The Curtain

Henry G. Schogt

Description

Henry Schogt met his wife, Corrie, in 1954 in Amsterdam. Each knew the other had grown up in the Netherlands during World War II, but for years they barely spoke of their experiences. This was true for many people — the memories were just too painful. Years later, Henry and Corrie began to piece their memories together, to untangle reality from dreams. Their intent was to help others understand what had happened then, and how it influenced and affected not only their lives but those of all who survived.

The seven stories in The Curtain reveal how two families — one Jewish, one non-Jewish — fared in the Netherlands during the German occupation in World War II. Each vignette highlights a specific aspect of life; all show how life changed for everyone, and forever.

Four stories are based on the author’s memories of his own non-Jewish family: Henry’s friendship with a Jewish teenager; the conflict of personal antipathy with the realization that help must be provided; the Schogt parents’ determination to do the right thing; the difficulties of coping with an aunt with Nazi sympathies. These are stories about the randomness of survival and the elusive nature of memory.

For the Jewish family, three stories drawn from the memories of the author’s wife and family demonstrate the bewildering situation of trying to make impossible life-determining decisions when faced with confusing and deceitful decrees. The family must struggle with the luck — or absence thereof — of finding refuge when forced from their homes, and with the perplexing inconsistencies of the collaboration of Dutch authorities and police with the Nazis.

The Curtain emphasizes the difference between the options that were open to non-Jews and Jews in the Netherlands. Non-Jews could freely choose whether to actively resist the Germans, collaborate with the Nazis, or just to do nothing, and try to live a normal life in spite of wartime restrictions.

Dutch Jews, on the other hand, did not have a choice — whatever they did, whatever decisions they made, they were doomed, and it often seemed, when someone survived, just simple luck. A short introduction about the war years and an appendix with a chronology of decrees, events, and statistics, provide background information for this haunting memoir of those disturbing years during the German Occupation in the Netherlands.

Sujets

• Religión
• Life writing
• Jewish studies
• Religion
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780889206182
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Curtain

Witness and Memory in Wartime Holland

Life Writing Series

In theLife Writing Series,Wilfrid Laurier University Press publishes life writing and new life-writing criticism in order to promote autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters, and testimonials written and/or told by women and men whose political, literary, or philosophical purposes are central to their lives.Life Writingfeatures the accounts of ordinary people, written in English, or translated into English from French or the languages of the First Nations or from any of the languages of immigration to Canada.Life Writ- ingwill also publish original theoretical investigations about life writing, as long as they are not limited to one author or text.

Priority is given to manuscripts that provide access to those voices that have not traditionally had access to the publication process.

Manuscripts of social, cultural, and historical interest that are considered for the series, but are not published, are maintained in theLife Writing Archive of Wilfrid Laurier University Library.

Series Editor Marlene Kadar Humanities Division, York University

Manuscripts to be sent to Brian Henderson, Director Wilfrid Laurier University Press 75 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario, Canadan2l3c5

H E N R Y G. S C H O G T

The Curtain

Witness and Memory in Wartime Holland

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Henry, Schogt G., 1927- The curtain : witness and memory in wartime Holland / Henry G. Schogt.

(Life writing series) ISBN 0-88920-396-2

1. World War, 1939-1945 — Netherlands. 2. World War, 1939-1945 — Personal narratives, Dutch. 3. Schogt, Henry G., 1927- . 4. Schogt family. 5. World War, 1939-1945 — Jews — Netherlands. 6. Frenkel family. 7. Netherlands — History — German occupation, 1940-1945.i. Title.ii. Series.

DJ283.S35A3 2003

940.54'81492

© 2003 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canadan2l3c5 www.wlupress.wlu.ca

Cover and text design by William Rueter.

C2003-901963-2

About the cover The Dutch artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945) lived in Groningen. He was involved with the Resistance, was apprehended in March 1945, and executed 10 April 1945 by the SD, three days before Groningen was liberated. During the German occu- pation, Werkman, out of sympathy with the Jews, made two series of ten prints for Chassidic stories, as retold by Martin Buber (1878-1965). One of these,The Angel of the Last Consolation,was chosen for the cover of this book. I am grateful to the Groningen Museum for the permission to reproduce Werk- man’s work, and to Will Rueter, who designed the cover and the layout and whose invaluable friendship and support are very precious to me.—h.g.s.

  Printed in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

To the memory of my parents

Ida Jacoba van Rijn(1891-1972) and Johannes Herman Schogt(1892-1958)

and my parents-in-law

Betsy Adèle Wiener(1898-1944) and Salomon Philip Frenkel(1889-1944)

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Contents

Prologue

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Remembering Alex,1939-43

The Fortune Teller,1936-43

Mr. Rozenberg’s Cigars,1932-45

In the Dark,1940-55

Mussels,1936-42

Lilies of the Valley and Asparagus,1942-45

The Curtain,1942-44

Appendix

ix

xi

1

11

29

43

67

81

99

113

125

The Netherlands, 1940-45.

Prologue

I n the winter of1954,we went on a skating trip north of Amsterdam with a group of friends, all of whom were, like us, in their mid-twenties. Between the village of Jisp and the town of Purmerend, Corrie and I singled each other out from among the group. We skated the last stretch against the wind in the traditional Dutch way, I with my hands behind my back, Corrie holding on to me. Although we belonged to the same circle of students and had many friends in com- mon, we had only met briefly once or twice, and did not know each other before this trip. Corrie was in her final years of an English degree, similar to a Canadianm.a.I, having completed an equivalent program in French and Russian, had become a travelling salesman in languages. I taught French part-time at the University of Utrecht, Russian at the University of Groningen once a week, and French at the Montessori Lyceum in The Hague. Yet Amsterdam remained the centre of my uni- verse, and when we married in the spring of 1955 we settled there with- out considering other options. It was ten years after the end of World Warii, and the general mood was optimistic in spite of the Cold War. Reconstruction of our devastated country was well underway. Moderate socialism had reduced pre-war inequalities, and concerns about the depletion of raw materials and the extinction of many species of plants and animals had not yet spread. The first years of our marriage were in harmony with the times. We knew that life had not been easy for either of us, but we hardly talked about our experiences during the war years. We looked forward to a future with children. I was even, albeit reluc- tantly, starting work on a doctoral thesis, and there was no time for dwelling on the past.