the international kroon times

THE INTERNATIONAL KROON TIMES
Published in Paris - Responsible editor : Hans Arie Kroon
8 th year - nr.47 - Oct. 26, 2008
13, Avenue du Docteur Gley – 75020 Paris - Tel.00 33 6 11 32 40 85.
Email: [email protected]
Diet Eman, a heroe in the Dutch Resistance in WW II
As told by Erwin Janssen from Eerde, Netherlands
Diet Eman was a 20 year old girl when WWII broke out in The Netherlands. During the start
of the war she met Hein Sietsma, who came to live in their house as a refugee. First she
didn’t like him at all but eventually they fell in love. Hein and Diet joined the resistance and
started to hide hundreds of Jews from the murderous Nazi regime. Also robbing German
officers, breaking in to distribution centers and forgery of ID’s were tasks in which this
resistance cell excelled. Unfortunately the cell was betrayed and the members were picked up
one by one.
Diet Eman inVught in 2004 – picture © Erwin Janssen
Diet could escape in first but later was captured and imprisoned in the infamous prison of
Scheveningen also referred to as the "Orange Hotel” because of the high number of Dutch
THE INTERNATIONAL KROON TIMES – Nr.47 – October 26, 2008
resistance fighters who were held there. Here she also met Hannie Schaft (The girl with the
red hair) who, after the war, would become the symbol of the Dutch female resistance. The
work which Diet and Hannie preformed was of similar importance. Diet was brought to the
concentration camp of Vught . This was the only SS concentration camp in Western Europe.
Although she spoke different languages perfectly, she acted like a dumb illiterate girl.
The Germans did not know what to do with her and that eventually saved her life. She was
set to work in the washing room and she washed the clothes of people who had perished or
were transported to other camps. Suddenly clothes started coming in with blood and bullet
holes in them. This was a sign the Germans were executing prisoners. Life in the camp was
grim and people tried to stick together to survive. Her fiancé Hein was transported to
Germany and wouldn’t survive the war. He somehow had a premonition of his fate and wrote
on a tiny paper a letter of goodbye to Diet. He threw the little paper out of the train and it
ended on the track.
A farmer found this letter by shear luck and it found its way to Diet. With this letter she knew
he was heading for Germany and later found out he perished in captivity. Diet left The
Netherlands to start a new live and finally ended up in Grand Rapids Michigan, where she
still lives today. Her tremendous faith in God helped her through all those years and it is
amazing how she holds on to her Christian believe that everything which has happened was
for a reason.
A remarkable lady which earns the highest grade of respect. She never wanted to write down
her story until she found out that a considerable percentage of the US youth never believed
there was something like a Holocaust. Her story was written down in the book “Things We
Couldn’t Say”.
In 2004 Story Telling Pictures traveled to the Netherlands to record a documentary about the
Dutch resistance, “The Reckoning”. Diet was traveling together with Bill Sefton (1Lt. S2
2HQ/501PIR/101ABD) who also played a role in this documentary. We were asked to guide
the group around and arranged access to several places to record the documentary. In this
time we had to pleasure to be close to Diet and she was delighted she could speak Dutch
again, after all those years. We got to know Diet as a friendly, modest and very sweet lady.
She was the central figure in the group and acted like the glue which kept all parts together.
The most emotional moments were the visit to the former concentration camp Vught.
THE INTERNATIONAL KROON TIMES – Nr.46 – May 26, 2008
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Vught – the guardtower – picture © Erwin Janssen
Here thoughts went back to the forties and in her mind she started to relive the events. John
Evans, the director, has a feeling for drama. He really created scenes where Diet could tell
her stories and the atmosphere was sometimes very awkward and full of great emotions.
Nevertheless she never said an angry word about the Germans. This changed when we
recorded a scene in front of the children’s monument in the camp.
This monument was erected to remember the children who were put on the trains during the
notorious “children transports” in June 1943
Vught – the children’s monument – picture © Erwin Janssen
THE INTERNATIONAL KROON TIMES – Nr.46 – May 26, 2008
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.
An order on Saturday the 5 th of June 1943 from the camp commander said that all Jewish
children were to be “evacuated” from the camp. On the 6 th of June all children in the age
from 0 to 3 years left with their mothers. The next day the children in the age of 4 until 16
left with their father or mother. The Germans said the children were transported to a special
children’s camp , but the trains headed for the camp of Westerbork where they were sent to
Sobibor in Poland. 1269 children were sent on these transports. On arrival they were all
killed.
When Diet was standing in front of this monument and the camera panned from the left to
right behind it, she suddenly put both hands in front of her mouth. There were no tears … the
water was pouring out of her eyes in little streams. In a soft voice she said in Dutch: “Now I
remember why I hated them so much!”. Not one single person who was there kept his eyes
dry. Everyone was crying because we all could feel what Diet was going through. This scene
never made it into the documentary because it was too emotional. I wished every one who
has a denial attitude against the Holocaust was there at that moment … you would have
KNOWN it all happened!
We also visited the spot in the forest where captives were executed by the Nazi’s. The place
was so peaceful and a lot of flowers, which were placed there on the Dutch memorial day on
the 4th of May, even made the place look pretty. Diet realized what happened here and that
she had to wash the clothes of the people who lost their lives here. She said a prayer for all
these people, then she turned around and walked over the long strait path which leads to this
place without ever looking back.
Vught – the execution site – picture © Erwin Janssen
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Vught – detail of the wall with names – picture © Erwin Janssen
Although I am too young to have witnessed the Second World War, I have never been so
close to feel the real thing as that day.
Story written and pictures made by Erwin Janssen from Eerde, the Netherlands.
Both the book and the DVD are highly recommended.
Distributor of the DVD “The Reckoning”: Vision Video, P.O.Box 540, Worcestor, 19490
Pennsylvania, U.S.A. - (price: $19.95).
Publisher of the book “Things We Couldn’t say”: Lighthouse Trails Publishing - Silverton,
Oregon, U.S.A. - ISBN 978-0-9791315-7-8. (price: $ 14.95).
http://www.lighthousetrails.com
Order online or call: 00 1866/876-3910
© Hans Arie Kroon 2008
THE INTERNATIONAL KROON TIMES – Nr.46 – May 26, 2008
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