Family history, ‘discovered’ manuscript: read these five books in the run-up to May 4 and 5

Karl Alfred Loeser – Requiem

The manuscript of the book Requiem by the Berlin-born Jewish Karl Alfred Loeser (1909-1962) was stored away in a drawer somewhere for decades. This prophetic novel, probably written in the early 1930s, describes the growing anti-Semitism. The work has never been published before.

When Loeser’s great-grandson saw it, he contacted the German publisher Peter Graf who had previously published ‘forgotten’ novels (Blood brothers by Ernst Haffner and The traveller by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz). The publisher also decided to publish this book.

Requiem tells the chilling story of the Jewish cellist Erich Krakau, member of a symphony orchestra, who has to deal with ‘intrigues’ and growing anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1930s. An amateur musician and member of the SA is driven by hatred and plans to take his place in the orchestra. Krakow eventually ended up in prison, where more Jews ended up.

Loeser based the book on his own experiences in the Second World War and those of his brother Norbert (1906-1958) – pianist, composer and music critic who had fled from Berlin to Amsterdam and had to go into hiding. Karl also moved to Amsterdam in 1934, where he met his wife and decided to flee to Brazil with her.

Maria van Lieshout – The song of the blackbird

More ‘comic books’ about the Second World War have been published, including about the Secret Annex and Anne Frank’s diary. The song of the blackbird combines various war stories, including the rescue of Jewish children from the daycare opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the artists’ resistance of Gerrit Jan van der Veen and the ruse of the brothers Walraven and Gijs van Hall, the ‘bankers of resistance’ who created a fund with which resistance organizations, people in hiding and other groups were supported.

Van Lieshout’s book, which is based on a true story from her family history, is about eighteen-year-old Emma who joins the resistance. A blackbird flies with the main character and provides commentary.

The comic drawings are alternated with historical photos of, among others, the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the Hervormde Kweekschool, the SD building and people from the resistance.

Illustrator Van Lieshout interweaves two stories: the events of 1943-1945 in Amsterdam and a story about an older woman who was saved by the resistance during the war and discovers her Jewish past.

Rob Oudkerk – Virrie’s Children

The story of Oudkerk’s grandfather David Cohen, one of the chairmen of the Jewish Council who implemented the anti-Jewish measures of the occupying forces, has been extensively told in the TV series in recent weeks. The Jewish Council of the EO. Cohen was vilified by many in the Jewish community for his role after the war.

The story of Oudkerk’s mother – nurse Virrie Cohen who saved hundreds of Jewish children from the daycare opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg – is less known. Oudkerk has published her diary with memories of the war years.

In it, Virrie remembers that she ‘walked down the street with a baby in a large cake box, or in a potato sack, between the Krauts, and just whispered: ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry.’

But, she said, ‘I still see children for whom there was no room, walking in a line to the other side – they didn’t know what being ‘transported’ was, and I dream about that too.’

The book also contains interviews that Oudkerk conducted with five of ‘her’ Jewish children. They talk about what happened after they were rescued, but especially about the turn their lives took afterwards.

Ewoud Sanders – From apple iodine to acid iodine

Jewish street vendors came in all shapes and sizes and had to struggle to survive: sour Jews, rag Jews, book Jews, orange Jews. The fact that so many Jews led this life was because in the past they were not allowed to become members of guilds and many professions were therefore excluded.

In the beautifully illustrated book From apple iodine to acid iodine by historian Ewoud Sanders there are forty portraits of these often very poor Jewish street vendors, who recommended their goods at the Beurs and the Munt, in the Nes or on the Dam: “Beautiful potte with full pink,” shouted the flower vendor and “Khammen and glasses for sale/I have them in abundance!” rhymed the spectacled Jew.

They have been ‘brought to life in words and images’. Their ‘street cry’ was sometimes recorded with musical notation.

The peddlers often had a nickname – ‘Flower Moses’ and ‘Jood Van Raak’ – but the real name of only a few has been found. Orange Jews also sometimes chose to change their surname, such as Raphael Gosschalk Sinaasappel.

Onno Blom – War Pigeon

Onno Blom spent years researching his family’s hidden war history. A job that his father, emeritus professor Hans Blom, former director of Niod, preferred to avoid.

Hans Blom’s father, Jan Blom, was a member of the armed resistance group De Duif in Friesland, but he was the only one in the family who chose that side. His parents and seven brothers and sisters were in the NSB – the girls in the Jeugdstorm, the boys in the WA.

The Blom family kept silent about the ‘wrong’ past. Onno Blom decided to investigate the family history and involved his father. They dug into their criminal files.

In addition to the book, a four-part TV documentary was made: Under the spell of right and wrong, which aired this week. Two great aunts visit Westerbork camp with them. Did they know what horrors occurred during the war and did they not feel guilty afterwards? The answer to both questions was: no.

“We have never felt guilty, not to this day,” one of them said. And that they were punished after the Second World War was not right either, was the resolute answer.