History repeats it self. And conflicts develop when a society grows out of  harmony, out of balance. Who wants to be a prophet of doom? But I cannot help reflect on the many changes that I see in this society after a 52 years absence. Many for the better but the harmony has taken a heavy toll. Enough. That’s not what this blog is for. But attending the 65 year anniversary of the evacuation of the SS concentration camp Vught, yesterday, where our mother was a political prisoner, made me wonder if we have learnt our lessons.

In my Sept 3rd post I promised that I would try have a translation of Kiky Heinsius memoires of the concentration camps. I translated the first part that deals with the evacuation of Vught in the first days of September 1944 and the transport in cattle cars to Ravensbrueck. You can read this at www.cometosea.us/albums/thewar.htm  or go directly to www.cometosea.us/albums/Vught.doc there is also a small photo album of the commemoration at www.cometosea.us/albums/albums/Vught.pdf  I urge all to visit these links. Particularly my grandchildren. I am obviously very proud of the small part that our mother played in the resistance to the Nazi brutality. I urge you to take a look at the picture of these survivors at their 1947 reunion on the first link. These are not super women, students, housewives. For the first 30/40 years we had no clue what had happened in the camps. It just was not talked about. Then the curiosity came and little by little the story enfolds. Very few of the survivors are still alive.

I have written about the frienship I made with Bart Boosman. Bart was returning from Newport R.I., after placing 2nd in his class in the bi-annual OSTAR s/h Trans Atlantic race, last July. I was sailing from the Azores to France. We were both talking to Herb the weather Guru. So, we met on the Atlantic on the Short Wave radio. Now it turns out that his grandmother was on the same journey with my mother from Vught all the way to their liberation after their death march from Dachau. 650 Women out of a 10 million Dutch population? You figure the odds…. A week from to-day his mom and dad are going to take me to visit with one of the last survivors who also was on this journey, she is 100 years old…