Gerrit van der Vorst and his wife Heleen bij ‘t Vuur have been digging into it for weeks, if not months: the names and stories of Jews who were not only persecuted and murdered in Zeist, but who also died differently. The couple have been living in Zeist for years and were approached to see if the list of names on the monument was still correct. “That has to do with the fact that we now commemorate more broadly,” says Gerrit behind the wheel, on his way to the stonemason in Assen, Drenthe. “We not only commemorate the people who were taken away and killed, but also, for example, the people who committed suicide, out of despair about the fate that awaited them. And with our research in the archives we found many more of that kind stories.”
Your life’s work, carved in stone: ‘I will never lose the stories behind the names’
