The commemoration of resistance heroine Hannie Schaft will traditionally be rounded off tomorrow with a flower laying at the monument ‘Woman in the Resistance’ in the Kenaupark. But at the preceding meeting, youth is given an increasingly prominent place. Especially now that theater maker Birgitte Odett is compiling the programme. “We must not stand still, but continue and make the transition to the young people,” she says.
The goal of getting children and young people to think more about the ideas of Hannie’s resistance during the Second World War was already started last year. Haarlem students were emphatically involved a special celebration of what is Hannie’s 100th birthday should have been, it was not that the Haarlem young woman was shot in the dunes near Overveen.
The then organizer of the commemoration, Mieke Benda, had a film made to inspire the youth.
Text continues after the NH News report on the premiere of that film.
“I can now take over the baton from Mieke Benda, who has traditionally been a television maker,” says Odett. Because of her various theater productions, she has a range of actors, dancers and musicians in her network who can participate in the commemoration of Hannie Schaft. For example, with theater on stage she can have an actress ‘Hannie’ talk to young people from the musical education to which Odett is also affiliated.
“Certainly younger children can hardly imagine Hannie’s acts of resistance. When asked what they would do in the war, they often say that they could not have shot a German. But then they realize that they might have an app would send to summon the resistance, to protest or to call for help. But yes, those are other means.”
The means of resistance in this modern age, according to Odett, are almost the opposite of what Hannie had to do. “She had to go underground, with social media you can make your voice heard all over the world. These are our weapons. But you can also be a target again.”
Out of the church
The location of the commemoration prior to the flower laying is also another. The Groenmarktkerk has been exchanged for the stage of the Philharmonie, because the church has been put up for sale. Now the theatrical comes into its own better. “I want people to feel harassed,” says Brigitte Odett. She also receives the help of a special speaker. Mpho Tutu, carrying out the legacy of Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah Tutu.
In addition, Mpho Tutu stands up for the development of women and girls in particular, also because of her own life history. After her divorce from her husband, she fell in love with a Dutch woman and has since been banned from exercising her vocation as a pastor in South Africa.
In addition to the laying of flowers in the Kenaupark, the commemoration will also take place on Sunday morning at Hannie’s grave at the Eerebegraafplaats in the dunes of Overveen, as every year.