The blogs I wrote jump in time, as they are based on the information that was uncovered at that moment in time. Leaving Haarlem he can be followed from the North and East of Holland to Brabant, Limburg, Liege, Ardennes, Cologne, Bayreuth, Ebrach, Nürnberg, Flossenbürg, Saal an der Donau to Dachau. Continue reading A guide to the quest for Jan van Boeckel
Greetings in German and French rang out as they were introduced to an international maquis group, a group of Partisans Armés, armed resistance fighters. Continue reading Joining the Maquisards in the Ardennes
What Jan really experienced we will never know, and we never will know the thoughts he had and the choices he had to make. But armed with both Arthur ‘s accounts and the witness reports by villagers, labourers and prisoners I am able to clear some of the fog created by the Nazi regime ever so slightly. Continue reading Being a Number: KZ Saal an der Donau, Ring-Me
That first evening, the 10th of January, was spent with the daughters Janssen and a few members of the Oisterwijk resistance group, including “ a lean, bespectacled man named Jantje Brunnekreef who could play wonderful jazz on the piano”. As Jan himself improvised with jazz he must have enjoyed that tremendously. The young people danced and laughed all night. Continue reading Oisterwijk: the southern marshes
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
He sent it from a coded address to a friend who was also in hiding, but it never made its way to them until much later. It is a birthday letter for his two smallest siblings, my mother and her younger sister. But it is also a warning, a cryptic letter with a hidden message. My mother did not receive this letter until 1995, my grandma never saw it. Continue reading A dire warning…
And so when Jan does not show up in Haarlem, my grandpa writes to the Saint Leonard prison in Liege in June 1945, inquiring after his son. The Belgian authorities reply that the records have been destroyed and that they are unable to answer him. On the third of August 1945 a letter arrives on my grandmother’s doorstep. Continue reading Where is Jan?
Where should I begin this tale of adventure, idealism, survival, death and suffering? Maybe there is no beginning or end. There are snippets of information contained in registers, photographs, oral history, correspondence, maps, scientific research, testimonials, newspaper articles and interviews. Continue reading Reweaving the tapestry of a lost life
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