April 30th, 2015

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April 30 2nd edition. Small World.

Thursday, April 30th, 2015

On Saturday’s posting I show the US Consul, John Wilcock, laying a wreath at the Dachau monument. I brought to his attention the American role in the liberation of the Dachau women prisoners, which my mother was a part of. He invited me to the consulate today to tell him more about the details. Much of which is incorporated in the book I wrote “The Mastmakers’ Daughters”.

But what was so unusual about this visit was, when I mentioned to his assistant Christa, that I grew up in the Rivierenbuurt, it turned out that her mother was two classes higher in my elementary school and that my sister remembers her mother, Hannie van Ingen-Schenau,  well, they were in the same high school class. Christa is born in Southern California after her parents immigrated from Holland.

With USA Consul, John Wilcock, in Amsterdam consulate

With USA Consul, John Wilcock, in Amsterdam consulate

 

April 30 2015. 40 years since Fall of Saigon, 70 years since US 7th Army liberated Wolfratshausen

Thursday, April 30th, 2015

On April 30 the Russians liberated the infamous women concentration camp Ravensbrück. The next day, May 1st 1945, the German commander of the AGFA Commando, a Dachau satellite camp, turned the 600 prisoners over to the US army commander in Wolfratshausen, where the women were intercepted on their Death March. There are many events scheduled here in Europe to remember these important dates.

Our mother was part of the 200 Dutch women in the AGFA commando who had been sent to Dachau in October 1944 from Ravensbrück. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGFA_Commando  

Yesterday I had a chance to visit the “Groote Beer” botter yacht in Spakenburg and meet the new manager of the Nieuwboer botter yard, Marco Venendaal. She is scheduled to be relaunched in May after a thorough repair from the damage suffered when she fell out of the crane in Elburg in 2011.

Keel repairs "Groote Beer"

Keel repairs “Groote Beer”