The knowledge that Van der Kooij acquired about Roden over the years was impressive. Boris Wanders also experienced this. He is the grandson of an NSB member who lived in Roden during wartime and remembers how he met the historian in a café in the village. “He introduced himself as a ‘collector of scraps’ and was able to tell me a lot about my grandfather.”
Although such encounters were uncomfortable, Van der Kooij managed to strike a chord with many with his friendly and trusting appearance. At the end of the day it results in a hefty book. “We owe Cees a lot of gratitude, because the stories need to be told,” Mayor Klaas Smid summarized yesterday afternoon.
Project leader Dijkstra thinks that Van der Kooij’s book is not only interesting for Roden residents. “Cees consciously chose a different approach. He looked at national measures and saw how they had an impact at a local level. That makes it an interesting book.”
According to Dijkstra, Van der Kooij would be very happy with how the book ultimately turned out. “He prepared the book as far as possible and thought about the design. This was how he envisioned it.”
And so everything comes together in Onder de Linden on a rainy Thursday afternoon. The book is there, relatives and interested parties are sitting in the room, and the copies are quickly passed from hand to hand. “It’s just a shame that Cees couldn’t experience this,” Ingrid sighs. “He would have liked to, but time overtook him.”