A
reunion was held at Scheveningen, Holland on May 14, 2015. The
occasion was in memory of 46 men and women who some 75 years ago sought safety
from the Nazi using a small boat named ZEEMANSHOOP.
This is
an amazing story. My friend KAREL DAHMEN (a Dutchman) was one of the four
students who helped those folks (Jewish) to safety. Karel
was also a novice officer in the Dutch Navy at the time. They literally
stole the boat on which they escaped Holland to go to England.
Karel
and I worked together at CONTINENTAL CARBON COMPANY in Houston for many, many
years. I count him as one of my closest friends today. As you can
see, I still am in touch with Karel. At present, he is vacationing
in the Colorado Rocky Mountains where he has a second home. His
primary home is here in the Austin, TX area not far from me.
If you
have some time, take a gander through the following and read this very
interesting event by clicking on the various links.
From: Karel Dahmen [mailto:karelrdahmen@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2015 5:20 PM
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2015 5:20 PM
Subject: Reunion at Scheveningen on the 14 May 2015
If you were at the reunion of the families of
the 46 men and women on the ZEEMANSHOOP in Scheveningen on the 14 May you will
know what a wonderful day it was.
Karel Dahmen and Loet Velmans recalled their
memories of the day the ZEEMANSHOOP left for England 75 years ago and what it
meant to them and were photographed aboard the restored lifeboat. We made brief
trips round the harbour and Karel Dahmen took the helm just as he did on the 14
May 1940. The Mayor of The Hague and the British Ambassador spoke and
Danny Verbaan signed copies of his book (in Dutch) about the voyage.
The Royal Navy was represented by HMS TRUMPETER,
the training ship of Cambridge University's Royal Navy Unit, and Radboud Hack,
son of Harry Hack, the Captain of the ZEEMANSHOOP, thanked the Royal Navy for
coming to their aid. Lt Chris Chew RN, the CO of HMS TRUMPETER, was
presented with a plaque recording the rescue of the passengers by HMS
VENOMOUS.
And if you were not able to be there you can
read about it and see the photographs of Amke de Wiet, Michelle Henning and
others - including myself - on this page: http://www.holywellhousepublishing.co.uk/anniversary2.html
A video of the event is being edited and details
will be posted on the web page as soon as I receive them. And if you have photographs complementing those
on the web page please send them to me by e-mail.
The reunion was widely covered by the national
press and television in the Netherlands and this led to me being contacted by a
Dr Jenny Goldschmidt whose family were on the ZEEMANSHOOP. Her aunt is still alive and you can read their
stories on this page: http://www.holywellhousepublishing.co.uk/Engelandvaarders.html
This leaves only eight passengers untraced and
the Association of Jewish Refugees in London will publish an appeal
in the AJR Journal for information about them:
Jacob Meier ("a koopman in London"),
Singer, the Arnheim family, the Czech P. Zajíček (P. Bunny in
English) and Van Wezel.
But perhaps you know of other organizations
which might help trace their families?
Bill Forster
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