It starts with Iris van Zanten with tears and back pain. The same back pain her father used to have. Van Zanten works as a project manager at the Rijksmuseum on a new exhibition about Indonesia’s struggle for independence in 1945-1949. During the preparations, she learns more about her grandfather’s war past and the horrific things he saw in the Indies. The more she learns, the more she experiences physical complaints. Is it her grandfather’s pain? The same pain her father had?
In podcast series When history rises in you Together with friend Marjolijn van Heemstra, Van Santen investigates the effect of her grandfather’s war trauma from the Indies. Can you relive something you’ve never experienced before?
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 19 February 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of February 19, 2022