Tag Archives: Connections

The Most Important Critic – One Year Later

I printed off a copy of my manuscript and sent it to my mom. She has spent the better part of yesterday and today reading it, interrupting herself occasionally to call me with a question or email with a comment. A few minutes ago, this is what she sent: You are able to put yourselfContinue reading “The Most Important Critic – One Year Later”

Laying the Stumbling Stones

January 17, 2014 we gathered at the church in Tilburg again. Coffee, tea and cookies were available along with the usual friendly atmosphere that the Dutch seem to delight in. Once everyone had gathered, about 50 people, we all put on our coats and wandered over to Bobby and Tineke’s old house. I noticed thatContinue reading “Laying the Stumbling Stones”

Why Bobby?

On the evening of January 16, 2014 I arrived in Tilburg. This small city in the southern province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands is home to a little over 206,000 people, more than 60% of whom are Roman Catholic. The next largest “religious” group are the atheists who make up about 20% of the population.Continue reading “Why Bobby?”

Connecting to Anne Frank

I was playing around on a genealogy website and I came across an interesting discovery: Anne Frank is my second great uncle’s uncle’s wife’s sister’s husband’s nephew’s wife’s first cousin once removed’s wife’s great-niece. Now, I wasn’t sure I believed this so I took out paper and pen and drew out the family connection. HereContinue reading “Connecting to Anne Frank”

Oberländer Overseas

Yesterday was quite exciting for me. I decided to look into the fate of the 7 Jews (of which my grandfather was one) who were named in the documents that Eichmann‘s office and Speer‘s office were discussing. This is what I came up with: Broder was sent to Westerbork in February 1944 and then Theresienstadt laterContinue reading “Oberländer Overseas”

A picture tells a thousand words (especially when I don’t have time to write)

Just a quick post today. Here are a couple of pictures of our meeting last week. You can see how excited we all were to share the pictures and documents we had from the 1940’s. Top: Arnoud-Jan showing me some documents he found in the Red Cross archives. Bottom: I’m showing the pictures  I pulledContinue reading “A picture tells a thousand words (especially when I don’t have time to write)”

Bobby & Bertram

In the last post I told you I would be having an exciting meeting this week. Yesterday I had a lovely lunch with Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Fred (nephew of Bertram), my mother and my Aunt Nicky (nieces of Bobby) and various other friends and spouses. Fred and his wife, Carol, were gracious hosts. We sat onContinue reading “Bobby & Bertram”

The Reluctant Historian

I need to give everyone who is reading this a little background on my interest in history and my research adventure. As a middle school student at Renbrook School I hated history. I thought it was boring. I remember challenging Mr. Reynolds in 6th grade. “Why do we have to learn about all this stuffContinue reading “The Reluctant Historian”

Speer vs Eichmann

I have been collecting information like crazy since I was in D.C. What started out as a nugget has been a strike on the mother lode. My new source is Myriam. She has been sending me e-mails every couple of days with bits and pieces that are amazing. Each one is more interesting than theContinue reading “Speer vs Eichmann”