-828055-0-5) and will be published by mogromo publishers as a limited edition. It will cost € 20.00 + postage and can be ordered via the contact page.