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Migrants and refugees

It has been told, the book can be closed.

1953, the story

The stories of and after 1 February 1953, by victims, relief workers and others directly involved in the flood disaster that left so many scars on Texel, in Zeeland, North Brabant and South Holland.

Life on country estates

Stories about country estates and country houses in Gelderland

The gay subculture in the big city, just before, during and just after World War II

Collectie Jan Carel Warffemius
Getuigenverhalen-project [Witness Testimony Project]

Civilian workers in camp Vught

In 1942, the construction of Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch, as Camp Vught was officially called, started. During the Second World War, Camp Vught was the only SS concentration camp west of the German border.

Agriculture

Historic fruit farming

Stories of life in and around the fruit orchard

Impact of the Holocaust in their lives and families in terms of resilience, trauma and meaning

Trauma & Resilience

Trauma & Resilience: intergenerational holocaust research from an existential perspective

Colonialism

Narrated (In)justice

This research project by Dr. Nicole Immler (2014-2016) explores compensation payments to (Jewish) victims of World War II in the Netherlands and how the policies of the late 1990s became a reference-point for current claims by post-colonial groups.

Zuiderzee project

Collection of interviews about various subjects in Flevoland

Bombs and habits

Congregational nuns talk about their experiences during the years of German occupation.

Atria Oral History

Atria, oral history collections

Second World War

Fleeing from Overloon

Second World War

Indonesian and Indo resistance in the Netherlands

Eyewitnesses of the Scholtenhuis

For many inhabitants of the city of Groningen, the Scholtenhuis was a notorious building during the war. The building on the east side of the Grote Markt served as the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst, the German intelligence service.

Professions

Beyond the textile

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Lou Keune and colleagues interviewed dozens of textile workers, women and men.

City and village

Story bank Nijmegen 2010-2019

The Story Bank is a platform for people and organisations involved in oral history in and about Nijmegen.

Schiedam children on the go

During and after the war, many children from Schiedam were taken in elsewhere to recuperate or recover from illness.

City and village

The Voice of Leiden

Oral history project in Leiden since 2014

Rape and Comfort

They are euphemistically called 'comfort women': young Indonesian girls who were systematically raped by soldiers of the Japanese occupying army in World War II.

Mandatory sailing for Queen and Country

In June 1940, compulsory shipping came into force. From that moment on, the Dutch who sailed in our merchant fleet were part of the allied forces.

Jewish children in camp Vught

One of the most tragic events in the history of World War II in the Netherlands.

Journey of the razzia

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

Interview collection Dutch Veterans

The Interview Collection of Dutch Veterans (ICNV) of the Netherlands Veterans Institute (NLVi)

Second World War

Camp Amersfoort

National Monument Camp Amersfoort has interviewed more than 100 former prisoners about their time in the camp during the Second World War. These extraordinary interviews provide an impressive glimpse into what life was like in Camp Amersfoort at the time.

Belief

Interview collections Humanistic Heritage

Three interview collections of the Digital Humanist Heritage:
* Verleden verteld
* Sprekend Humanisme
* Humanistisch geestelijke verzorging bij Defensie

Sobibor interviews 1983-1984

Thirteen interviews with survivors of the uprising that broke out in Sobibor extermination camp on October 14, 1943. In addition, interviews are shown with two Polish local residents and a survivor of the uprising at the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematorium.

Art/culture

Interviews in Conservation

The Interviews in Conservation Research project aims to provide an integrated approach to the use of oral history for research in art conservation in a responsible manner, using case studies from the Rijksmuseum and the Cultural Heritage Agency.

Colonialism

Interview collection Stichting Mondelinge Geschiedenis Indonesië

Oral history collection on 'the end of the colonial Dutch presence in Asia'.

City and village

Breda tells

Breda people about living, working and life in Breda then and now.

Nine women escape from death march 1945

On the night of 14 April 1945, 5,000 women from Buchenwald camp were herded onto the road. Escorted by SS men, the prisoners had to travel long distances.

Schiedam “pale-faces”

Shortly after the Second World War, children were sent to another part of the country or abroad to recuperate.

Migrants and refugees

The Moluccan perspective in wartime

With this project, the Moluccan Historical Museum focuses on the experiences of older Moluccans during the Second World War and its aftermath.

German civilians in Camp Vught

Personal experiences of German citizens from the Selfkant area, who were forcibly evacuated from the front area to barracks in the evacuated Vught concentration camp in the Netherlands during the Battle of the Bulge.

Second World War

Dutch ex-prisoners of Buchenwald camp

On the Ettersberg, a large wooded hill eight kilometres north of Weimar in Germany, the Nazis established the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1937. It quickly became one of the largest concentration camps of the Third Reich.

Merchant Navy Families in Wartime

In June 1940, compulsory shipping came into effect. From that moment on, the Dutch who sailed in our merchant fleet were part of the allied forces.

Four Resistance Women. Just Do It and Stand Up Proudly

Why did they revolt against the German occupier and what consequences did this have for their lives?

Second World War

KNMG – Physician during the years of occupation

During the German occupation, Dutch doctors were confronted with numerous ethical dilemmas.

Colonialism

Hussars of Boreel

Experiences of Dutch conscripts in the Republic of Indonesia immediately after the transfer of sovereignty

The forgotten bombardment

American bombers from England go on a mission over the Netherlands with the port installations around Rotterdam as their target.

Porgel & Porulan in the Resistance

Although little known, Jews were also active in the resistance during World War II. They were members of communist and social-democratic resistance groups, the Ordedienst and were involved in the February strike of 1941.

Re-education of young political offenders children’s homes 1944-1951

After the war, some 20,000 children of political offenders, mostly NSB members, ended up in children's homes.

Memories of my Amsterdam sister or brother

During the war years 1943-1944, about 123 Jewish children were smuggled out of Amsterdam and placed with families in North Limburg.

Repatriated wives of Moluccan KNIL soldiers

Testimonies of wives of Moluccan KNIL soldiers, who came to the Netherlands between 1951 and 1953.

Second World War

Officers and non-commissioned officers of the Aruba Militia and the Aruba Volunteer Corps

Before 1940, two oil refineries were established on Aruba, the 'Lago' and the 'Arend'. When World War II broke out, the allied armies were dependent on oil. Because of this, Aruba flourished economically, but it also became a possible target for Nazi Germany.

Second World War

Allied bombing of the Fokker factory in Amsterdam-Noord in July 1943

In July 1943, the Allies tried to drop bombs on the Fokker aircraft factory in Amsterdam-North, because it was involved in the German war industry.

Second World War

Experiences of Dutch citizens with quartered German soldiers

During the Second World War, Dutch citizens were forced to take German soldiers into their homes. Thus, families had to deal with 'the enemy' at close quarters.

The Russian War, uprising by Georgian troops on Texel

On Schiermonnikoog it was war until 24 June 1945. And on Texel more than a thousand people died during the uprising of Georgian prisoners of war. The Wadden Islands each have their own special war history.

Climb to Freedom

Engelandvaarders who used the southern routes

Professions

Collection of interviews VNO-NCW

Interview project with former board members of VNO-NCW commissioned by the International Institute of Social History (IISG).

A church split in wartime

Project with 10 interviews with Reformed people who experienced the church split, the so-called Vrijmaking, in 1944. How did the Reformed community in Amersfoort experience a church split during wartime?

Daughters of collaborating parents

About the experiences of women whose parents were on the 'wrong' side during the years of German occupation.

Migrants and refugees

Javanese in diaspora

Until 1939, approximately 33,000 Javanese in Suriname transferred. After their contract period, the majority settled in Suriname.

Nijkerk as a refuge during WWII

In September 1944, Nijkerk was confronted with a large stream of refugees from the Arnhem area.

NSB women in the war

As a political organisation, the NSB also had great appeal for women.

City and village

The past told

250 interviews from the Volksbuurt Museum Utrecht

Return trip to Sachsenhausen

The project "Return ticket Sachsenhausen" deals with the deportation of prisoners from Camp Vught to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Living and working together in the Bakkum Sperrgebiet

During the German occupation, the Castricum dune area and the village of Bakkum were declared a Sperrgebiet and therefore not accessible to ordinary citizens.

Dutch SS men

During the Second World War, between 22,000 and 25,000 Dutchmen served in Waffen-SS formations.

The Jewish market in the Gaaspstraat in Amsterdam (1941-1943)

On the Gaaspstraat in Amsterdam-Zuid, there has been a playground since 1921. The place was claimed by the German occupiers in November 1941 as a market for Jews.

Farmers’ wives and farmers’ daughters in the Second World War

Boerinnen en boerendochters vormen een speciale groep oorlogsgetroffenen. Juist zij vervulden op de boerderij veel taken en waren er op een bijzondere manier mee verbonden.

Professions

125 years of Strowboard in Nieuweschans

Conversations on the occasion of the book "25 years The Factory: cardboard in Nieuweschans".

City and village

How t was

Hou t was is an oral history project in which Groningers tell about their lives in the past.
Fascinating life stories and histories come to life this way.

Professions

German maids in the Netherlands

Interviews and telephone conversations for research on German maids in the years 1920-1950 in the Netherlands 1986-1991

Professions

The viewer meets the professor being interviewed

Archive and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Behavioural Sciences

Outstanding scientists, who made history in their field, must be heard by future generations.

Migrants and refugees

Specially Unknown

A collection of life stories of refugees who came to the Netherlands in the past 40 years. The oral history project Ongekend Bijzonder recorded 248 life stories as part of contemporary history.

Counseling department of the armed forces

Interview collections of the Digital Humanistic Heritage

Second World War

Atlantikwall The Hague

Witness stories with residents of The Hague and Scheveningen about their memories of the Atlantic Wall

Second World War

AJC in wartime

Interviews with former members of the Workers' Youth Central about their personal experiences and the role of the AJC during World War II

Second World War

Wim Bot on Marx-Lenin-Luxembourg Front and Committee of Revolutionary Marxists

The Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg front, July 1940 - April 1942

Activism

The FNV will not step aside

Interviews with various people about the FNV and the great strike of 1977

Belief

Speaking Humanism

Interview collections of the Digital Humanist Heritage

Activism

Interviews with union members

Interviews conducted with members of various Dutch trade unions.

Interviews Varkevisser with union officials

Former union officials tell the story of their private and working lives.

The Wim Kok, Lodewijk de Waal, Henk Muller tapes

Interviews on social and trade union history, which you won't find so directly in most written material

Interviews Henne Pauli

Interviews with various people about the FNV under Wim Kok's chairmanship

Socialist Youth of the Netherlands

Interviews with former Socialist Youth members

Interviews Wim Pelt with (former) CPN members

Interviews with (former) CPN members

Second World War

Interviews World War II

Eyewitnesses 1940-1945 Memories of Sprang-Capelle, Waalwijk and Waspik in wartime

Migrants and refugees

Collectie Louise Elisabeth van Groningen (1929-2022)

Interviews with Moluccan women in the Netherlands, mainly daughters or granddaughters of KNIL soldiers

Colonialism, Migrants and refugees

Mongesch CIHC

Chinese from Indonesia
Oral History Archive CIHC

Dutch participants International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), around 800 Dutch fighters were part of the International Brigades

Second World War

Witnesses’ Stories

The Getuigenverhalen website keeps the stories and personal testimonies about the Second World War alive.

Second World War

Fleeing from Venray

Women of the CPN

Women of the Communist Party in the Netherlands

Second World War

Two Thousand Witnesses Tell Their Stories

the stories of Dutch survivors

Migrants and refugees

Storia de nhas Pais

Oral history project Storia de nhas Pais ('The land of my parents') initiated by Stichting Rotterdam Vertelt (SRV) and the study of the project by Leiden researchers from Night Spaces: Culture, Migration and Integration in Europe (NITE).

Everything was locked

Child labour girls Good Shepherd

Dutch Missionaries (KMM)

The memories of Dutch missionaries

Second World War

NSB men in Westerbork

After liberation, the former German transit camp Westerbork functioned as an internment camp for NSB people.

Second World War

Anna’s silent struggle: deaf in war

The project 'Anna's silent struggle: deaf in the war' has recorded 10 interviews with some Jewish deaf Dutch people who survived the war.

Second World War

Bystander Memories

Migrants and refugees, Women

Black, migrant and refugee women

In the context of: Moving Women's History - Second feminist wave.

Migrants and refugees

Back in a Bite

9 interviews with first generation migrant women in the Netherlands.

Second World War

Testimonies of Dutch women who had a relationship with a German man

Second World War

Collection Diederichs

Interviews with women who themselves had a relationship and/or whose family member had a relationship with a German soldier during the war.

Colonialism

Papuans in Diaspora

Belief

Narrated Past

Interview collections of the Digital Humanistic Heritage

Witnesses to the history of Anne Frank

@Flanders, Second World War

The last witnesses

During the Second World War, millions of people lost their lives in German concentration camps. There were survivors, but they are slowly dying out.

@Flanders, Second World War

Johannes Blum Collection

This collection consists of over 1,100 testimonies (over 1,200 recordings) conducted by Johannes Blum, researcher and interviewer at Les Compagnons de la Mémoire.

@Flanders

Their work, their life – 1900-1950

Testimonies from the Ghent textile world 1900-1950

@Flanders

Their work, their life – 1950 – 2010

Testimonies from the Ghent textile world 1950-2010

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees

Ghent guests

The story of the first generation of Moroccans in Ghent

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees, Professions

The Founders

Various generations of migrants bear witness to a rich past. De Grondleggers tells the story of three generations of Turks in East Flanders.

@Flanders

My military service

In 1993, the last Belgian conscripts were discharged. The months of compulsory military service for many young men came to an end. How did previous generations experience life as a soldier, away from their familiar home? How did recruitment and training go? And what was it like in the soldiers' dormitories?

@Flanders

Interviews about the Belgian graphic industry

Interviews with employees (printers, typesetters, bookbinders) and business owners, active in the printing industry in Belgium.

@Flanders

Impressions. Ghent’s printing industry in the spotlight

Interviews with people active in the Ghent printing industry

@Flanders, Activism, Women

Oral history of the second feminist wave in Flanders

30 interviews on the second feminist wave.

@Flanders, Second World War

Antwerp Jewish Historical Archive – Archives of Sylvain Brachfeld

Jewish families in Antwerp in the 1970s interviewed by Mr Brachfeld

@Flanders

Holiday colonies on the Belgian coast (1886-1980)

Did you used to go to a holiday colony? Then you remember the noisy dining halls, the homesickness at bedtime, the sand in your sandwiches, the communal showers, the cards home with "We have arrived well".

@Flanders

Diamond

Interviews conducted within the framework of the project A World of Diamond: Diamond Workers in Belgium, The Netherlands and France (1895-2000)

@Flanders

Going out in Ghent

The relaxation life in Ghent before World War II.

@Flanders

About the flowers and the bees

Sex education in and around the socialist milieu

@Flanders, Art/culture

Vooruit: 100/30

Interviews with visitors' experiences and own activities in Feestlokaal Vooruit

@Flanders

I live in a Monument

Residents' stories from Conforta, Arena and Unitas in Deurne (Antwerp)

@Flanders

Lunch time

Testimonies about the lunch break at work

@Flanders

Workers’ and students’ movement before and after 1968

Interviews on experiences as a worker

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees

Fieldwork: refugee experiences

46 specially unknown stories of refugees in Antwerp

@Flanders, Second World War

Collections day WWII, 2019

WWII Testimonies in Antwerp

@Flanders, Second World War

Testimonies Holocaust WWII, Crea 16

About the Holocaust and persecution of Jews.

@Flanders

Gevaert developed

About working at Agfa Gevaert in Mortsel

@Flanders, Professions

Oral history of the mining region

Testimonies to the past of the Belgian Limburg Mining Area

@Flanders

The children of Save

The transfer of children from institutions to Belgium on the eve of decolonisation.

@Flanders, Second World War

The war children

Oral testimonies of children born from relationships of Belgian mothers with German fathers.

@Flanders

Fascism in Spain and Belgium

Series of interviews on fascism in Spain and Belgium.

@Flanders, Second World War

Buchenwald

Testimonies of former deportees to Buchenwald

@Flanders, Second World War

Broadcasting during the Second World War

Radio London, National Institute for Radio Broadcasting - N.I.R., Radio Belgium

@Flanders

The Belgian Communist Party and the Spanish Civil War

Jewish revolutionaries in Belgium, 1925-1940

@Flanders, Second World War

Communism

Belgian communists from 1939 to 1944.

@Flanders, Second World War

The clandestine warfare

The "clandestine war" of secret services, press and radio.

@Flanders, Colonialism

Former Belgian colonists

@Flanders

Occupied Belgium

Collaboration and resistance in occupied Belgium

@Flanders

The Catholic Church and the Catholic Worker Youth

Catholic Worker Youth, compulsory employment in Germany and the Catholic Church.

@Flanders

Trade unionism in times of war

Syndical resistance in World War II.

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees

The women of Breskens

Between 1970 and 1981, dozens of Turkish women from Ghent worked in a fish filleting factory in Breskens.

@Flanders, Second World War

Flemish collaboration

Flemish collaboration and in particular the VNV.

@Flanders

Line 13 – Protteknie

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees

Aalstern Turks

On the occasion of the Week of Flavours 2009, with Turkey as the host country, Aalst's city archives, in cooperation with its cultural heritage cell, launched a limited investigation into the migration history of our Turkish fellow townspeople.

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees

Aalstern Spaniards

In the 1950s, many Spanish families migrated to Limburg to dig for a better life in the coal mines.

@Flanders

50 years of work in the Waasland region

Around the middle of the last century, the Waasland region experienced a great economic boom, in business sectors such as the textile industry, metal construction and shipbuilding.

@Flanders

Fifty years of urban planning law

The Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi), as part of the project Fifty years of urban planning law, conducted eight interviews with key witnesses of urban planning development and handling of landscape during the past half century.

@Flanders, Art/culture

Design

The cultural heritage of design consists not only of sketches, models, photographs or correspondence of designers.

@Flanders, Art/culture

Stynen 2018

On the occasion of the Stynen 2018 project, the Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi) conducted five interviews with family members, colleagues and clients of Léon Stynen that give us a unique insight into the architect's life and work.

@Flanders, City and village

Dutch-speaking Brussels residents

Brussels narrated and unveiled (2002-2003)
Brussels at work (2003-2004)
The great and small history of the cobblestone (2003-2004)
The Flemish Memory of Brussels (2011-2012)

@Flanders, City and village

Inhabitants of Bruges talk about the past and the present

Collected testimonials from residents of Bruges on specific topics.

@Flanders

Heemkring Landrada and Tesi Samanunga archives

Local history Munsterbilzen

@Flanders, Colonialism

Children of the colony

People who lived it up close tell of colonial and post-colonial Congo

@Flanders, Migrants and refugees

Children of the migration

Twenty witnesses belonging to three generations from Italy, Greece, Spain, Morocco and Turkey tell their stories.

@Flanders, Second World War

Children of the resistance

Thirteen witnesses talk about their parents' acts of resistance and how the legacy of World War II has shaped their own lives, sometimes until today

@Flanders, Second World War

Children of the Holocaust

The Holocaust claimed tens of thousands of victims in Belgium. The children of Jews who survived faced a leaden legacy.

@Flanders, Second World War

Children of the collaboration

Children of collaborators look back and testify about the war period

@Flanders, Colonialism

Metises of Belgium

The harrowing story of colonial children of mixed blood

@Flanders

Following Franciscus… Friars Minor witnesses

Recent history of the Friars Minor

@Flanders

Flemish nationalism

Oral history of individuals who experienced the history of Flemish nationalism from various perspectives.

@Flanders

The end of tuberculosis?

Treatments and patient experiences at the Sanatorium Elisabeth in Sijsele (1945-1986)

collections on map

Advanced search

Javanese in the (Dutch) polder

February strike Netherlands

Four gentlemen about the Gouda of around 1890

Mill stories

Tabee New Guinea

Pioneering in the polders

Interviews by Ger Verrips with CPN members

Dutch housemaids

Imaazje! The imagination of Provo

Women professors

Women’s shelter

Abusing girls in the Roman Catholic Church

Dolle Mina

Women’s Peace Movement

Women’s relief work

Red women

Agricultural films and stories

Black and National Front

Oral History Project, 1940-present

Former hostages

Life stories

Moving Lesbians

Women’s concentration camp

Annexation

CPN

Indonesia policy

Past and Present – Driebergen

Prominents

Unity Trade Union Centre (EVC) 1943-1948

Dutch development policy Surinam

New Guinea policy

Labour Movement Twente

Korean War

Twente textile strike

Squatters’ Movement Groningen

Oral History Simpelveld-Bocholtz

Film criticism 1923-45

Dutch film industry during World War II

Philips-commando

CPN-film

Television journalism

Artists’ resistance

Flood disaster 1953

Workers’ Youth Central (AJC)

Victoria Factory

Women and trade union

Socialist upbringing

SDAP 1940-46

World federalism

Youth policy

Henri Polak

Camp of hope and despair

Jacques Presser

Collection Zijlmans

Drenthe during the war

Diversity of the Amersfoort Memory

The years of reconstruction 1945-1955

World War II in music

Witnesses of Theresienstadt

Groningen during wartime

In the light of liberation

The Willy Lindwer Holocaust Video Archive

Long shadow of Sobibor

Fields of Margraten

1953, the story

Life on country estates

The gay subculture in the big city, just before, during and just after World War II

Civilian workers in camp Vught

Historic fruit farming

Trauma & Resilience

Narrated (In)justice

Zuiderzee project

Bombs and habits

Atria Oral History

Fleeing from Overloon

Indonesian and Indo resistance in the Netherlands

Eyewitnesses of the Scholtenhuis

Beyond the textile