DVIDS – News – Holocaust survivor shares personal story

JFC BRUNSSUM, The Netherlands – Distinguished visitors, community members and fifth graders from AFNorth International School gathered for Jack Aldevereld’s Holocaust Survivor Talk on April 24 at the Joint Forces Command (JFC) International Chapel in Brunssum.

Duane Key, deputy commandant of US Army Garrison Benelux-Brunsum gave the opening remarks.

“We remember the acts of heroism,” he said, “of the moral courage and self-sacrifice 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.

“Let us never forget these dark days in history,” he said, recalling the horrors experienced by so many during World War II.

Jack Aldevereld begins his story with the year of his birth in 1943, when the German occupiers gathered Jews from all over the Netherlands in 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 moving them to Westerbork and eventually to various concentration camps.

Aldewereld was an infant during this time of terror, and it was only through research and interviews that he was able to piece together the first few years of his life during World War II. He found the location of his father’s hometown, Uithoorn, and started there.

Aldewereld’s goal was to reveal all he could about his origins and the war.

“Are there people in Uithoorn who can tell me about mine [family]?” he asked. After all, he found many answers there.

Today, after more than 40 years of research, Aldewereld has managed to gather pieces of its history. He told the audience about the fateful day in 1943 when 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 learned of the attack and entered their home to take baby Aldevereld to hide. His older sister, who was seven years old at the time, had gone to 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 was never able to contact where his brothers and father were during this home invasion.

Eventually, baby Aldevereld was discovered by a 17-year-old girl working undercover with the Resistance. She worked in the children’s institution connected to the Hollandsche Schouwburg theater, where all the Jews were gathered. Her birth home was in Brunsum, and she smuggled the baby Aldevereld to a church priest there, who gave him to a childless couple.

“This [17-year-old] from the underground organization saved our lives,” Aldevereld said, explaining how the teenager dedicated herself to smuggling children from the theater.

He expressed his gratitude to the people of Brunsum for their participation in the Resistance and saving lives.

Aldevereld discovers the fate of his father, brothers and mother when he finds documents about their deaths in concentration camps. In adulthood, he was reunited with his sister after they moved away 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 talk about the war, not even to her own children, and is now dead. Aldevereld took it upon herself to explain her discoveries to her children, of whose history they had no idea.

Over the years, Aldewereld has collected sentimental wartime items in memory of his family. He found his brother’s handwritten football registration form, and neighbors returned a set of silverware his mother had given them when they fled to hide with him.

“This is gold to me,” he said as he held up the registration form and silverware.

Aldevereld concluded his speech by expressing gratitude for the war efforts of American soldiers during World War II.

“Thousands of men and women left their relatives to save us from the Nazis here in Europe,” he said. “Every year we honor these heroes. They gave their lives for our freedom. God bless America.”

After Aldewereld’s speech was finished, the floor was opened for questions and many fifth graders lined up to take their turn.

Aldewereld’s wife, Ina, approached the microphone at the end. She thanked everyone present and addressed the fifth grade classes directly, the future generation, ordering them to be kind to every person, friend or foe.