Frontier memories

Stichting Ik vraag me af has been engaged in local historical research into the Second World War in Eibergen since its inception, with the initial aim of giving all Eibergen Jewish war victims a place on the local war memorial.

“Oral history they call this,” says Bert Smeenk about the film project. “People telling about what they experienced themselves. As they remember the situations. That is very different from arid data from an archive. The credits are also entirely for Jahra, mind you. She made the entire film single-handedly. She was director, creator and producer. We came up with the idea, she handled the execution.”

‘Grensherinneringen’ is a documentary in which border residents talk about their memories of the war. Eighteen interviews with individual witnesses or with pairs were filmed by videographer Jahra Esser and edited into one documentary. The result premiered in September 2020.