JFC BRUNSSUM, Netherlands – Distinguished visitors, community members, and fifth graders from AFNorth International School gathered for the Holocaust Days of Remembrance survivor talk of Jack Aldewereld Apr. 24 at the Joint Force Command (JFC) Brunssum International Chapel.
Dwayne Key, U.S. Army Garrison Benelux-Brunssum Deputy Garrison Manager gave the opening remarks.
“We remember the acts of heroism,” he said, “of the moral courage and selflessness of countless others who aided the escape and survival of their neighbors and friends at great risk to themselves.”
Chaplain Matthew Holder, JFC Brunssum International Chapel offered a prayer to open the event.
“May we never forget these darks days in history,” he said, recalling the terrors so many people suffered during World War II.
Jack Aldewereld began his story with the year of his birth in 1943 when the German occupiers were gathering the Jews from all over the Netherlands into the Hollandsche Schouwburg theater in Amsterdam. The Nazis used this theater as a detention camp for tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children before transitioning them to Westerbork then ultimately to various concentration camps.
Aldewereld was a baby during this time of terror and only through research and interviews was he able to piece together the first several years of his life during World War II. He discovered the location of his father’s hometown, Uithoorn, and started there.
Aldewereld’s goal was to uncover everything he could about his origins and the war.
“Are there people in Uithoorn that can tell me about my [family]?” he asked. He ended up finding many answers there.
Today after more than 40 years of research, Aldewereld has been able to piece together bits of his story. He shared with the attendees about the fateful day in 1943 when the German police entered his home in Amsterdam to round up their Jewish family and found only his mother, lying in bed because she had just given birth to him.
Just moments before, a neighbor had caught wind of the round-up and came into their home to take baby Aldewereld into hiding. His older sister, who was seven years old at the time, had left for the hospital to treat a burn just before the Nazis arrived. When his sister returned from the hospital, everyone in their home was gone. Aldewereld has never been able to connect where his brothers and father were during this home invasion.
Eventually, baby Aldewereld was discovered by a 17-year-old girl working secretly with the Resistance. She worked in the childcare facility associated with the Hollandsche Schouwburg theater where all the Jews were being gathered. Her home of origin was in Brunssum and she smuggled baby Aldewereld to a church priest there who gave him to a childless couple.
“This [17-year-old] from the underground organization saved our lives,” said Aldewereld, explaining how the teen dedicated herself to smuggling children out of the theater.
He expressed his gratitude to the people of Brunssum for participating in the Resistance and saving lives.
Aldewereld discovered the fate of his father, brothers, and mother when he uncovered documentation of their deaths in concentration camps. In his adulthood, he was reunited with his sister after they had moved on and had families of their own.
“I asked my sister to tell me more, but she had no words,” he said. His sister would never speak about the war, even to her own children and has now passed away. Aldewereld took it upon himself to explain his discoveries to her children, the history of which they had no clue.
Through the years, Aldewereld has collected sentimental wartime items in remembrance of his family. He discovered a hand-written soccer registration form of his brother, and the neighbors returned a set of silverware that his mother had given them when they fled into hiding with him.
“That is gold for me,” he said, as he held the up the registration form and the silverware.
Aldewereld concluded his talk expressing gratitude for the war efforts of the U.S. Soldiers during World War II.
“Thousands of men and women left their relatives to deliver us from the Nazi’s here in Europe,” he said. “Every year we commemorate these heroes. They gave their lives for our freedom. God bless America.”
Upon conclusion of Aldewereld’s talk, the floor opened for questions and many fifth graders lined up to take their turn.
Aldewereld’s wife, Ina, approached the mic at the end. She offered thanks to everyone attending and spoke directly to fifth grade classes, the future generation, charging them to be kind to every person whether friend or foe.
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