Due to increasing interest, the Drents Archive opens its doors every Thursday morning for consultation hours. The archive offers help to people who want information about the role of their family in the Second World War. “Now that the war is increasingly behind us, it is becoming easier for people to investigate the role of their family,” says Joke Wolf of the Drents Archief.
Which side of WWII was my family on? Were they active in the resistance or had they joined the NSB? More and more people from Drenthe are looking for an answer to these questions and they are trying to find this at the Drenthe Archive in Assen. “People want to know if their family was in hiding, if someone was imprisoned or arrested,” concludes Wolf.
According to Wolf, the visitors mainly try to find information about relatives who have now died: “It could be that people did not find it appropriate to look up the war history when the family member was still alive, perhaps in particular a family member who is NSB member. been”. In addition, after a period of 75 years, the archives have also become public, making the information more accessible.
During consultation hours, the Drents Archief helps to search through the archives in search of a specific person. “The sources of the Second World War can be quite complex. It’s not like you can type your name in something and all results come out,” says Wolf. If the requested information is not available in the Drenthe Archive, they also regularly refer to the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies or the Westerbork Remembrance Center.