The light in the darkness

My mother seldom talked about the Second World War. I’m not sure why not. Maybe because I just didn’t ask. But there were some things she told me that hinted at the real reason. She was born in Rotterdam which fell quickly to the invading Germans. Neeltje Verburg, her brother Jacobus and her parents Marinus and Anna, lost two homes early on at the hands of the Luftwaffe. From the third, this girl, who was 16 when the war started saw things that no one would want to see.

From the window of her apartment, she watched the advancing Germans gun down overpowered but heroic Dutch marines. Then, in occupied Rotterdam, she saw people marched away from their homes. They were the Jews.

First, they were rounded up and taken by train to what were known as detention centres. The Verburgs knew little about these centres, nor the eventual fate of the Jews, some of whom were family friends. In truth, they were not detention centres: they were transit centres where Jews were kept until it was their turn to be put on the trains to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Theresienstadt, and Bergen-Belsen

Marinus was often approached by German soldiers and quizzed about his background. The soldiers told him “you look Jewish.” They would check his credentials. “Verburg,” they would say, accusingly. “That is a Jewish name.” He knew it sounded like one. He tried hard to not show his inner fears, not to the occupier, not to his family. But he was scared. He tried not to show it, but who wouldn’t be?

On this, International Holocaust Day, we remember the six million of people murdered in the Holocaust.

This year the theme is ‘be the light in the darkness’.

In recent years, we have seen too much darkness. Genocide still exists in conflicts around the world. In the last year we have been through the darkness of COVID-19. At times of conflict and in deep tragedy, we must seek the light as we seek a better day.  And there have been signs, however brief and fleeting, that a better, lighter day is coming.

We achieve little apart but we achieve so much together. This was how we defeated fascism in the 1940s and how we will ensure the holocaust is never repeated.

The Verburgs of Rotterdam made it through the war, desperate and hungry, largely on a diet of raw sparrows caught on the verandah of their apartment, but it could have been different, it could have been even worse.

On this solemn day, I offer the words of Labour leader Keir Starmer, whose wife’s family are Polish Jews:

‘It takes more than words for good to triumph over evil, knowledge over ignorance and love over hate: it takes action. This year should give us hope. Let’s all recommit to being a force for good in the world, to work to prevent future atrocities and be the light in the darkness.’