A copy of Lost – The Quest for Jan van Boeckel is now available at the following archives and libraries: The Netherlands NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies The Archive of Noord-Holland in Haarlem The National Library of … Continue reading Libraries and Archives
During my visit I was interviewed about my Jan van Boeckel project and although the resulting article is written in German (tip: run it through google translate), it gives quite a good overview . You can read the article on the ITS website. Continue reading A tour of archives: the ITS
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
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
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
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 logistics needed in the DP-camp were mind blowing, especially in the first year. In addition to receiving thousands of refugees, repatriating hundreds, and the day to day aspects, Kathryn Hulme and her team had to organise the ‘winterization’ in Wildflecken – the preparation for winter. Continue reading Kathryn Hulme – Managing transience
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
…..The wooden arch at the camp entrance is gone but there is still a stone guardhouse. And there are still guards ….. Continue reading Visiting Wildflecken – in the footsteps of Kathryn Hulme
values are not universal Continue reading walls
A shipyard welder during the second world war, Kathryn Hulme joined the relief movement via the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) in Europe in 1945, after a few weeks training in France. Continue reading Kathryn Hulme working in a DP-camp near Frankfurt 1945 – 1949: Finding humanity in a homogeneous stream
Frankfurt – as does the whole of Germany – carries a heavy historical load. There were 26.000 Jews living in Frankfurt in 1933, the second largest Jewish population in Germany, playing leading rolls in the financial, cultural and scientific worlds … Continue reading Shadows and wounds
mogromo 