RTV Drenthe is sending the three -part docuserie today Fleeing out. The series tells the moving story of the Jewish family Hein from Utrecht, who survived the war thanks to courage, help and coincidence.
Their story will be given a special continuation tonight: during the commemoration of the dead on the site of former Westerbork camp, the Hein family takes care of the commemoration program.
The Hein family went into hiding in 1943. To give their young son Peter a greater chance of survival, Paul and Netta Hein left him with friends. What followed was years of divorce, hiding at changing addresses and ultimately a painful reunification.
Now, more than eighty years later, Peter, his children and grandchildren consider that history and share them with the public in one of the most charged places in the Netherlands.
The commemoration of the dead in Westerbork starts tonight at 7 p.m. with a quiet trip on the ‘Boulevard des Misères’. It is the place where more than one hundred thousand Jews, Sinti and Roma put their last footsteps on Dutch soil.
The commemoration will get extra depth this year because the Hein family completes the full program. Peter Hein, now 85 years old, expresses the reflection. As a child he stayed at dozens of hiding places; His story symbolizes the lost youth of many.
His son Ruben Hein provides the musical accompaniment of the meeting. The famous pianist and singer brings music that carries the memory and connects the past with the present. Daughter Eva Mogendorff-Hein sings traditional Jewish prayers: it El Male Rachamim and the Caddish.
David Hein, son of Peter, will also speak tonight. As a lawyer, he is involved in international criminal law and is concerned with the question of how justice takes shape today. During the commemoration he makes the link between the war history of his family and the responsibility of today to stand up against injustice.
RTV Drenthe sends the series Fleeing Today out at noon, as a prelude to the commemoration tonight. The commemoration from Camp Westerbork will be broadcast live tonight on TV Drenthe. This broadcast starts at 7 p.m.