June 2018

AanspraakAfdeling Verzetsdeelnemers en Oorlogsgetroffenen

Wim Aloserij, the last survivor of the Cap Arcona shipwreck bears no grudges Contents

Page 4 Speaking for your benefit.

Page 5 Remembrance speech of 4 May 2018 at Dam Square, Amsterdam. By Director of the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) Kim Putters.

Page 6-9 The last survivor of the Cap Arcona shipwreck bears no grudges. Wim Aloserij survived the concentration camps in Amersfoort, Husum, Neuengamme and the bombing of the SS Cap Arcona prison ship by the Allies.

Page 10-12 ‘The bombing of the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood ruined me physically, but not mentally.’ As a child, in 1945, former Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) mayor Hans Ouwerkerk lost his father and was severely injured by a British bomb.

Page 13-16 Not having a ‘J’ stamped on my identity card gave me my freedom back. The Jewish dressmaker Marga was able to do resistance work undetected from Amsterdam.

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 2 Page 17 News from the Client Council.

Page 18 Questions and answers.

No rights may be derived from this text. Translation: SVB, Amstelveen.

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 3 Speaking for your benefit

In Italy, every secondary school pupil is encouraged Meditate that this came about: to read ‘Se questo è un uomo’ (1947) by the Italian I commend these words to you, Jewish author Primo Levi. Levi was a chemist and Carve them in your hearts a survivor of Auschwitz. At home, in the street, Going to bed, rising: This book, which was published in English under Repeat them to your children. the titles ‘If This is a Man’(1947) and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’(1959), gives an account of daily life at Or may your house fall apart, Auschwitz and how people behave in extreme May illness impede you, circumstances. The underlying question throughout May your children turn their faces from you. the book is ‘If this is a man’, which, in the eyes of the author, applies both to the oppressors and Primo Levi, from: Se questo è un uomo, those they were oppressing. Turin, 1947.

When the book was published, the distant and In 1959, the book was translated into German. contemplative manner in which Levi describes One of Primo Levi’s primary reasons for writing the life at Auschwitz made a profound impression. book was to make the German people realise what It begins with this disturbing poem, which I would had been done in their name and to make them like to present to the readers of our client magazine take – albeit partial – responsibility for these acts. Aanspraak at this time of remembrance: This is a poem you will never forget. The stark contrast If this is a man between those who were living their lives in safety and luxury, oblivious to the nightmare Levi was fighting to You who live safe survive in the Nazi camp. Amongst other things, Levi In your warm houses, makes you realise just how precious a life of freedom You who find, returning in the evening, is. This is a story for everyone, young and old. Hot food and friendly faces:

Consider if this is a man Who works in the mud Who does not know peace Ruud van Es Who fights for a scrap of bread Member of the Board of Directors of the SVB Who dies because of a yes or no.

Consider if this is a woman, Without hair and without name With no more strength to remember, Her eyes empty and her womb cold Like a frog in winter.

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 4 Remembrance speech of 4 May 2018 at Dam Square, Amsterdam By Director of the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) Kim Putters

Today, we are here gathered here and all over Remembering, reflecting on what happened, the Netherlands to remember fathers, mothers, helps us to ask questions, both to ourselves and grandfathers, grandmothers, children, young and old others. Remembering requires us to listen to one – everyone! We will commemorate them together. another. It’s at times when the differences between This year at Dam Square, the wreaths will be laid by population groups become greater, that we should scouts and sea cadets from Friesland. As a young be trying to find out what is actually happening scout in my hometown of Hardinxveld, I was afforded with other people. Remembering forces us to ask that same privilege one 4 May. I remember how ourselves whether we are prepared to hear the truth, special it felt. My scoutmaster, Bas de Mik, told me whether we are able to gather information before that the war was also about me. When I asked him drawing conclusions about other people, whether why, he answered, ‘Why do you think?’. I didn’t know we view the events from different perspectives, what to say and didn’t ask any further questions. and whether we reject lies and fight against discrimination, whatever the reasons. As members My grandfather, bargee Gerrit Putters, had a box of a free and engaged society, we must be prepared containing items from the war. He showed me the to be open to facts and modify our views. ration coupons and boatmaster’s certificates from that time, frowned, wrinkling his forehead, and I think my scoutmaster was trying to say that we can didn’t say much more after that. I saw it was difficult learn from World War II, that we should listen to the for him, so being a small boy, I didn’t ask any more stories of those who lived through it, that we should questions. It wasn’t until much later that I realised pass on those stories to subsequent generations, he was angry at the ‘Jerries’, as he called them, and that we should learn to question injustice in and that those items brought back all kinds of these times, fight it, and continue to search for memories. How I wish I had asked him some more answers. We should reach out, be open to others, questions. ask questions, and enter into dialogue about the limits of our freedom – with ourselves, with others, ‘Resistance doesn’t begin with big words but with the world. with small deeds’, as Remco Campert wrote in the poem ‘Someone Asks the Question’, which Remco Campert closed his poem with the holds a very special place in my heart. Campert following lines: was not even fourteen years old when his father, ‘Asking yourself a question resistance member and poet Jan Campert, died That’s where resistance starts at Neuengamme concentration camp in 1943. And then asking someone else the same question.’

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 5 The last survivor of the Cap Arcona shipwreck bears no grudges

Wim Aloserij survived the concentration camps in Amersfoort, Husum, Neuengamme and the bombing of the SS Cap Arcona prison ship by the Allies.

When we visit his home in Lochem, we are greeted but being unemployed and relying on charity during by a well-groomed elderly man, impeccably the crisis years, my mother barely managed to make dressed in a suit, with a twinkle in his eye. War ends meet. This meant that Jo and I had to start victim Wim Aloserij and his biographer, Frank working at a very early age. The only person to take Krake, both have something to celebrate, because me under his wing was the butcher in our street, and today, 11 April 2018, ‘De laatste getuige’ [the last he let me learn on the job with him. I earned 7.50 survivor], the book on Wim’s wartime experiences, guilders a week, 6.50 of which I would give to my has reached number three in the Libris literary mother. The rest I would share with Jo.’ top ten. They are currently giving talks across the Netherlands on the book, for which Krake spent a Escape from the Arbeitseinzatz year delving into war records. Together, Krake and ‘The day war broke out, I was working in the 94-year-old Wim also visited all of the places where butcher’s shop and everybody was talking about Wim was imprisoned during the war. ‘There was it. There was a marine barracks nearby that was a time when I was unable to speak about the war, occupied by German marines who would buy large but now I’m pleased it’s getting so much attention’, quantities of meat from us. Some of them were OK Wim explains in his charming Amsterdam accent. and some weren’t, as is the case everywhere. A short while later, I was called up to work in Germany for Kattenburg in a time of crisis the Arbeitseinsatz, but I ignored it. Two German Wim starts talking: ‘I was born on 8 August 1923 soldiers came to the shop, accompanied by two into a Roman Catholic family who were living on members of the Dutch National Socialist Movement Kleine Kattenburgerstraat in Amsterdam. My father (NSB), and enquired about me. The butcher protested had died of a lung disease two months before. and told them I was indispensable, but it was no use. I had one older sister, Jo, and, later, a younger I was told to report, and was transported by train half-brother, Henk. My mother soon remarried, to to Braunschweig. By chance, I met a German girl at Hendrik Aloserij, who legitimised my sister and I. the station who sent me to someone who helped Together, they had a son, Bertus. My stepfather me avoid being sent into the camp. This young was a builder. He was moody and an aggressive Dutchman worked on the German trams and helped drunk, and would beat us daily without reason. me get a job on them, too, and a place to stay. One In an attempt to make it through the day unscathed, day in 1943, all non-Germans in Braunschweig were I’d try to be at home as little as possible and, forced to go and live in the camp, and I was made whenever I was at home, stay out of sight. I stayed to work as a metalworker. In this camp, I met Klaas, out a lot, but in the street in a working-class who, as the son of a German mother, had a German neighbourhood like ours, where many people were travel pass that would enable him to buy train tickets unemployed, you needed to be streetwise in order if he were to escape. He wanted to escape with not to get hit or be robbed. When I was fourteen, me and bought two tickets westwards for us. From my stepfather died as a result of his excessive station Bentheim, I fled to the Netherlands, lying drinking. We moved to Tweede Oosterparkstraat, on the roof of a train.’

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 6 In hiding One wrong move ‘I arrived back in Amsterdam in October 1943, ‘Upon arrival at Neuengamme concentration camp, during the curfew. For the first night, I stayed with we were beaten out of the train with sticks and my sister, who was now married. My brother-in- shaved from head to toe to combat lice. We were law arranged a hiding place for me near Zwaag. In issued blue-and-white striped suits, and I had to the spring of 1944, a member of the NSB was shot embroider a red H on my chest. My camp number dead in that area, and I had to go into hiding with was 49019. At the roll-call point, we were told that Mr Van Diepen, a farmer with a large family, who we could still join the Wehrmacht to fight against the lived in Baarsdorpermeer. For those of us he was Russians. Several prisoners chose this option. After hiding, Mr Van Diepen constructed an underground just a couple of hours, some walked into the electric shelter alongside a ditch, where the three of us fence, which had a lethal voltage. As a deterrent, could sleep safely. We worked on the land for him. other prisoners would be hanged to break our will. One day, the Sicherheitsdienst turned up looking for One wrong move could cost you your life, as the people in hiding and members of the resistance, so guards would literally beat prisoners to death. My we ran towards the haystack right next to the West streetwiseness now stood me in good stead, and Frisian farm. The fact that we bolted like we did drew I shut myself off, mentally, as I had done with my attention to us. We hid in the haystack. We were drunken stepfather. At night, while the others were told to either surrender or they would set fire to the sleeping, exhausted from the heavy labour, I would haystack and therefore also Mr Van Diepen’s home, be out and about trying to swap the cigarettes I had so we had no choice.’ earned from working for a piece of bread.’

Amersfoort concentration camp The hell of Husum concentration camp ‘Because we had refused the forced labour imposed ‘At the end of September 1944, I was transferred to by the Germans, we were imprisoned and, after the Husum satellite camp, where we were made to several interrogations, transferred to the prison on stand in three rows and dig a large anti-tank trench Weteringschans in Amsterdam. The brutal guards that would act as a defensive wall for the German stood six of us in a row facing the wall and said, north coast with the aim of stopping Allied tanks. “We’re going to take passport photos of you.” On this marshland, we were made to stand with our They then kicked us so hard in the back that our feet in groundwater, working long hours shovelling faces smashed into the wall. I came around, with a earth in the cold, wearing only our flimsy camp rags: bruised and bloodied face, and found myself in a “Extermination through labour”. The German officers small squalid cell. There were six of us in total, all would beat those who didn’t work hard enough to male. I was immediately covered in lice. Two weeks death, while others would drown themselves in the later, in July 1944, I was transferred to Amersfoort trench water to escape this hell. Many prisoners concentration camp, where I was sent to a satellite contracted pneumonia and dysentery. We weren’t camp and given the task of filling bomb craters allowed to go to the toilet, so we would be up to at the airport in Soesterberg. During roll call, the our ankles in one another’s bloody excrement. Many brutal camp commander, Joseph Kotälla, would hit were unable to survive the cold and heavy labour prisoners in their genitals with a stick, making them on a diet of consistently insufficient portions of soup collapse. Kotälla would make us watch him beating and bread. I went to the hospital barracks and said up other prisoners. In late August 1944, a large I wanted to work as a nurse, and was assigned to group of prisoners including myself was transported a Danish doctor. In this way, I managed to avoid by train to Neuengamme concentration camp. the heavy labour and beatings. After almost three I threw a note out of the window for my mother, months, the Friesenwall was completed, and we saying that I was on my way to a German labour had to return to Neuengamme. Of the some 1,500 camp, which she received.’ prisoners who had been in forced labour there,

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 7 approximately 200 had survived. I, too, had become My instincts told me I needed to find a way to make a “Muselmann”: a skeleton with a sunken face and it out on deck. When the vessel was bombed by an apathetic expression – someone who was no the RAF on 3 May 1945, many panicked due to the longer able to perform heavy labour.’ enormous fire that broke out on board. Weakened though I was, I didn’t want to burn. I kept searching Escape was impossible and followed five other prisoners who had found ‘When we arrived back in Neuengamme, the a staircase to the rear deck in an air duct. On the strongest were selected to work in a steel mill. deck, I found a rope running down the high side of Through a Russian doctor, I was able to get myself the sinking vessel’s hull, and slid down it. As I did transferred to lighter weaving duties in the cellar, this, I noticed a rubber raft floating past me. where us “Muselmannen” had to weave camouflage I fell into the freezing-cold water for a split second nets for German canons. Two Jehova’s Witnesses and climbed straight on to the empty raft. On the refused to participate in the manufacturing of other side, German guards were shooting from the military equipment on the grounds of their faith, and lifeboats at the prisoners who were holding on to the allowed themselves to be beaten to death without wreckage. Around me, I saw the most ghastly sights: even flinching. Once, I fell asleep on a bale of nets frozen, gaunt bodies shot to smithereens in a sea from exhaustion. A guard threatened to give me a of innumerable shaven heads. These images still punishment of “25 am Arsch”, which would have haunt my mind day and night, and I will never be meant me being struck 25 times on my behind with able to get them out of my system.’ a stick. To my great relief, I didn’t see him during the roll-call, so to my great relief I was spared, as many Survival through pure willpower didn’t survive this punishment. A member of the ‘We decided to only pull shaven-headed people out SS assigned me cleaning duties in the garage and who were drowning in the freezing-cold seawater. gave me scraps of food. He saved my life, because Many became hypothermic and fell unconscious. I wouldn’t have survived the heavier labour. In On the raft, we had to brave the hail and snow, January 1945, a group of sixty prisoners arrived from and if you wanted to keep your naked body warm Groningen. They didn’t know what was happening it was better to keep paddling. So we ended up to them. During the night, I snuck in undetected to fighting for the paddles, and I held tightly on to bring them some small pieces of bread, because mine. Survival isn’t about physical strength, but I wanted to protect them. The day after, I heard about pure willpower. We reached the coastline at that they had all been hanged. At that moment, Neustadt with our raft, where the Allies were already something in me broke. Every survival strategy stationed. When we were on land, an attentive was futile, and escape was impossible.’ German wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and directed me to a German field hospital. I fell to The Cap Arcona shipwreck my knees on the beach from pure exhaustion and ‘In April 1945, the prisoners were evacuated to the went into shock. The next time I opened my eyes, port city of Lübeck because the Allies were nearing I was in the field hospital, where I was able to stay the camp. The Nazis didn’t want to leave any for a couple of days to regain my strength. While I witnesses behind, and were looking for volunteers to was in hospital, I was told that many people who remove every trace. I volunteered, because I thought had reached the coast had been shot dead by young we might be liberated sooner in Neuengamme. Wehrmacht soldiers who didn’t want there to be any Once all the camp records had been incinerated and survivors of the camps and this shipwreck. After a the camp had been evacuated, we were still made to couple of days recuperating, I was able to travel to return to Lübeck, where, like all the other prisoners, Hamburg with a group of other prisoners, and then we were taken by cargo ship to the enormous ocean on to the Netherlands. I was exhausted, and missed liner the Cap Arcona. the liberation in the Netherlands completely. In Seven thousand camp survivors were kept prisoner Enschede, I was admitted clinic for an examination. in the hold, and anyone who tried to escape was It turned out I had pleurisy and needed six months shot dead. The majority were exhausted and broken. of treatment.’

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 8 A new lease of life during the war. Together, we visited the children ‘At the time, no one was interested in hearing of Mr Van Diepen, the farmer who had given me a what I had experienced during the war. It took a hiding place. It was a wonderful experience, because long time for me to find the energy to start my his son remembered me well. We also went to the life again, because I was severely weakened. My Cap Arcona commemoration, where we were told GP, Dr Dasberg, made sure I got the medical care that Neuengamme concentration camp had been I needed, and that I had an income. Around that liberated on 4 May 1945 by the Allies. If this had time, I met my future wife, Miep Minnee, who was a happened two weeks earlier, the lives of all of those nurse, and had helped deliver Jo’s baby. She always 7,000 who perished in the Cap Arcona shipwreck supported me, and we would have four children would have been spared. I don’t bear any grudges together. In 1949, we opened a store where I sold against the Germans, because there are good and electrical goods, and l later worked in field sales for bad apples in every bunch. One thing I would like other white and brown goods stores. What had really to say to the readers of this interview is, that they inspired me was the courage of the Jehova’s Witness should be aware of opportunities at all times, and in the camps, who refused to let the SS break them. seize them with both hands. Always follow your own It made such an impression on me that I ended path and don’t be one of the herd. Trust your first up joining them. As a Jehova’s Witness, I still go instinct, because it’s usually right!’ knocking on doors and meet new people every day, which keeps me fit, both mentally and physically. Interview: Ellen Lock Writing the book with Frank Krake about my experiences gave me a new lease of life. We visited Wim Aloserij passed away a few weeks after all of the places where I had been imprisoned this interview, on 2 May 2018.

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 9 ‘The bombing of the Bezuiden- hout neighbourhood ruined me physically, but not mentally.’

As a child, in 1945, former Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) mayor Hans Ouwerkerk lost his father and was severely injured by a British bomb.

Hans Ouwerkerk spoke on 3 March 2018 during no memories whatsoever of his father, who was killed the remembrance ceremony at the Bezuidenhout on 3 March 1945 during the bombing while using memorial. The former ombudsman of the VARA his body as a human shield to protect three-year-old Broadcasting Association and former PvdA mayor Hans. When asked what he does remember, Hans shares his experiences from the war: ‘As a boy of replies, ‘My earliest memories are of rubble flying almost four years of age, I experienced the bombing through the air, our neighbourhood ablaze, and being of the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in The Hague. dragged along by a huge gust of wind. The houses My father was laying on top of me in the street to had been swept away and the rubble kept on burning.’ protect me, and died immediately when a piece of Hans’s sister, Wil, who was four years his senior, shrapnel hit him in the head. That same piece of and his mother later told him in detail what had shrapnel fractured my left arm. I spent three months happened: ‘On 3 March 1945, we heard the drone of sitting in a hospital bed with my arm in a fixator. It the aeroplanes flying above The Hague. My mother also turned out that my right leg was paralysed. I didn’t feel safe inside the house and thought we feel those injuries to this day, and they’re still visible would be better if she headed out into the street on my body, but I don’t let that adversity stop me with us. When the low-flying bombers passed over from living life to the full and seizing opportunities our neighbourhood, our parents laid in the street in the way anyone else would. with us, shielding us with their bodies. Immediately, we felt the planes unleash their bombs above our On 3 March 1945, the Bezuidenhout neighbour- neighbourhood, the explosions creating massive air hood in The Hague was ravaged when the RAF pressure that lifted us from the ground. A piece of attempted to bomb the German’s V-2 launching shrapnel went right through my father’s head and facilities in the Forest of The Hague. The V-2s then into my arm. I was then hurled for metres and were long-range missiles the Germans intended to metres in the direction of Voorburg and landed at use to restore their hopes of winning the war and the roadside. My father laid completely still next to bomb London. However, due to fatal navigation my mother and sister in the street, and my mother errors (incorrectly measured wind force, mixed-up asked, “Bert, are you still alive?”, but he couldn’t coordinates, and miscommunication) on the part answer. He groaned momentarily, and then passed of the British, it wasn’t this military target that was away. Naturally, my father was the only thing on my hit, but the heart of The Hague’s Bezuidenhout mother’s mind at that particular moment. After he neighbourhood. The immediate damage was had died, she removed his ring, wallet and watch colossal: a large part of the neighbourhood was from his body, and only then did she realise that I reduced to rubble, more than 500 citizens were was gone. She took my sister by the arm and they killed, more than 400 missing, more than 200 walked with the sea of people, fleeing the blaze seriously injured, and almost 3,000 lost their homes. and searching for me. By chance, she came walking right towards me. I was sitting at the roadside in a Hit by shrapnel daze and kept saying, “Mummy, mummy, my arm Hans Ouwerkerk was born on 23 May 1941 at has gone!” I couldn’t feel my left arm, and it was Wilhelmina van Pruisenstraat 87 in The Hague. He has hanging there, severely injured.’

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 10 My salvation manage without orthopaedic shoes and a stick. By ‘When a GP in Voorburg, who had a car, asked, the time I turned ten, I’d had five operations on my “Are there any wounded here?”, my mother, who right leg to get it into the right position for walking.’ was carrying me in her arms, responded. It turned out to be my salvation that Dr Gestel carried me into You can do anything until you are proven wrong the Antoniushove hospital in Voorburg when he did, ‘My grandmother had passed away during the war because I was one of the first victims to arrive there and it was my mother’s idea to move in with her and they still had a stock of anti-tetanus medication. father because we’d lost everything. My grandfather The blast waves from the carpet bombing had was like a second father to us. In terms of political created harsh whirlwinds that had blown dirt from the leanings, he was left-wing, and he taught me a lot. street into my open wounds. As a result, I caught the Fortunately, my grandfather realised in time that deadly bacterial disease tetanus. Without antibodies it was better not to treat me like a cripple, and my to combat the toxins, you have muscle spasms, mother enrolled me in the scouts. In the scouts, difficulty swallowing, and respiratory problems. I became friends with Hans Schimmelpenningh, My mother and grandfather took turns sitting at my who convinced me that I could do anything until bedside to make sure I didn’t swallow my tongue. I was proven wrong. This motto has served me well In those first few chaotic days following the disaster, in life. Because my legs and feet were uneven, I had various people died of tetanus. Once I had managed to gradually learn to walk better, initially on raised to recover from it, my left arm started to heal.’ shoes with a leg brace. I would also have liked to have skated and done sports. Handbag with silver powder box inside For years, there was a black spot on an injury next to ‘In the meantime, my mother and sister had walked my elbow, and I didn’t know what it was. Forty years to our good friends uncle Ben and aunt Greet in later, a glass splinter came out of my arm, which Voorburg, who let them stay for the time being. they’d missed during the operations. Whenever Together with uncle Ben, my mother went to search I needed new shoes, I’d always have to buy two for my father’s body. All she found on the stone pairs and throw one of each away. After I turned steps of our home was her handbag with her silver fifty, I started wearing orthopaedic shoes again. powder box inside. They found my father’s body laid Once, when I was the mayor of Emmen, I was sitting out for identification in the Dutch Reformed Church behind my desk wearing a short-sleeved shirt. I’ve in Voorburg, near the body of Koos Speenhoff, a never been ashamed of my arm, because I survived. popular singer at the time. My father was initially A colleague of mine asked, “Could I bring my son buried in a mass grave. He was later reburied. My to meet you? He’s ashamed of his burns and won’t grandfather had a linen cupboard converted into a go outside anymore, and I want him to see what coffin to give my father a dignified burial.’ someone in his position can achieve.” “That’s fine”, I replied. “Bring him along.” When we met, I taught Revalidation him my motto, “You can do anything until you’re ‘My mother would cycle to the hospital every day on proven wrong”, which has always encouraged me a bicycle with wooden tyres to see if I was still alive. not to not to be put off seizing opportunities in During the operation, a piece of skin from my groin life. For instance, I have an insole in my right shoe was transplanted to my upper arm to close the large to compensate for the difference in height, so I’m wound. I was lying in bed with the upper half of my still being confronted with the consequences of the body raised and my left arm in a fixator for support. bombing daily. In everything I do, I take into account I had to lie still day and night in order to heal. Two the lack of strength in my arm and my leg, which is months later, we celebrated the liberation in the why I hate walking and often make use of my disabled hospital. My mother put a bow in my long hair and I parking pass. But I’ll go anywhere if I need to.’ was given chocolate. When, after three months, I was allowed to stand again, my right leg gave way, and Go-getter a long period of wheelchairs, braces and operations ‘Since my mother passed away, my admiration for ensued. It remained a weak spot, and I couldn’t her has only grown. In retrospect, she only had

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 11 my father in her life for a very short time, because, the implementation of the Benefit Act for Civilian as a first mate in the Koninklijke Pakketvaart War Victims 1940-1945 (Wubo). She added that Maatschappij, he was often away. She married him I could claim a benefit because of the physical by proxy in 1935 and moved to Singapore, where my complaints I had as a result of the war. Under the sister was born in 1937. Wubo, I’m recognised as a civilian war victim. As Shortly before the war, he visited the Netherlands well as receiving a basic benefit, I’m covered for my on extended leave. When the war broke out, he was pedicure costs. called up to serve in the Marines and sailed on the In my capacity as mayor, I’ve naturally always Rhine by the Grebbeberg. Once, when my mother held the remembrance ceremony speeches in my was very ill and delirious, the details of the bombing municipalities on 4 and 5 May. The reception in and her fear of fire became apparent. For the rest, Groningen of Canadian veterans on 5 May 1995 she wasn’t a woman who was scared; she was perky. made a deep impression on me because of the I take after her in many ways; we share the same stories I’d heard about the fierce battle they’d fought optimism. for the city. When they came out of St Martin’s After the firework disaster of 13 May 2000 in church, they were greeted with thunderous applause. Enschede, I thought to myself, “This is how it must Just as I was wondering to myself, “How on earth have been for my mother, walking through the are we going to get to city hall now?”, the crowd of debris of the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood!” She’d people separated, showing their respect, and allowed just lost her husband and was at risk of losing me these former soldiers to make their way in full glory. to tetanus. My mother was always worried that no For the past few years, I’ve attended the woman would want to walk beside a man with an remembrance ceremony at the New Church and on ugly right arm and a somewhat crooked right leg. Dam Square in Amsterdam on 4 May, where you Fortunately, I turned out fine in terms of my studies can fortunately also reserve seats. On 3 March 2018, in terms of my studies, jobs and finding a partner. I gave a speech at the Bezuidenhout remembrance We had a son and a daughter together. ceremony. When I was preparing my speech, it After completing my history degree, I became one of really hit me that the bombing had happened just the first PvdA staff in the Lower House of the Dutch two months before the liberation. Why did this Parliament. At a school reunion, a former classmate have to happen to us when the war was so close told me that I was already saying at fourteen that to ending? When you think of acts of war, you I wanted to be mayor. I became the assistant to think of the Germans, but this was the British! In the Amsterdam PvdA mayor Ivo Samkalden and, retrospect, it’s so bizarre that, due to navigation subsequently, national secretary of the PvdA, errors, the British hit our neighbourhood instead of ombudsman of VARA and, in consecutive order, the German military V-2 missile-launching facilities mayor of Lekkerkerk, Emmen, Zaanstad, Groningen that posed a threat to London. And despite all of and Almere, and acting mayor of Enkhuizen. this, I bear no hatred towards the German or British I’ve learned a great deal from my mistakes and people, I can walk and I’m alive! My story is one of successes, and I’m a go-getter. In that respect, I take many, and there will undoubtedly be people who after my mother. After she had passed away, I found were much more seriously wounded than I was. The her scrapbook containing cuttings of newspaper war might have permanently damaged my body, articles on me. She was fiercely proud of me.’ but it hasn’t destroyed my life. What remains a bitter pill to swallow is the fact that “it never should Recognised civilian war victim have happened”. For this reason, remembrance ‘At a PvdA party congress, Elske ter Veld spotted ceremonies are a salute to the survivors and their me walking with difficulty. She came up to me and family members, who were so severely affected.’ said, “You must be a client of ours”, and explained that, as a council member, she was involved in Interview: Ellen Lock

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 12 Not having a ‘J’ stamped on my identity card gave me my freedom back

The Jewish dressmaker Marga was able to do resistance work undetected from Amsterdam.

Marga Grunberg had fled to the Netherlands as a I would serve coffee at the meetings, and she would young German Jewish immigrant with her mother make her beloved Käsekuchen specially for these and brother in 1934. She was active as a member occasions.’ of the resistance in Amsterdam from 1941 until the city was liberated. With the assistance of civil Saved servants who worked for the City of Amsterdam ‘In 1940, Hitler invaded the Netherlands and and were also members of the resistance, Marga immediately began implementing the same was able to obtain a new identity card. Shortly measures to isolate Jews as in Germany. These anti- after, she became a contact for false identity cards Jewish measures would also have a drastic effect and passports. She would also find accommodation on our lives. As from September 1941, Jews were for people in hiding and provide them with ration required to attend separate Jewish schools, so I went coupons. Via this illegal network, people in hiding to a Jewish secondary school. My mother thought were also able to escape the Arbeitseinsatz by I’d be better off learning a trade, so I trained to be travelling to northern France on false passports a dressmaker while also working in a German Jewish she had smuggled into the Netherlands. Marga sewing workshop. Grunberg shares with us the story of her involvement in illegal activities in Amsterdam. From mid-1941, Jewish identity cards were stamped with a large black “J”. As from 3 May 1942, all Jews Fleeing Nazism were required to wear a visible yellow star on their ‘My parents were German Jews, and I was born into clothing. A letter soon arrived from the Jewish an non-Orthodox Jewish family on 11 August 1924. Council, written at the behest of the occupiers, I had a brother, Manfred, who was one year my stating that all Jews living in Diemen must leave senior. My parents fled to the Netherlands in 1934 to Diemen for certain districts of Amsterdam, and that escape the anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany. When they were allowed to bring one suitcase. We lived in we arrived in Amsterdam, my parents separated, and an apartment on Kromme Mijdrechtstraat, which we my mother settled with us in Diemen. Manfred and I shared with three other Jewish families. went to a Christian primary school, but I struggled to make the switch to Dutch and had a lot of difficulty The razzias and deportations started in June of learning. We would go to Tehuis Oosteinde 16 in 1942. One day, I was crossing the street down the Amsterdam to meet with other German and Eastern road from our house, when an armoured truck European migrants. It was a meeting point for all suddenly pulled up. They had come to arrest Jews. those who were fighting against the Hitler regime. A man very quickly put his hand over my star and There were many inspiring talks, and many migrants took me by my arm, leading me out of the queue would maintain contact with anti-fascist socialist unnoticed while nonchalantly pointing to and telling and communist groups in Germany and the Soviet me about a building. He took me home and told Union. We felt at home with these people who had me, “You’re safe now!” The stranger who had saved fled the Nazi regime. Every Sunday, my mother and me recommended I go to the district labour office

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 13 and ask for a Mr Hansen. The only way you could In the meantime, Mr Landweer removed the postpone your deportation was to get a “Sperr”: “J”-stamped card containing my personal details a stamp on your identity card indicating that you from the records and replaced it with my new card. were indispensable in your position. From that When I went to collect it sometime later, I was frightening moment, I decided to take on a new extremely frightened of getting caught. So I asked a identity and had my hair dyed blonde. During a friend, Leo Weil, to walk behind me, armed, in case razzia on Kromme Mijdrechtstraat, the son of a I walked into a trap. Once I’d spotted Mr Landweer German woman who lived on the third floor of watching from behind a glass door, my fear was our house saved us. He visited his mother wearing gone. I calmly walked to the desk and, relieved, a German army uniform and, when the house received my “J”-less identity card. Not having a “J” searches started, stood in the door opening and stamped on my identity card gave me my freedom asked in German: “What do you want? There are no back. Now I was free to walk the streets again and Jews here!” There were three Jewish families living stop working in the Wehrmacht’s sewing workshop.’ on the first and second floors, who were all taken and deported. We were hiding in the loft, petrified Doing the rounds with my bag of being discovered. Thanks to the intervention ‘I naturally wanted to do the same for my mother, of the German son on the third floor, the German brother and many others. Pieter Landweer issued and Dutch police officers didn’t make it beyond numerous false identity cards for us in collaboration the third floor.’ with Hans Hansen and Mr Onderwijzer, who was a senior officer of the city’s distribution apartment. I No ‘J’ stamp would report the loss of my identity card or passport ‘Mr Hansen was sitting at the service desk at the at various police stations and have new identity district labour office and was indeed prepared to cards made from the bagful of old passports and help me. We met somewhere after work, and he new passport photos I carried with me. In this had a little girl with him. “Don’t be scared”, he said. way, we were able to save multiple people from “She’s a Jewish child who’s hiding with me. Don’t deportation. With my new identity card and dyed mention it to anyone. I have plans for you! If you blonde hair, I was able to rent rooms and arrange want to lose that star, we’ll try it with you first.” the right paperwork for others in need. I would Hans Hansen arranged a job for me in a sewing carefully pick the addresses for people in hiding workshop run by the German Wehrmacht, but also from window adds. If, when I rang the doorbell, I sent me to a Mr Landweer, who was in charge of trusted the person who was letting the property, I the population register. Landweer was prepared to would rent it without telling them it was for people replace my identity card with a new identity card in hiding. Because, as from 17 July 1942, Jews were without a “J” stamp. He said, “You mustn’t tell a only allowed to shop between three and five o’clock soul about this: remove the yellow star from your in the afternoon, I would provide them with papers, clothes and go and report your identity card lost. food and coal.’ When you give them your details, don’t tell them you’re Jewish. Our police officer will send your In the lion’s den details to the population register, where you’ll be ‘For my mother and Manfred, I rented an apartment registered as non-Jewish and be able to collect your in Amsterdam’s Old South district. The ground- new identity card without a ‘J’ stamp.” floor flat was occupied by a woman from Imperial I was immediately able to start work in a sewing Germany, whom I convinced that I was working for workshop at Oosteinde 24, where, together with five the Wehrmacht in a sewing workshop, which was other Jewish women, I made rucksacks for the Jewish actually the case at that time. I also told her we were Council and the Wehrmacht. It was a distribution secretly working for the Gestapo, but that she should point for clothing and blankets for people who had not tell anyone. Because we all spoke German well been called up for deportation. and pretended to be pro-German, she believed us.

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 14 My stomach would often turn at her anti-Semitic obtain a pack of stolen headed paper from a factory remarks. When Hitler was starting to lose the war, in Abbeville, started assisting us with this. We had she said, “Those dirty Jews are rejoicing!”, and we false German stamps printed on them, and prepared would pretend we shared her discontent. All the all of the papers for the escape to France. while I would think to myself, “If only she knew!” Her husband was at sea and she worked full-time as On 27 March 1943, the resistance attacked the a cleaner. This meant we had the place to ourselves Population Register. The fire brigade were not in the daytime, which enabled us to temporarily in a hurry to extinguish the blaze. The heavily hide a number of people in a room at the back of damaged registration cards were forged and our apartment. In late 1942, I also moved into the rewritten by Pieter Landweer and fellow resistance department. The woman from Imperial Germany members, often using the details of people who unknowingly saved our lives a number of times. were deceased. It came as a huge shock when we During a series of house raids in our street, she heard that the Sicherheitsdienst had invaded the opened the door and said there were only pro-Nazis Population Register on 17 July 1944 and arrested living in her house. Sometimes the lion’s den is the Pieter Landweer and his fellow resistance members. safest place to be.’ On 4 August 1944, he was executed by firing squad at Camp Vught.’ An immediate click ‘One day, my brother brought Max Silber to our Protection from revenge attacks apartment with him. We clicked immediately, and we ‘Shortly before Amsterdam was liberated, I were soon engaged to be married. Our friend Leo approached a neighbour I knew I could trust, whom Weil, Manfred and Max had bought a large quantity I also knew had contraband in his home. I revealed of French perfume, which we used for bartering. that we were Jews and asked him to protect us from Those bottles of perfume kept us clothed and fed possible revenge attacks because of our pro-German for the rest of the war. My parents and parents-in-law cover, as others could have viewed us as traitors. He also gave us items to barter with. The woman from understood our predicament and came and stayed Imperial Germany was also fond of Max. One day, with us, armed, to assist us during the liberation we were cooking soup in the kitchen, and she came should it be needed. As soon as it was safe, I went and asked us for help because the Dutch police outside and saw the Canadians driving into the city had unexpectedly turned up at her door accusing and handing out chocolate bars and cigarettes. Their her of illegal trading. Without being seen, I had to arrival moved me to tears because only now did I move her liquor and cigarettes from a cupboard feel that the war had truly ended. The woman from in the living room and take them upstairs, while Imperial Germany immediately packed her bags Max opened the door for the Dutch police officers. to go and join her husband in the States. She said “Come in, gentlemen. Would you like a bowl of goodbye to us, but it was a strange parting as it delicious homemade pea soup?”, Max asked them, had now emerged that our situation was completely distracting them with his friendly chat and the soup, different from what she had thought.’ so they didn’t bother with the house search. After that, Max could do no wrong.’ A street full of secrets ‘When your grandmother, aunts and uncles and Attack on the Population Register many loved ones have been gassed, you remember ‘Our apartment proved a safe haven for people in the war each day. You also think of all the fears you hiding and the organisation of an escape route to endured and how you needed to have an answer France. Pieter Landweer provided passports, identity ready at all times. As a stateless emigrant child, cards, registration cards and ration coupons for many it meant a great deal to me to be granted Dutch men who had been called up for the Arbeitseinsatz citizenship after the war. On 24 December 1945, and either wanted to go into hiding or leave the Max and I married in a traditional ceremony at country. Our friend Leo Weil, who had managed to the Muzieklyceum. We had a son and a daughter,

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 15 but eventually divorced. I worked for the famous his granddaughter accepted on behalf of the family. couturier Max Heymans for twenty-three years, In our street, traitors, people in hiding and members making clothes. It was a happy period in my life. of the resistance lived right next to one another. In 2008, I read an appeal from a granddaughter of After the war, it emerged that it had been a street Pieter Landweer in the newspaper ‘Het Parool’ to full of secrets. Several Jewish families had been anyone who could provide more information on her arrested in house searches in our street. It’s a wonder grandfather’s activities as a member of the resistance that we weren’t discovered or betrayed, because the during the war, because her mother had already reward for Jew hunters who gave up Jews was seven passed away and Pieter had never told her anything. guilders fifty. I donated the bag in which I smuggled I wrote to her and said, “I knew your grandfather!”, all of the documents to the Resistance Museum. and invited her over so she could ask me questions This way, the story of our work in the resistance is about him. She was very happy to hear all my stories. kept alive.’ Together with my family and friends, I asked for Pieter Landwaard to be given a Yad Vashem Award, which Interview: Ellen Lock

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 16 News from the Client Council

The Client Council for the schemes for former and thanked them for their many years of members of the resistance or victims of war dedication. At the same time, two new members (V&O schemes) advises the Sociale Verzekerings- were appointed: Messrs S.I. Goedel and bank (SVB) and the Pension and Benefit Board J.A. Pellegrino van Stuyvenberg. In addition to (PUR) on the services they provide to their clients. these new members, the Client Council is currently The members of the Client Council do not handle composed of Mses M.H.J. Boxtart (chair), T.H. individual cases. They sit on the Council as Meulders, P. Meuws and K. Weiss and Messrs individuals and convene an average of six M. Bogaardt, M. Degen, and F.F. van Gelder. times a year. The Client Council is currently focusing on the long- In the opinion of the members of the Client Council, term effects of traumas suffered during youth, the it is of the utmost importance that the quality of the problems that affect partners of deceased pension services provided to victims of war is safeguarded or benefit recipients, and a website geared more at all times and, where possible, improved. They towards recognised clients. critically assess signals about the services, such as complaints and results from investigations into If you would like to bring a matter to the attention satisfaction with claim processing times. Speed, of the Client Council, please write to Cliëntenraad care, clarity and client orientation are paramount. V&O, Antwoordnummer 10340, 2300 WB Leiden, the Netherlands, or email or telephone secretary On 1 January 2018, we said goodbye to two André Kuijpers at [email protected] or on members, Ms W. Bruins Slot and Mr E. Flora, +31 71 535 6785.

Aanspraak - June 2018 - 17 Questions and answers

REPORTING A CHANGE There is someone locally who, for a fee, assists The amount of a benefit or pension paid by people in submitting claims for Indonesian victims the SVB depends on the income and personal of war. Can I use this person’s services? circumstances of the person concerned. In order The PUR and SVB are not in contact with any to prevent underpayment or overpayment, the persons or companies who provide assistance with Department for Members of the Resistance claims. We are therefore unable to assess their and Victims of War must be informed of the reliability and the quality of their services. Please changes below as soon as possible: note that you can contact the SVB or the assisting organisations Pelita, JMW and Stichting 1940- • The claimant or their spouse/partner dies; 1945, and that those organisations can assist you • The claimant starts living alone due to divorce with a claim free of charge if you are living in the or separation from their spouse/partner; Netherlands. If you are not living in the Netherlands, • The claimant moves to another country; you can contact the Dutch embassy or consulate • The claimant marries or starts living with in your country or consult the SVB directly for free someone; assistance with your claim. • The claimant is admitted to a care home or nursing home; A few years ago, you gave me a copy of the • The claimant or their spouse/partner obtains book ‘Kom vanavond met verhalen hoe de oorlog a new source of income or loses an existing is verdwenen’ [Come and tell me tonight, how the source of income. war is no more]. My children and grandchildren are interested in what happened during the war, but they don’t speak Dutch. Have any interviews been I have requested a decision from my file. Can translated into English? you send me a digital copy by email instead of Our website address is printed on the back of sending me a hard copy by post? Aanspraak magazine. To access the English That can be arranged. For privacy reasons, we do translations of the publications, go to our website, not send such information by regular email. Instead, change the language to English and click ‘our we send it via a secure connection, in which case magazine Aanspraak is available online’. you will receive an email from KPN Zorg Messenger For interviews from the book, click the link https:// asking you to create a password. You will then www.svb.nl/int/nl/veno/sitemap.jsp to download need to enter that password to access the message the book in the form of an e-publication in either containing the requested information. Dutch or English.

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