On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the commemoration of this disaster, a series of interviews with people involved were made between 2018 and 2019. Marco Krijnsen, public historian and journalist portrayed 23 people who were affected by this disaster. The interviews give a good picture of the experiences during and after the disaster of both residents of the neighborhood and various other people involved including a journalist, a police officer, a firefighter, the widow of a firefighter who died, a factory manager, a head of social affairs and an alderman.

Some individuals spoke for 15 minutes and others for an entire hour. One thing is certain: those involved take center stage and get to tell their stories.

raditionally, Twente was an important center for the textile industry. Since 1830, the state invested in Twente. At its peak, about 160 factories were operating. Twente possessed a culture of strike action. As early as the end of the nineteenth century, factory workers began to unite in labor associations. The interviewees stand in these traditions and recount their experience between 1930 and 1960.

The interviews were conducted as part of the doctoral theses (economic and social) history (KUN) of the four interviewers, N. Vos, G. Kuys, J. Vos and E. Theloosen, on the subject of the labor movement and labor relations in the Twente textile industry 1930-1960.

A number of interviews were conducted with more than one person at a time. For example, Duyn, Ter Haar, the Kapitein couple and Pieperiet are together in one interview and the same goes for Messrs. Meijer and Tijdeman.

Almost all persons speak about the situation in the Twente textile industry from an active position in the leftist (trade) movement, especially NVV, NSV, NAS, EVC and OVB, in which, incidentally, a strong aversion to the CPN emerges. The exception is the liberal politician Stikker, who speaks more from the position of employers than from his views on the new (postwar) forms of cooperation between employers and employees. Among other things, he was the initiator of the Labor Foundation in 1945.

The Twente System

The manufacturers, united in the Enschedesche Fabrikanten Vereeniging since 1888, generally reacted as a collective. A strike at one of the member companies was followed by the shutdown of several factories, with the exclusion of all the workers who worked there. This applied to 5,000 men in 1890, 2,000 workers in 1902, and 7,500 in 1909. The strike at Van Heek & Co in 1902 met with much sympathy in and outside Twente. Henriëtte Roland Holst gave flaming speeches throughout the country and collected money with her husband to supplement the strike payouts. In the end, however, the manufacturers won. In 1909, Pieter Jelles Troelstra, the leader of the SDAP, spoke before an audience of 7,000 textile workers. In that case, commitments were made by Menko’s management.

Working in textiles after World War I was not a fat lot. Much had improved since the previous century, but the workers were now well organized and no longer accepted the large profits in the family businesses. They wanted better things for themselves. At a protest march, a worker with a cargo bike full of broomsticks made this clear: “Big steal and small steal, big steal the most.” In 1923, a major strike broke out at Van Heek & Co. The application of “the Twentse Stelsel” put many other textile workers out of work as well.

Seven people were interviewed in the context of the 1931-1932 Twente Textile Strike and the textile industry of the 1930s:

J. van Baaren
J. Fahner
H. van Genugten
J.A. Middelhuis
R. Slok
F. Stuvé
J. Vunderink

For more information about the interviews and the interviewees, see: SFW work issue no. 8 (1995), pp. 2, 20, 21, 33, 39, 42, 50.

The Twente textile strike is included in the Canon of the Netherlands.

See also the collection Arbeidersbeweging Twente (1930-1960)