March 2020 AanspraakAfdeling Verzetsdeelnemers en Oorlogsgetroffenen Eva Weyl gives talks at schools about her first-hand experiences of camp Westerbork Contents Page 4 Speaking for your benefit. Page 5 Announcement by the Board of Directors of the SVB: Ruud van Es bids farewell to V&O and introducing Coen van de Louw. Page 6-9 As a survivor I feel like a fortunate person. Eva Weyl gives talks at schools about her first-hand experiences of camp Westerbork. Page 10-13 The war has still a grip on me. Japanese internment camp survivor Gerard Pauw rescued his mother from the line of fire. Aanspraak - March 2020 - 2 Page 14-16 Jack of all trades, master of most. Ed Waisvisz recounts his time in the Dutch East Indies and the effect it has had on his life. Page 17 Questions and answers. No rights may be derived from this text. Translation: SVB, Amstelveen. Aanspraak - March 2020 - 3 Speaking for your benefit This year, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of the painful and burdensome an experience may be, end of the Second World War. Consequently, all we have the freedom to choose how we react.’ manner of activities are being undertaken to com- memorate three quarters of a century of freedom. ‘There is a choice: you can free yourself from your In addition to the customary remembrance ceremo- trauma and choose freedom.’ This view triggered a nies and special municipal activities, survivors and major breakthrough for Edith Eger. She completed surviving relatives are reliving the liberation through her degree in psychology, obtained a doctorate, newspaper and television interviews, often invoking and decided, through working as an experiential deep emotions. One thing I’ve noticed about the expert and professional therapist, to help others way people perceive living in freedom is that, aside process their traumas – not just the traumas suffered from a small dose of luck, personal choices can be by veterans, for instance, but also traumas resulting key in equipping them to cope with the misery of from other profound experiences. Edith Eger’s story war and process it after the fact. This is something is testament to the importance of sharing personal I’ve also observed in the interviews in Aanspraak experiences, as well as realising that there is always magazine, and personal accounts in books. a choice, and that one’s own attitude matters. This is what these 75 years of freedom are all about – the One book I was very touched by was ‘The Choice: connection between the war and its ripple effect, Embrace the Possible’, written by the Hungarian- now and in the future. That information and aware- Jewish authoress Edith Eva Eger. It’s an impressive ness will remain part of the emotional baggage of story. Known as the ‘Ballerina of Auschwitz’ because the young and of future generations. she would be sent for to dance for Dr Jozef Mengele at Auschwitz, as a sixteen-year-old girl Edith miracu- Someone who understands that setbacks are a part lously and admirably survived both Auschwitz and of life, and that how we deal with those setbacks is Mauthausen. After she and her younger sister were key, is my fellow Sociale Verzekeringsbank columnist, liberated, Edith spent many years feeling trapped Ruud van Es. Despite having been struck down by in a secret world of her wartime experiences, in her a serious illness that eventually forced him to with- feelings of guilt for having survived while others draw from his position, Ruud has managed to remain hadn’t, and by the conviction that she shouldn’t bur- positive. This is something I have tremendous respect den her children and other people with her ‘trauma’. for. You can read more about this elsewhere in She carried this heavy burden until she became this magazine. inspired by the story of another Auschwitz survivor, the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, whose philosophy led her to confront these issues head-on: ‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any Dineke Mulock Houwer given set of circumstances (...) however frustrating, Chair of the Pension and Benefit Board Aanspraak - March 2020 - 4 Announcement by the Board of Directors of the SVB Ruud van Es bids farewell to V&O Introducing Coen van de Louw From 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019, Coen van de Louw (1963) became a member of Ruud van Es was responsible for the administra- the Board of Directors of the Sociale Verzekerings- tion of the Department for Former Members of bank (SVB) in 2015, and has been officially reap- the Resistance and Victims of War (V&O) as part pointed as from 12 April 2020. His portfolio as from of his SVB portfolio. In his SVB career as Director 1 January 2020 includes the care and responsibility of one of the regional offices, Director of Client for members of the resistance and war victims. Service Operations, and finally as a Member of the Board of Directors, Ruud van Es was closely Coen van de Louw looks ahead to his new role connected to the provision of services for members ‘I am delighted to be able to work for the SVB for of the resistance and victims of war. Unfortunately, another five years, and this special portfolio will also ill health has now forced him to lay down his tasks give me the opportunity of occasionally Speaking and pass responsibility for the V&O department for your benefit. to his successor and fellow board member, Coen van de Louw. ‘It is clear to me that everyone in the V&O department is very dedicated to supporting their Ruud van Es looks back on his time with V&O clients as far as they can within the limits of the law. ‘In the many years that I have been involved in As a director, I am confident that they will continue the application and administration of the war to do their job well and improve it where possible. victims’ schemes, I have always shared the sense of passion and pride in the way the Department ‘I will also be representing the SVB at commemo- for Former Members of the Resistance and Victims ration ceremonies such as the recent National of War carries out its work. It is evident from our Holocaust Commemoration, where I witnessed the customer satisfaction surveys that this has also been apologies offered by Prime Minister Mark Rutte on recognised and appreciated by our clients. behalf of the government for the past actions of the Dutch state. ‘For me personally, it was an honour and pleasure to be able to meet representatives of the different ‘During the war, my grandfather was arrested by target groups in person, and to hear how our the Germans in Brabant, but he never spoke about services were received and where improvements, it. In the same way, my wife’s family refuse to talk however small, could still be made. We have also about their experience of the Japanese camps. had a good working relationship with the Pension I respect their position, of course, but I also have and Benefit Board, and with the Dutch Ministry of a lot of admiration for those who have found the Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) that carries ultimate courage to bear witness to their experiences in responsibility for the V&O schemes. In the past few this magazine. I believe it is essential that we can months, I have been able to properly prepare my continue to share their stories in this way in successor for this special task and I now feel that the future.’ I can say goodbye with confidence.’ Aanspraak - March 2020 - 5 As a survivor I feel like a fortunate person Eva Weyl gives talks at schools about her first-hand experiences of camp Westerbork. Recently, on 26 January 2020, Eva Weyl gave a awarded the Iron Cross for their bravery as German speech at the Auschwitz Commemoration in the soldiers in the First World War. As honorary citizens, Wertheimpark in Amsterdam. “My name is not one they thought nothing could happen to them. My of the 102,000 on the list read out in Westerbork father’s sister was anything but convinced and of Jewish, Sinti and Roma people murdered in the emigrated to America in 1938. I first became aware German camps. I lived to tell the tale.” She contin- of the imminent danger after Kristallnacht in 1938, ues to tell her story at schools to warn pupils of when both of my grandfathers moved in with us and the dangers of intolerance and discrimination. there were discussions about the “krauts”. I loved my grandfather Wolff. His wife had died from an As a six-year-old German-Jewish girl, Eva illness in 1928. My grandmother Sophie Weyl had Weyl arrived at the transit camp Westerbork in passed away in hospital in Germany because, as a January 1942 together with her parents. She and Jewish woman, she didn’t receive timely treatment.’ her parents survived the war. As a guest speaker at Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre, she gives Call-up for Arbeitseinsatz in Westerbork talks at Dutch and German schools every year. ‘In January 1942, we were called up by the Jewish This is Eva’s story. Council to report for forced labour in Camp Westerbork. A year later, my grandfathers were German-Jewish family also called up. My father received an offer of hiding ‘In 1934, my parents, Hans Adalbert Weyl (1907) places from the resistance, but that would have and Margot Weyl-Wolff (1907), left Germany, where meant our family being split up, and my parents they had lived in Cleves, because Hitler had come wanted to remain together.