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My wife and I were born in Oosterhout, a small town in the south of the Netherlands. We still live there with our two daughters Steffie and Marjolein. Marijke was born 12 April 1959 and I am from 18 June 1958. We got married on 17 October 1980. We had been dating since we were 15. I guess you could say it was love at first sight and we have been with each other ever since. For those with a major in math you can calculate that this year on 17 October, we will be married 25 years! Something I have to congratulate Marijke for, since it can't always have been easy for her to live with me.
I went to a Roman Catholic boy's school in Oosterhout. It was a strict school where all too often pupils received corporal punishment if they had done something the teacher didn't approve of.
It was at this school my name was changed to John. My father and mother named me Sion at birth, but for some reason I was obliged to use the name John. It didn't bother me at that particular time in my life. As time moved on I found out that there's more into a name. However I also realized that it is almost impossible to go back to my real name. So to add to the confusion I decided to use both my names. After that I got a decent education and ultimately started a career in retail. I was fortunate enough to get my promotions on time and presently I'm area manager for the largest shoe retailer in the Netherlands. I'm responsible for some 20 shops in the provinces of Noord-Brabant and Zeeland. Marijke is a full time Mom. Earlier she worked in a planning office for a company that manufactured bricks and draining pipes.
As far as I can remember I have been interested in the Second World War and more in particular in the Holocaust. Ever since a teacher told me about the 'Diaspora' I have studied 'the Holocaust'. I'm not interested in guns, battles en great generals, but the stories of those who suffered are of interest to me. I'm looking for answers to questions as:
- How can people do these things to another?
- Could it happen again?
- How would I act under similar circumstances?
- Are we also capable of committing these atrocities?
I have my own websites dealing with "The Second World War" and the "The Holocaust" and as a result I met Hans Vanderwerff. I can't exactly remember what brought us together, but it must have been my lucky day. Our first contact was almost 4 years ago through e-mail. I visited his website frequently and was very impressed with his knowledge of the Holocaust and with the way he shared that knowledge with us. It is not often that one comes across a website that is built with such great love and respect! However his website is one of those. Three years ago when he and his lovely wife Vonnie were in the Netherlands he called and asked me to meet him. So I went to meet Hans en Vonnie and immediately felt the good vibes between us. Usually I'm rather shy and I wouldn't quickly agree to meet someone I know so little about. But from the start this felt right. We talked the whole morning and during that conversation he asked me if I was interested in maintaining his website since he felt the burden of age and was afraid that all his efforts would have been in vain should something happen to him.
I was of course extremely honoured but also somewhat concerned. Would I be able to contribute to his website? Was I the right man to take on a task of that magnitude? Well, Hans thought so and luckily for me he is still adding to his website with a velocity you wouldn't believe. This allows me the time to research where I fall short in my knowledge and fix it. Since he asked me I have been reading and writing like a maniac.
Right now I'm translating some of the websites into Dutch to get to know the structure of the website and to read all that's on it. This will enable to determine what stories could be added in the future. Hans is very busy researching the liberation of Camp Westerbork and adding to the website almost on a daily base.
While typing this website I have come to realize how lucky Marijke and I are. We have met Vonnie and Hans several times since. |
