It would be good if the Municipality of Eindhoven apologised to children of former NSB families in the city. That is what some children of ‘wrong’ parents think, who grew up in the city during and after the Second World War. “We became a toy of the situation”.
Kicked, beaten and insulted. Or no chance at a job interview. Children of parents who were members of the collaborating Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (national socialist movement, NSB) during the war did not have an easy time after the war. Many feel damaged by what happened to them.
One of them is Tanja Wolterbeek from Eindhoven. She and her brothers and sister struggled with the consequences of their parents’ choices for many decades. But they had no influence on that themselves. After the war, her father, like other collaborators, had to serve a prison sentence. Her mother had no place to go, so daughter Tanja was taken in by a foster family, just like her brothers and sister. “You feel that you are being judged for something you have no control over”.
War history
“At school I was kicked, beaten and insulted. When I came home, the reaction was ‘save your tears for later, you will need them more then’. When I left school and started applying for jobs, I was also judged on my father’s war past. Then I thought, I will always carry this with me”, Wolterbeek says.
Wolterbeek sees that more children from Eindhoven NSB families have been damaged. She, her brother and a few other fellow sufferers therefore believe that an apology from the municipality is appropriate. “I have felt guilty for years. I am ashamed of what my parents did, but I am not guilty”.
Investigation
She understands that it is difficult for the municipality to make apologies. That it must be investigated properly, to find out who was given the task of taking care of the NSB children and who is to blame. Nevertheless, she believes that an apology is appropriate.
The investigation should also have been done by now, she says. “If the Mayor of Amsterdam can apologise for something she had no part in, then an apology from the government to NSB children should also be possible. Because of the way we were taken in, we were unable to follow the education we wanted and did not receive the care that a child needs. Action could have been taken. We could have been raised in a different city or given a different last name. Apologies are important. Show other people that we are not guilty”.
Pain
The pain that many children of ‘wrong’ parents feel is also noticeable at ARQ Nationaal Psychotrauma Centrum (national psychotrauma centre). Two weeks ago, the institution published a report on how the war still reverberates in this often forgotten group. For example, 80 years after the war, many Dutch people still find it difficult that children of parents who sided with the German occupier hold a public position, the research shows.
Anne Marthe van der Bles is a researcher at ARQ. She emphasises that the experiences of this group are very diverse. Nevertheless, many children of ‘wrong’ parents have had a hard time and still have a hard time with it. “The parents were interned and rejected by their environment. The children had to go to homes and foster families. They often grew up in poverty and had fewer opportunities in life. There were also often many family problems. These children struggle with conflicts of loyalty and identity problems and ask themselves: ‘Can I love my father if he did this?’ Some still find it difficult to enter into relationships. They are afraid of people’s judgement. They can struggle with it their whole lives. These feelings often surface at important moments in life, such as a divorce or the death of a parent”.
Attention
Van der Bles thinks it is good that more attention is being paid to the traumas of this group. “What we hear from people themselves is that openness has a healing effect”, she says. Wolterbeek deliberately sought publicity to tell her bad experiences. “The fact that I came out has caused a lot of commotion. You always carry it with you”.
Studio040 asked the municipality a series of questions about the issue and the request for an apology. A spokesperson responded by saying the following: “We regret that young children were the victims of their parents’ choices at that time. During and after the war. We sympathise with the people who suffered or still suffer from this”.
Tanja Wolterbeek has now had a conversation with the municipality about the issue.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
