The interviews were conducted on the occasion of Rotterdam Celebrates the City in 2016, a cultural event around the commemoration of the reconstruction, and the term “reconstruction” should be understood broadly in this collection. For example, in addition to architects and municipal workers from the postwar period, Rotterdammers with an immigrant background and younger Rotterdammers were interviewed about their views on life in the Maas City.

Initially, the goal of project Soul of the Reconstruction was not focused historical research, but the compilation of an audiobook of the same name for a wide audience. This book consists of four CDs with excerpts from the interviews, along with brief descriptions of the people interviewed. These descriptions have been reproduced in DANS.

The interviews have been deposited with DANS. The Stadsarchief Rotterdam preserves the collection. The process of making the collection available online was carried out by the Erasmus Studio of Erasmus University Rotterdam. They took care of the metadata of the collection, tested automatic speech recognition and created a standard workflow for this process, so that in the future institutions will know which steps to take when they want to make interviews available for research in the Media Suite.

The interviews are almost entirely in Dutch and consist of an audio recording with a transcript attached. These transcripts vary greatly in quality: many of the transcripts are incomplete and some only have time-stamped subjects. Of the total 86 interviews, not all will be uploaded at one time due to privacy statements that are not yet complete. This is the reason why for now not all interviews from number 1 to 86 are online.

Belpop is a TV program about the Belgian pop scene on Canvas. It refers to belpop, a collective term for music by Belgian groups. Since 2008, each episode deals with one artist, sometimes several artists get the floor. They talk about the past of belpop. Between 2008 and 2020, Luc Janssen did the interviews and voice-over. As of 2023, Bent van Looy took over this task. Also see a review of this last season here.

Jan Delvaux, contributor to the program, also published a book in 2011 entitled Belpop: de eerste vijftig jaar, in which he describes the history of Belgian pop music, from Kili Watch of The Cousins to the present.

Also see the following video on belgian music history: Belpop Bonanza #1000 – Een duik in 40 jaar AB geschiedenis

Historians Ewout van der Horst and Martin van der Linde of the Overijsselacademie spoke with more than sixty farmers, farmers’ wives and related professional groups from Overijssel about the changes within the agricultural sector. The arrival of the milking machine, tractor and cubicle stall meant a major change in agricultural operations and the lives of farmers. With melancholy and pride, people talk about things like land, education, breeding, cooperatives and livestock markets, about how, with hard work, little by little they were able to farm ahead.
With the help of photographer and cameraman Albert Bartelds, the people’s life stories have also been portrayed.

Through the online platform MijnStadMijnDorp, hundreds of stories, films and photographs have been published that offer a personal glimpse into postwar farm life in Overijssel.

• For video footage of the interviews (excerpts), see here.
• For brief biographies of the interviewees and downloadable text edits of the interviews, see here.

In the richly illustrated book Vooruitboeren, the researchers describe how farming changed from tradition to agricultural entrepreneurship.

Bread was the chief component of the workers’ meal, so a good choice to sell in a cooperative. Everyone who was a member of the cooperative could share in the profits, and every worker naturally bought his bread from the cooperative. In the beginning, the activity remained modest, but once the bread was delivered to homes and the distributed profits increased, the cooperative began to grow.

The bakery, which combined advantageous prices with good quality, became a great success. The registration fee was 25 centimes and buyers undertook to buy all their bread from the cooperative. A 6% discount in the form of purchase vouchers and reinvestment of part of the profits quickly made Vooruit grow into a complex organisation with all kinds of activities. People’s pharmacies and shops selling groceries, coal, garments and shoes appeared. By 1901, the company had grown from one bakery with 150 members to several bakeries, twenty outhouses and more than seven thousand members! On the Garenmarkt (now the Anseeleplein), an old factory was bought in which a bakery, as well as a shop, a coffee house and a meeting room were opened. The first Vlaamse Volkshuis was born.

These interviews were conducted as part of the Interview Project entitled “Red or no bread. A practicum in the subject methodology of the Newest Times partim Oral History in the second candidature of History (second Bachelor of History), academic years 1998-1999 (teacher: Professor Dr Bruno De Wever).

An updated and expanded version of Will Johnson’s 1979 book, which recounts the history and culture of Saba, drawing from both archival sources and personal interviews.The original tapes, covering the lives of over 60 different Sabans, can be found at the Queen Wilhelmina Library in The Bottom, Saba.

Based on taped cassette interviews conducted in 1985 on the island of Saba, this film brings to life stories about living on Saba during the 19th and 20th centuries. 

An updated and expanded version of Will Johnson’s 1979 book, which recounts the history and culture of Saba, drawing from both archival sources and personal interviews.

These interviews were made by Hedda van Gennep in 1976 and early 1977 for the 9-part VARA television series (on 16mm film) Voorwaarts en niet vergeten, broadcast between January 11 and May 5, 1977. The series covers the history of the socialist movement in the Netherlands from 1850-1918, with the last part extending the line to 1976. It lasts a total of 5 hours and 45 min. The start of the series was accompanied in the VARAGids (Jan. 8, 1977) by an article on the background of the project, which included interviews with the project’s scientific advisor Johan Frieswijk.

The persons with whom the interviews were conducted range from all kinds of “nameless” fighters of the socialist labor movement from all over the country – including some of the workers from Friesland already interviewed for the film on Imke Klaver, such as the Brandsma couple and Douwe de Wit – to children of socialist leaders of the first hour such as Schaper, Vliegen, Troelstra and Domela Nieuwenhuis.

Discussions include: the Railway Strike of 1903; the Seamen’s Strike of 1911; the Potato Revolt of 1917; Troelstra’s revolutionary attempt in 1918; the General Diamond Workers Union (ANDB) and Henri Polak; women’s suffrage; Wibaut and social housing; the SDAP; the trade union movement, including the NVV and the NAS but also the Catholic and Christian organizations; the CPH and David Wijnkoop; the SociaalDemocratische Bond (SDB); the Maastricht pottery manufacturer Regout; the influence of the church; more generally, the living conditions of workers in the period under review.

The following people were interviewed:

• C. Assink
• dhr. Bildstra
• Mw. W. Boonstra
• P. Bos
• L. Bot (2x)
• mw. T. Bovens-Corsius (2x)
• dhr. en mw. Brandsma
• J. Brinkhuis
• P. Buys
• mw. Bijlsma
• A. Caris
• Cesar Domela (Nieuwenhuis)
• ir. A. van Emmenes
• Dhr. en mw. Faber
• D. Groenendijk
• mw. Halma
• J. Hippe (2x)
• Harm van Houten
• Y. Joustra
• D. Kiburg
• mw. Y. Kootstra van der Veen
• K. Meijnders
• Dirk Mozes
• Ies Mug
• mw. B. van den Muyzenberg
• dr. Polak
• dhr. Prakke
• J. Pront
• dhr. en mw. Rietstra
• mw. J. Roetman
• Jan de Ronde
• B. Sajet
• dhr. van Sandbergen
• mw. G. Sanders-Mantel
• prof. Schaper
• R. Schuur
• J. Seedelaar
• mw. Sieverts-Vliegen (2x)
• dhr. Spicht
• mw. StapelMiddelbeek
• M. Steenman
• mw. D. van Swieten
• mw. Terpstra
• W. van Tilburg
• Jelle Troelstra
• M. Vaartjes (2x)
• J. Veldhuisen
• J. Velema
• W. Vellinga (2x)
• A. Verhoeff
• mw. J. Vos-Duchateau
• mw. H. de Vries
• Douwe de Wit
• dhr. Zwerver

‘The Very Last Witnesses’ is an interview project in which 100 very elderly Flemings testify on camera about the First World War.

Together, their stories form the big story of the war in Flanders, in all its facets. The war was profound, not only for those who fought and lived at the front.

All these witnesses were children during the war. Some had to flee headlong to the Netherlands, England or France, others lived under the terror of the occupying forces. Some suffered hunger and missed their fathers who fought at the front or had been taken to Germany as prisoners of war….

Based on this, Philip Vanoutrive published the book “The very last witnesses of WW1”. The stories of 43 witnesses traverse 23 thematic chapters in which their war memories are each interwoven with historical background information. Vividly, they recount their experiences and adventures. Repulsive anecdotes about death and destruction but also touching or funny stories they can still vividly recall. For some, it was a ‘nice and fun’ time – something happened for once! For the other, childhood dreams exploded like an exploding grenade.

Interviews were prompted by the death of Gerrit ter Haars (Overijssel Dutch East Indies New Guinea Working Group) brother in Indonesia during the Indonesian war of independence and his feeling that Dutch veterans had been wronged.

Both Collection Overijssel (formerly Historical Centre Overijssel) and NIOD facilitated the interviews
facilitated by providing cameras and tapes. The objective was to
generate more attention to this war and all those involved through the publication of a book.
Participants were found through personal networks and snowball sampling.

The interviews focus on events and experiences in the years 1942 – 1962.
They mainly discuss Indonesia, the Netherlands and New Guinea. Themes include Second
World War, Indonesian revolution, reoccupation, independence struggle, war volunteers, conscripts, veterans, Darul Islam, TNI.

De oorlog ver weg, 1942-1949
Nederlands-Indie, de Japanse bezetting en de politionele acties

Auteur: Gerrit ter Haar

Uitgever: Gigaboek, Broek op Langedijk, 2013

ISBN: 9789085483755

De oorlog ver weg, 1949-1962

verhalen via interviews van burgers, militairen die de oorlog in Indië hebben meegemaakt

Auteur: Gerrit Ter Haar

Uitgever: Abc Uitgeverij, 2015
ISBN: 9789079859238

The ‘Last Eyewitnesses of the Second World War’ features survivors who experienced the war first-hand both in the Netherlands and in the then Dutch East Indies, and those for whom the effects during and after the war are felt to this day. They are unique, personal testimonies, filmed and published for and by the War Stories Foundation.

The shortened interviews are public and directly accessible through the War Stories Foundation website.

Pia Media produced five TV broadcasts for broadcaster ONS/Nostalgienet The Last Eyewitnesses of the Second World War in the East Indies in 2022, in which (some of) these interviews were used.

uitzending-gemist

The interviews were made for Bregstein’s film “In Search of Jewish Amsterdam”, created at the initiative of the City of Amsterdam on the occasion of the city’s 700th anniversary celebrations. Film and interviews cover Jewish Amsterdam up to 1940. The film had its premiere on 29 December 1975 in Amsterdam. It was also broadcast on television by the NCRV on 8 February 1976.

Some of the research was done by Salvador Bloemgarten, who also worked with Bregstein on the screenplay. The film was produced by Jan Vrijman Cineproductie.

The integral film text was later published in the book Op zoek naar Joods Amsterdam / film by Philo Bregstein, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff (film texts), 1981 (partly previously published in Parool and Skoop). At the back (pp.59-76) is a diary Bregstein kept on the preparations and production of the film.

More extensive excerpts from the interviews were included in Herinneringen aan Joods Amsterdam / edited by Philo Bregstein and Salvador Bloemgarten, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1978 (340 pp). Some additional interviews were conducted in 1977 for this purpose. The book includes a list of ‘narrators’, as well as a list of biographical notes concerning the interviewees.

Copies of the collection are managed by Jewish Cultural Quarter. The original is managed by Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision.