In the same Dresden hall where a coroner’s inquest was held after a 1957 construction disaster, relatives gathered to pay tribute to those they lost.
In the same Dresden hall where a coroner’s inquest was held after a 1957 construction disaster, relatives gathered to pay tribute to those they lost.
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Remembering Them, a public memorial event for six Dutch immigrant workers killed in the tragedy, took place Wednesday evening at the Old Czech Hall.
Dresden 1957 film director Eric Philpott, and special guests, marked the sad anniversary, which included a moment of silence at 7 pm, the time when the cave-in occurred.
“Nothing motivates me more than wanting to save a story that was very nearly gone,” Philpott said during an overview of his documentary.
Philpott’s late father, Keith Philpott, was site engineer in Dresden where a deep pit was excavated beside the Sydenham River to build a pumping station to feed the town’s new water treatment plant.
Keith Philpott was worried about the stability of the soil, and shared his concerns with the contractor, but nothing was done.
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That remained a family story until 2020, when Keith’s diaries, photos, drawings, and other documents related to the project were discovered. They reveal what happened in the lead-up to the disaster.
The families of the men who died had recently arrived from the Netherlands, part of a wave of post-Second World War migration.
One of the victims, Wilfred Hovius, 19, died along with his father, Enne, 39. The oldest, Henrik Drenth, was 58. Jan Bremer was 43 and Jan Oldewening was 45. Their foreman, Dirk Ryksen, was 36.
Close to 70 people, including victims’ relatives, attended Wednesday’s memorial.
Sara Taylor, of Bracebridge, is Enne Hovius’ granddaughter.
“It’s a story that’s one generation removed from me,” she said after the presentation, but she appreciates the effort to shed light on what happened.
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Workplace safety is “still really an issue,” even in this day and age, she added.
Henry Weesejes, of Aylmer, and a cousin of Ryksen’s son, made the trip with other family members as a show of support.
“We knew of it, (but) we didn’t know all the details,” he said. “I think (Eric) is doing a great job.”
Wednesday’s event also featured Chatham-Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville, and Andy Cornell, pastor at the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Dresden.
There were virtual appearances from historian Anne van Arragon, whose book, Uprooted, captures children’s experience of postwar Dutch immigration to Canada, and Michael Chappell, a retired Toronto Metropolitan University professor and former occupational health and safety co-ordinator with Ontario’s Labor Ministry.
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Van Arragon said many Dutch people came to Canada, as there was an “enormous amount of goodwill” for the country’s role in liberating Holland during the Second World War.
But on arriving they encountered a language barrier, unrealistic expectations and found mostly manual labor jobs.
“Immigrants just didn’t have any recourse if there was a problem,” she said of their workplace experiences.
A successful crowdfunding campaign held recently will allow the filmmaking team to complete production by September.
About 130 people from Southwestern Ontario, elsewhere in Canada, the United States, Netherlands and Germany, contributed to the film.
For more information on the project, visit dresden1957.com.
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