Blog

My name is Alex F. Kan. I am the half-brother of Alex Kan, the boy to whom this online memorial is dedicated. Our father was Jules Kan, who married my mother after WWII. In this blog I express my thoughts and reflections about the weighty history of Alex and my family.

— Alex F. Kan

The arrest of Alex

Saturday June 12, 1943. Iinitially it was unknown to me where Alex lived before his arrest on the Apeldoorn train station platform. A letter from "aunt" states that he is staying with a family whose father is in prison in Utrecht and is being defended during his trial by Mr Schim van der Loef from The Hague. During the corona period I tried to collect information at the archive in Utrecht, but that was not possible due to the lockdown. Then suddenly Roeland Oudejans-Albers gave me a number of documents that he had found in the Central Archives of the Special Administration of Justice (CABR). This information put some pieces of the puzzle into place. I reproduce here the full text from the archive as I received it.

March 5, 2023 - 10 min read
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Remembrance Center Kamp Westerbork 40th anniversary.

From July 8, 2022, the exhibition The Memory of Camp Westerbork can be seen in the Camp Westerbork Memorial Center. The exhibition explores the many meanings given to the historic site over the past 77 years and sheds light on them from different perspectives with the help of guest curators. Until September 2022, the Jewish survivors and relatives, Rozette Kats, Betty Schols-Meents, Alex Freddy Kan and Naomi Eliasar will give their own view on the past and present of camp Westerbork.

August 5, 2022 - 1 min read
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