Toronto
May 5, 2009

Heartfelt war stories.  Dutch Canadian World War II survivors release memoirs

Book launch of ‘Honour our Past, Celebrate the Future.’  Dutch Canadians write about their personal experiences, before, during and after the Second World War in Europe and Asia.

The book launch and press conference will take place on May 6th 2009, 16:30 – 18:30, in the Grand Banking Hall at One King West, Toronto.  The press conference is hosted by Johan Kramer, Consul General of the Netherlands, and editors Titia Kramer and Edith Bautz.  All contributors to the book are also invited.  Copies of the book will be available.

During the launch the first copy of the book will be presented by the Consul General and copies will be handed out to representatives of the Dutch World War II contact organizations in Canada.  The event will be attended by many dignitaries from Canada, Ontario as well as the Netherlands. 

The remembrance book is a book full of Dutch as well as Canadian history.  It tells the story of the many thousands of Dutch and Indonesian Dutch people who came to Canada to finally live their liberation.

The book opens with the memories of young Dutch people seeing their world fall apart with the German invasion in May 1940.  The memoirs received from Dutch Canadians of Jewish background form part of it.

The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies took place in early 1942.  The greater part of the submissions tell the story of children and young adults growing up in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation.
 
For many young Dutchmen the war did not end May 5th 1945.  Between 1946 and the cease-fire in August 1949 a total of about 25,000 volunteers and 95,000 conscripts have fought in Indonesia.  The “veteran stories” in this book reflect the memories of these soldiers, many of whom were resistance fighters during German occupation.

The book is the result of a conference of the same name: ‘Honour our Past, Celebrate the Future,’ which took place in Richmond Hill, Ontario, on May 17th 2008.  This conference was organized by the Consulate General of the Netherlands for people of Dutch and Indonesian Dutch descent affected by the Second World War.  The idea was to once more look back together to those difficult years which had affected the lives of so many present.

The conference was a huge success and brought together more than 600 people.  Different groups of war survivors attended: camp survivors, resistance fighters, veterans, and other war victims, each with their own and sometimes shared experiences.  This allowed a plethora of stories to be told.  Personal stories about coping with those years of war, stories that should be heard by others not present, stories worth writing down. This is why the Consulate General, together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports in the Netherlands, challenged participants and other war survivors in Canada to write down their stories, allowing them to make a remembrance book: a war history of people who started a new life in Canada after the ordeal was over.  More than one hundred people responded to the call.  An abundance of heartfelt stories were received, stories often complete with photo’s, drawings and clippings, stories that should be passed on.

The book reads as a novel and is richly illustrated with many personal photos and other illustrations.  It is a book for family and friends but also for other interested readers, schools and institutions in Canada and the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, and for the Dutch community in Canada, the first week of May is always a week of remembrance and celebration.  May 4th is the National Remembrance Day (equivalent to November 11th in Canada) , while on May 5th the liberation of the Netherlands is celebrated, in which Canadian soldiers played a pivotal role. 

For additional information and to RSVP for the press conference and/or the launch of the book ‘Honour our Past, Celebrate the Future - Personal Histories, War memories of a Dutch Canadian generation,’ please send an email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone Karen Empson: 416-598-2534 ext. 224.