Eric de Lange (1947-2003), sociologist, researched Socialist Youth of the Netherlands founded in 1960.

From the contact between the Zaanse PSP youth and members of the radical Politeia branch in Rotterdam; movement for young people that had to fill a gap after the disappearance of traditional socialist youth movements. SJ had revolutionary socialist foundations and sought a better society through actions and study circles. In this new movement, Politeians dominated. SJ became a small but very active and disciplined organisation. It tried to uphold the traditional ideals and symbols of the socialist labour movement. Examples included Pentecostal camps, the address title of ‘comrade’ and the wearing of blue shirts.

Oral history interviews with feminists who pioneered women’s mental and physical health care.

For brief descriptions of the interviewees, see the website van Artria

On 31 March 1943, American bombers took off from a base in Great Britain for a mission against the German occupying forces in the Netherlands. The targets were the Rotterdam harbour installations. Due to a combination of unfavourable circumstances, including bad weather that made navigation difficult, 70 heavy bombs fell on the Rotterdam housing estate Bospolder-Tussendijken. Some 326 people were killed and the devastation was enormous. Fires could not be extinguished immediately due to a shortage of water and spread quickly due to the strong winds. Hundreds of wounded and thousands of homeless people had to be cared for in the already difficult war conditions.

As part of this oral-history project, eyewitnesses were interviewed about this allied mistake bombing. The eyewitnesses talk about the consequences of the bombardment for their personal lives and about its significance for the social cohesion of the affected neighbourhood. The question is also raised what this Allied bombardment meant for the anti-German sentiment of those involved.

In 2014, young Cape Verdean Rotterdammers conducted interviews with Cape Verdeans who had arrived in the city between 1955 and 1975 and had built an existence there.

In 2021, Maxime Schut, a student of International Studies at Leiden University, studied six interviews from 2014. She also interviewed seven Cape Verdean interviewers on why it was important for them to participate in the project. Thus, a collection of interviews was formed on image and sound, transcribed and sometimes translated.

With the podcast, attention is drawn to this collection and to the history of Cape Verdeans in Rotterdam, but also to the importance of preserving these kinds of stories for future generations.

_{010nu – First generation Cape Verdeans tell story to Rotterdam Vertelt}

On the evening of 9 November 1944, 8,000 German soldiers were deployed in Aktion Rosenstock. A cordon was quietly erected around Rotterdam and Schiedam. On the following two days, a total of more than 52,000 Rotterdammers and Schiedammers between the ages of seventeen and forty were rounded up and taken to Germany. Forced labour was the main objective, but the occupying forces also wanted to remove all able-bodied men from the western part of the Netherlands by means of the raid.

During their employment in Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands, several thousand Rotterdammers died due to illness, malnutrition, escape attempts and acts of war. After the war ended, most of the forced labourers returned home as Displaced Persons.

With the capture of 52,000 men, the Rotterdam razzia was the largest manhunt conducted by the German National Socialist regime. For the project Reis van de Razzia, a total of 76 interviews with witnesses were recorded, providing insight into what happened.

Razzia’s. Deportatie mannen, Rotterdam. Foto is gemaakt in een woning aan de Oudedijk te Rotterdam. 10/11/1944. © L.M.A. van der Werff