“It’s about the time for the fire. There is a piece about the fire, but especially about the time after the fire. How you can overcome something like that. We think that is important to show,” says one of the initiators Lou Snoek (40) about the ‘interrupted time’ exhibition.
The Volendammer himself was burned for a large part of his body that night. Together with other affected people from the ‘New Year’s fire, 25 and further’ working group, he developed this project. After 25 years they wanted to keep their stories, but also pass on to new generations.
Snoek is a boy of sixteen in the night of December 31, 2000 on January 1, 2001, he looks back against NH. With friends he celebrates New Year’s Eve in Café ‘t Hemeltje. “After we had desired each other a happy New Year, the fire broke out, five meters away from us.”
‘Interrupted time’
He runs burns and is kept in a coma for weeks. Two boys from his group of friends die in the fire. Twelve other peers from the pub also die. Two hundred people are injured. They are all between 14 and 25 years old.
Snoek: “For us in life there was one for and after the fire. And for me it was also the separation between the child and the road to adulthood.”
The exhibition in the Volendams Museum will be central from next month. This way you can see the story of someone who was not there that night, but lost three girlfriends. For years she felt guilty and tucked her grief away. When her daughter reached her daughter the age she was then, she realized that she herself was a victim of the fire.
Text continues after the video