“Are you still here, when I walk through the heathland,” the 23-year-old sings in Peize born Yrsa Joosten. For Stichting Stumelstenen in Music, she wrote a song about resistance fighter Diele Jacobus Weidgraaf from Assen. “His story touched me in a different way than the other stories.”
On Dahliastraat 23 in Assen, YRSA will be waiting for the brothers Theo and Harrie Weidgraaf on Friday 28 March. A golden stumbling stone shines between the gray stones of the footpath, in memory of DIELE. It is Theo and Harrie their grandfather, but they have never been allowed to know him. Already at the beginning of the Second World War, in 1941, Diele was arrested by the Germans.
That was, it turned out later, because he was the illegal magazines The northern lights and The truth spread. “He has been stuck to the Brink in Assen for half a year,” says Yrsa, who studied the song in the story. “Then he was deported to Dachau concentration camp. And there he was killed.” DIELE collapses with the effects of disease, in combination with medical experiments.
When Theo and Harrie come, they shake hands with Yrsa. “This is new, but here used to be those old diets,” says Harrie, pointing to the building for which the stumbling stone is. “Here, exactly here, was the house where he lived.”
The Foundation Stumelstones in Music aims to bring the stories behind stumbling stones to life in a musical way. This year she asked thirteen musicians from the different provinces to write a song about a stumbling stone of their choice. The numbers were played on Monday 7 April in the Theater in Kampen.
For example, the band participated the 3Js on behalf of the province of Noord-Holland, and the cabinet on behalf of the province of Friesland. Yrsa Joosten was allowed to take on the challenge in Drenthe. Yrsa, who is still studying at the Rock Academy in her hometown of Tilburg, is very important to name in the music world. “I thought it was very special that I was asked for this. I always think it is important to commemorate war slaughter sacrifices. So it was very nice to do that in this way now.”
Yrsa was born in Peize. That is why she wanted to choose a stumbling stone near her native village. “But there weren’t that much,” she says. “In Assen. I started reading all those stories at the time. And the story of Diele touched me the most. I think that is because we have a number of things in common. Diele was a ground worker and loved nature, and I also like that. I also like to write about nature. And he was a very social man. He took care of everyone around him. He had no fewer than 12 children.”
During the war, Diele Weidgraaf was a member of the SDAP and CPH (Communist Party Holland). He was also co -founder of the funeral association “De Laatste Eer” in Assen, who was primarily intended for people from the working class. Because, Diele thought, they too were entitled in a decent way of burying.
For the song she was inspired by a poem by the son of Diele, Albert. “The Olde Streuper.” “Maor as I do door t’veld still ies karier, then” will see you again, “wrote Albert. “I started to embroider on that.” You are still here, when I walk through the heath, “made Yrsa. “I thought it was very nice to commemorate Diere, but also to say: the memory is still there.”
Yrsa takes her guitar. She will make the song she wrote to the relatives. They haven’t heard it yet. “Exciting,” she says. And then she uses the number. Theo and Harrie listen carefully. “Beautiful!” They say, when Yrsa plays the last agreement on the guitar. Harrie cannot swallow a few tears.
“It moves me, yes.” For a moment he is quiet. “That is also because of my father, who looked like two drops of water to grandpa.” It is the memories of his youth who fly by at that time. “My father was, just like our grandfather, very social. And because of that political preference, we didn’t have it easy as a child in this neighborhood.”
How it is possible that YRSA selected this stumbling stone to devote a number, he has thought a lot about that lately. “My mother was Jewish. Many family members were murdered in the war. And that this stone is now being picked out, I think that is very special.”
Yrsa is happy with the reaction of the brothers. “You don’t want to fill in anything, but you still do that when you write such a song. And you just hope it will hit. Or that it offers something the relatives. And I believe that was. So that was very nice to see.”