This story is of an old couple from the Netherlands who spent their entire life, guarding a secret. The secret was kept in a red and rusty suitcase. The couple namely, Barend and Mimi had three children and surprisingly none of them knew what was inside that suitcase. Every time they would ask their parents, they would dodge the question or even scold them. The suitcase was not meant to be opened. Though the siblings stayed away from the suitcase, they were very curious to know what it held. And finally, one day they did open it.
We all use suitcases while journeying from one place to another. But how many of us use it to keep a long-hidden secret? This couple Barend Boers and Mimi Dwinger, from Netherland, had the darkest part of their lives concealed inside an old rusty suitcase. The couple had three children who grew up to be responsible and polite.
No doubt, the couple had given all the good attributes to their children. However, they never gave them the key to the suitcase that was lying in the storeroom for decades. No one could have ever imagined that the couple who looked so close and warm from outside was all about secrets from inside.
Surprisingly, the couple never talked about the suitcase with their kids too. It was strange as people usually share their secrets and heritage with their children but the man or the woman never mentioned the suitcase to them, let alone giving them the key. They had found the suitcase on their own. And when they lastly asked about the suitcase to their parents, the couple.......
Well, it was not an expected question. The panic on their face was clear. And then instead of replying to their questions, the couple scolded them and told them not to touch the suitcase ever again. They never asked about the suitcase. However, the fear on the face of their parents had triggered curiosity among them.
It is not that the couple was of a conservative mindset. In fact, they never stopped their children from taking their own decisions. They just had made one rule for them which was not to unlock the suitcase ever.
The kids too abide by the rules. They never forced their parents to tell them about the suitcase and the mysterious thing held inside it. However, it does not mean they did not want to know. They would get the opportunity to open it up but not so soon.
The couple's son reminisces, “As children, we knew that there was a suitcase that we wouldn’t touch. We weren’t allowed to.” They never heard their parents talking about the suitcase. It seemed as if the suitcase does not exist. But it was there, right there waiting for someone to open it up.
One more thing that the siblings had noticed was that the couple never recalled their past in front of them. They knew nothing about their family nor did they ever visit any relatives in their entire lifetime.
Years went by and Barend Boers who had grown old passed away in 1979 at the age of 61. Their son finally mustered up some courage and finally asked his mother about the suitcase.
Since his childhood, André Boers wanted to know about the content of the suitcase. Now as his father was gone he could not understand the point of keeping the suitcase as a mystery anymore. He finally went up to his mother and asked her for her permission to unlock the suitcase.
With time, the importance of everything wanes, even the secrets. André was sure that whatever was residing in the suitcase for decades would have lost its value with time. That is why he asked his mother about it.
However, his mother denied permission to him. Even after so many decades, the content of the suitcase had a deep impact on the old lady. Boers remember his mother saying, “No, no need, there’s no time.” It only flamed his curiosity furthermore.
Boers now had completely grasped that the suitcase was not an ordinary one. There was something off about it. Her mother was just not ready to give away about the content. Does it have anything to do with the couple's mysterious past? Soon, everyone was going to find out.
Boers said, “I eventually understood, of course, that it was hard for her to deal with what was in the suitcase…” What was so extraordinary in the suitcase? Even though how much he wanted, he could not unlock it. But that was not the only chance he got.
Boers too did not know much about their parent's past. All he knew was that his parents' firsts met each other in their childhood as both of them had their families were in the same line of the textile business.
At the age of 14, Barend took up an apprenticeship under Mimi's father. They both were good friends and their friendship turned into marriage when Barend, 28-year-old boy, popped the question to 21 years old Mimi.
The couple tied the knot at Leeuwarden, Mimi's hometown in 1939. The nuptials took place in a local synagogue. Thereafter the married couple got settled down in Amsterdam. However, everything was going to change for the very much in love couple in less than a year.
The couple who was making beautiful memories got a big blow when Nazis attacked the Netherlands just a year after the marriage. However, the couple managed to escape the Holocaust.
All their dreams shattered when Nazis nabbed and incarcerated Mimi. According to the usual order, the woman would have been taken to the concentration camp. However, Barend did not let that happen. He managed to get her out of that. “He may have been assisted by the Dutch underground. He may have paid money to have her freed. I don’t know,” Boers believes.
They did not have much time, the couple ran through Belgium, France, and Spain to escape the Holocaust. Lastly, they ended up at Jamaica in a camp established for Dutch Jewish refugees. They stayed there for a while.
After some time, Barend flew to Canada to participate in the war along the side of Dutch battalion. He was given proper training before that and once the man got fully trained he was sent to England where he took on the enemies in the war.
The man managed to survive the war and made a return to the Netherlands only to get tragic news. He learned that all his brothers had been murdered brutally while he was away. Fortunately, his mother managed to survive by hiding inside a closet for three years. But did it all have anything to do with the suitcase?
It was on May 5, 1945, Barend's wife was staying in England. She had moved to the country a year after coming to Jamaica. Barend mailed her a telegram asking her to return. In the letter, he wrote, “Holland is liberated. You can return.”
Mimi came back to Amsterdam and the duo restarted their life together. Barend re-established his family textile factory and worked towards its growth. Whereas Mimi focussed on nurturing her family. Strangely, from their good times to the bad times, they did not leave their suitcase. And now even after decades, many things had changed but the suitcase and its content remained the same.
In 2007, Mimi said goodbye to the world. The woman passed away right before her 91st birthday. Both of them had gone leaving behind the mysterious suitcase that they had prohibited their children from touching. So what was going to happen with that suitcase now?
Boers and his siblings finally decided to unravel this mystery. The suitcase was still inside the storeroom. Covered with a thick layer of dust, the suitcase was giving away its enigmatic vibes. They unlocked it and saw......
No need to say, the suitcase had a lot of things inside it. But among them, there was one thing that made them drop whatever they were holding in their hands. Now it was very clear to why their parents never spoke to them about the suitcase.
To begin with, the suitcase was full of letters, records and war medals most probably earned by their fathers during his stint in the military. They put it out and went through each and everything. However, there was nothing in those documents or letters that needed to be kept as a secret. But their doubts soon dissipated when they reached the bottom of the suitcase.
Boers remembers vividly, “On the bottom of the suitcase, I found little boxes that had the name Kodak written on them.” It was a video having April 18, 1939, scribbled on it. The video was 8mm long. What was it about? The siblings were soon going to figure out.
They inserted the video in their cassette player and pressed the play button. The video despite being so old ran smoothly. It featured a bride and a groom with a big crowd in a city hall and later in the synagogue.
The film proceeds on showing the newlyweds indulged in celebrations involving their family and closest friends. The siblings could not understand who were they. They had never seen any of them in their life
But soon they began to recognize faces. The bride and the groom in the video were their parents. It was their wedding video. They had never seen this video. Surprisingly, their parents too never revealed that they actually had a wedding video. However, apart from their parents, no matter how much they tried they could not figure out who was who in the video.
Boers responded, “I saw so many people in it that I didn’t know, aunts and uncles that I couldn’t identify.” So, this is why their parents kept it from their children as the memories of the past were unbearable. Moreover, none of those in the video were living so seeing the faces of gone loved ones must have been painful for the couple.
Boers revealed, “Most of the people that you see in this wedding movie were not alive a few years later.” “All of them were murdered in the camps. I never met them.” The video indeed was precious and featured an important part of history. So he thought of sharing it to the world.
He knew that his parents never wanted them to see the video but at the same time, it was important for the world to see how a war initiated for territories and dominance took many lives and ruined families.
Boers said it was, “highly emotional opportunity to see my grandparents, great-grandmother, uncles, aunties and many others just a few years before most of them were murdered by the Nazis.”
On one hand, he wanted to let the world know about the video and on the other, he thought about his parents who did not want this video to come out of that suitcase. He said, “My parents never spoke about the war and didn’t want to deal with what happened.”
However, Boers decided to put the video to the light. Boers who serves as a chairman of the Center for Research of Dutch Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem finally took the decision. Boers put the video on YouTube and also shared it with the film archive of the province of Friesland's staff.
Boers explains their reaction, "They fell off their chairs. They had been looking for years for documentation of the life of the local Jewish community and had reconciled themselves to the fact that it didn’t exist. ”
Frisian Film Archive's archivist, Syds Wiersma said, “for decades we’ve been looking for footage from the Jewish community before the war, and now here it is.”
The film not only depicts life before the war but more than that. “It offers hope — hope that not all the people in that film died in the camps, that a few managed to escape, after all,” Syds explained.
The Holocaust had nearly destroyed the Frisian Jewish community. And this video happens to be the only video featuring Frisian Jewish community before the tragic event. No doubt, it gathered views in lacs once the Frisian Film Archive launched it out. Don't you want to watch the video?
https://youtu.be/57z_bZ45Dv8
Clearly, in the video, the bride has donned a fitting satin wedding gown. She can be seen on a carriage drawn by a horse. She is riding the carriage with Barend Boers, her fiancé who is wearing a black suit. The sky is clear. It is one of the sunny days of spring.
Thereafter, the couple turns to a local synagogue from Leeuwarden City Hall. The video then focuses on the entry point of the shul that is crowded with men and women making into it. The crowd includes locals coming from the Jewish quarter of the same poverty-stricken, provincial city. They all have gathered to witness the affair.
The bride had two brothers and both of them were pilots. The one who served in the British army can be seen in the video whereas the other one who worked for the Dutch army was away taking a flight course.
And soon the video began capturing the interior of the synagogue. The synagogue is thronged with wedding guests. Abraham Salomon Levison is region’s chief rabbi officiate. The man is donning a black hexagonal hat.
Then is the reception in which the couple seems all relaxed. The reception took place at the German Eagle, the local Jewish kosher hotel. The camera pans over guests who are chit-chatting while drinking advocaat — Dutch eggnog and chuckles when seeing the camera. And lastly, the groom can be seen kissing his bride on the forehead.
The couple and the guests had no idea at that time that their life is going to change and in many cases is going to end in a matter of a year. It is heartbreaking to see innocent lives becoming a scapegoat in a war.
So, this is how an important part of history came to the light. The couple who managed to keep the video secret had no idea what were they keeping from the world.