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
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
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
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?
Later on I learnt that my uncle was indeed listed as NN, a ‘Nacht und Nebel’, prisoner who would disappear into darkness and mist never to be heard of again. In the case of the resistance fighter Jan van Boeckel they greatly succeeded. He is still a missing person. This storyline is my attempt to sabotage their succes. Continue reading Confronting tough truths
The Flossenbürg concentration camp itself is now a monument, although a few decennia back it was partly used as an industrial site. Along the perimeter there are homes of citizens on a terraced hill, which was part of the camp. Continue reading The book of names at Flossenbürg
Initially I went to Dachau as a gesture of respect to my uncle, who died when he was 22 years old at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. And I left Dachau with an incredible urge to find out how much really was known about his fate. That is the quest I am on at the moment. Continue reading From Holland to Bavaria: The quest starts at Dachau
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