Annex 3: Books written by the Refugees’ Families

We first heard from Trijntje in 1995 that someone was writing a book of their own about the years in Citroenstraat. In 1996, Kieks received what she thought was a draft copy which had been given to Trijntje. The author, the refugee Chris Lewin, died that year, as did another of the refugees, Lien Hekscher.

The book describes Chris’s life during the war, including the years of his hiding with the Okmas, but the period in hiding and relations with others in the house is only a small section of a larger story. His daughter, Lisette, told me the book had not been intended for publication but only distributed to a few family and friends. Nineteen years later, it does now appear to be available on the Internet.

In Kieks’ opinion his book was fairly accurate in most details. She thought, from her quick reading, that it claimed to have been written during the war, but minor points she spotted suggested it may have been written later than this. For example, the original draft identified 1945 as the year of Trijntje’s wedding, whereas in fact the event took place in 1944. Trijntje proofread it and corrected these points, and also insisted on one other change: Chris had consistently expressed strong opinions about one of the extended family, and she wanted this to be changed throughout.

During the war, Chris had been told by Willem not to keep a diary, to avoid incriminating anyone, and Kieks concluded that he had written it clandestinely during the times he had locked himself in the bathroom. Since the errors were specifically in the dates of events, it is possible that he had not written the actual dates on the notebooks he had used.

Chris used false names in his book, and when I came across this, I realised I would either have to ignore his work or link it to my own. Since Chris’s book appeared to have been published, I felt that the two separate commentaries were probably of extra interest because of the different perspectives on the same events, and because it would be relatively simple for anyone to find the true identities; for example, by tracking the details of the tributary recognition as recorded by Yad Vashem.

I have linked the relevant false names used by Chris to the true family names, with a few of Chris’s comments on them in his book.

Oldersma – Okma: Chris describes the family as religious, anti-German and determined to protect them as God would expect them to

Magda – Martha

Els – Ella: ’not the most moderate in the family’

Wieke – Trijntje: ’maternity nurse; competent, calm with a good sense of humour’

Hendrika – Truida

Imke – Kieks: ’flighty and inconsequential’– a description that delighted Kieks because it emphasised how little he knew of her activities in the Resistance

Henk – Willem

Chris’s daughter was Lisette Lewin, a Dutch author who has published several books including a novel, ‘Voor bijna alles bang geweest’ (Having feared almost everything, 1989), about a child growing up during the war and the aftermath. Part is based on her father’s book, where the Okma family resembles the ‘Glastra’ family. The book describes the relationship of the child with Tante Froukje, which was based on her own relationship with Aunty Martha, and covers the post-war years up to the mid-Sixties, and her life as a student in Amsterdam.

She also wrote a second book, ‘Herfstreis naar Dantzig’ (Autumn Journey to Danzig)[47], published in 1997 after her father’s death. It describes the life of her father Kurt (Chris) and the tensions between Chris and the other refugees, from when he first went into hiding until after the war, when the other refugees broke all contact with him.

Ernst van Gelderen wrote a book for his family, recounting his own escape from the Nazis, entitled ‘I missed my train’. He also covers the escape of his sister and the experiences of their parents in the Okma household. A colleague wrote a short summary in English, which has been published in a US publication, The Baltimore Jewish Times, and which he kindly provided to me.

Salomon Heksher also kept a diary, which was thought to contain little apart from details of the meals and festivities in the house. In the days before this was first published, I received an initial transcript in English, showing it contained a number of details of life in the house. This will be examined more carefully in the fullness of time, but they have not influenced this book at the time of going to press.