In love with Croatia
Cousin Lysbeth Antuma-Smit moved with her husband to Croatia in 2017. Here is Lysbeth’s story. Why Croatia? Our love for this country arose when Pier and I lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia for two years in the 1970s…
A correspondence about grief and hope
Where Auke (Art) and I have met every now and then in recent decades, both in the USA and in The Netherlands, the differences between us dominated our contact. Trapped in our own clichés, we had difficulty finding, understanding, each…
Time flies
Daniel: When I was about 8 years old, I went on one of the famous Plas bike rides with my grandparents. I don’t remember exactly where we went and there are different stories about how it went, but we…
We came back
On a Saturday in the fall of 1966, when I was 8 years old, my father told me that we would be moving to America. The preparations were already underway, but the adventure truly began with our journey on the SS Statendam. From Rotterdam to New York, with stops in Le Havre and Southampton, it was a week filled with excitement and seasickness. Upon arriving in New York, with the Statue of Liberty in sight, my brothers and I were nervous and full of expectations. What awaited us in this new country? Discover our story of emigration, adaptation, and new experiences!
Try, try again
SLOWLY IT DAWNED ON HIM. The conductor on the train from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Kitchener, Ontario, was calling out his name. He had a scary thought—if after four years of studying English in the Netherlands, he could not even recognize his own name, how was he ever going to understand anything in this new country? But here he was, 18 years of age, getting off the train in the middle of the night at one of the tiniest railroad stations he had ever seen—where people spoke English. Uncle Arts journey was just beginning, filled with unexpected twists and turns.
German raid April 1944
On April 22, 1944, Heero Smit's life was turned upside down when he was arrested during a raid by the German occupiers. His story of fear, hardship, and eventual liberation is a poignant testimony of World War II. From the horrors of Amersfoort camp to the harsh journey back to the Netherlands, his experiences serve as a powerful reminder of human resilience. Jan Peter Smit, his son, relives this journey in an impressive hike from Mascherode to Venlo.