Anny Aa, one year. At the end of January, 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Eva Weyl reads the first of more than one hundred thousand names on the site of former Westerbork camp. It is the names of the Jews, Sinti and Roma who were persecuted, deported and murdered during the Holocaust.
103.124 names to be precise. They are read by camp survivors, relatives, well -known and unknown people. Everyone reads names for ten minutes, in alphabetical order. That continues day and night, and lasts six days.
For the episode in eighty years of freedom of Expeditie Nederland, reporter Ineke Kemper is there. When reading those first names, but also as relatives, read the names of their family members, in the middle of the night and during the day, and when reading the very last name: Heinrich Zysmanowicz, nineteen years.
Ineke meets Niek van der Oord and his daughter Stéphanie Sadikoviq-van der Oord from Assen. Part of their Jewish family died in the Second World War. Especially for Stéphanie it turns out to be an emotional moment. Among other things, she reads the name of her great -aunt Leny Stern.
Stéphanie grew up with the stories about her family and know the story of her aunt Leny who was murdered in Sobibor at the age of seven. In the report she says that she has named her daughter after her great aunt. She also tells with her father why it is so important that all those names are read.
The days at which it is read, between January 23 and January 27, were not simply chosen. José Martin of the Kamp Westerbork memorial center explains why the names are read on these days. And especially why it ends on January 27. After six days of continuous reading, from that afternoon it will be quiet on the site of former Westerbork camp.
You can see it in this report of Expeditie Nederland.