(no subject)
I have a small addiction to stories, especially personal accounts, but I don't do enough about seeking out or recording these encounters, but the news I got on Christmas eve has prompted me in to being more proactive.
Since childhood I've known my grandfather spent time in a concentration camp. The story goes that the Nazis required male Jews 18 and up to labor for the Reich. My grandfather, a Christian, had been mistakenly rounded up because he'd spent a lot of time with the Jewish neighbors. Because of his height (go figure) no one believed he was only 16 and it took his family a year to prove his age and get him released. While in the camp he was forced to braid rope.
Well, that was the story. On Christmas Eve I found out through my mother that my grandfather is opening up about the truth. He was imprisoned not by some glitch in the system...
He was imprisoned for smuggling guns for the Dutch Resistance, hidden under produce on the back of his bike. He got caught on the third trip, and wasn't released until the camp was liberated a year later.
Right now I'm researching the Dutch Resistance, World War II, Nazis, and the concentration camps.
Next week I'll be taking a day off of work to go have a long-awaited conversation with him. I've wanted to hear his side of the story for years, but now seems to be the time to ask. His heart is failing, down to 6%, and he's nearly deaf, but at last he's willing to talk about what happened.
I haven't been close to Opa since I was quite young, and he doesn't have a very good relationship with my mother (his eldest daughter), so I'm banking on his respect (my brothers and I have had to work much harder in life than our well-off cousins to whom he is closer), and that my time in Iraq will give him some confidence that I can handle the answers to the questions I want to ask (I'm not saying it did, just that he'll feel he can answer truthfully and completely.)
There are SO MANY issues to this. Netherlands, Queen Wilamena, Jews, Nazis, Russians, Liberation, The Resistance, Immigration, Homosexuality, Germany, Life, Death, Friendship. And even more questions: How did he get involved? With whom? What did he/they do? What was it like? How did it happen? How did it start? And then what? And then what? And then what?
If he allows it, I'll be recording the conversations (I hope to keep them from being interviews) and share what I can with my family, friends, and the public.
Since childhood I've known my grandfather spent time in a concentration camp. The story goes that the Nazis required male Jews 18 and up to labor for the Reich. My grandfather, a Christian, had been mistakenly rounded up because he'd spent a lot of time with the Jewish neighbors. Because of his height (go figure) no one believed he was only 16 and it took his family a year to prove his age and get him released. While in the camp he was forced to braid rope.
Well, that was the story. On Christmas Eve I found out through my mother that my grandfather is opening up about the truth. He was imprisoned not by some glitch in the system...
He was imprisoned for smuggling guns for the Dutch Resistance, hidden under produce on the back of his bike. He got caught on the third trip, and wasn't released until the camp was liberated a year later.
Right now I'm researching the Dutch Resistance, World War II, Nazis, and the concentration camps.
Next week I'll be taking a day off of work to go have a long-awaited conversation with him. I've wanted to hear his side of the story for years, but now seems to be the time to ask. His heart is failing, down to 6%, and he's nearly deaf, but at last he's willing to talk about what happened.
I haven't been close to Opa since I was quite young, and he doesn't have a very good relationship with my mother (his eldest daughter), so I'm banking on his respect (my brothers and I have had to work much harder in life than our well-off cousins to whom he is closer), and that my time in Iraq will give him some confidence that I can handle the answers to the questions I want to ask (I'm not saying it did, just that he'll feel he can answer truthfully and completely.)
There are SO MANY issues to this. Netherlands, Queen Wilamena, Jews, Nazis, Russians, Liberation, The Resistance, Immigration, Homosexuality, Germany, Life, Death, Friendship. And even more questions: How did he get involved? With whom? What did he/they do? What was it like? How did it happen? How did it start? And then what? And then what? And then what?
If he allows it, I'll be recording the conversations (I hope to keep them from being interviews) and share what I can with my family, friends, and the public.