Nel Lazeron
My mother, Nel Lazeron was in the Dam Square during the shooting. She was 14 years old and had followed the crowds.
Fred Landman
I do recall German soldiers knocking on doors and in some cases dragging people out of their homes and putting them on trucks, and were not seen again.
Jan Hoesman and Catharina Hoesman-Hubert
Jan Hoesman 1880-1956 and Catharina Hoesman-Hubert 1883-1967The married couple in this photo, made by Hans Sibbelee in de First Aid Department of the hospital ‘Binnengasthuis’ where the wounded were taken in. © Hans…
Franciscus Emilius Schaut
Franciscus Emilius (Frans) Schaut 1927-2010 Frans Schaut was 17 years old and was one of the injured persons who were brought in to the first aid post of the Binnengasthuis…
Willem Frederik Klaasen
Willem Frederik Klaasen *1930 I lived on the Willem de Zwijgerlaan, Amsterdam-West and was 15 years old. We had the permission from our mother to go to the Dam, the…
Femmigje Appelo
Femmigje Appelo 1915-2001 Second-cousin Marjolein: My great-aunt, Fem Appelo, started her training for nurse in 1934 by the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam. She had to interrupt her study because of…
Maria Jacoba Wijnberg-Koelman
Maria Jacoba Wijnberg-Koelman 1919-2010 Maria Jacoba (Rietje) Koelman married (in February 1945, at home, a minister was present, before the law they got married in August) with Salomon(Sambo) Wijnberg, 1922-2015,…
Klasina Anna van Moosel-Hartog
Klasina Anna van Moosel-Hartog 1912-1982 Klasina married in 1937 with Willem Frederik van Moosel, 1911 - 2007, they had two children. The family lived at the Lindengracht, during the war…
Oudhof-Wismeijer
Couple Oudhof-Wismeijer After reading the book Drama at the Dam I have the need for writing you. With tears in my eyes I read some parts, especially those of the…
Isa Timmers-Vliegenthart
Isa Timmers-Vliegenthart *1934 I was almost 11 years old and stood for hours at the Berlage bridge, waiting for the Canadians, together with my two girl friends, nearby my house.…
Henk Ras
Henk Ras *1940 The end of the War It was May 7. We knew that the War was over and that the Canadians would reach Amsterdam in the afternoon. My…
Jaap Beekhuis
Jaap Beekhuis *1931 As a boy of 14 years old I experienced a shooting. Monday May 7 1945, I stood at the Dam, with thousands of Amsterdammers, waiting for the…
J.G.J. ter Braak
J.G.J. ter Braak (1921-1995) Son Frank ter Braak: My mother M.S.I. ter Braak-Jentjens, 94 years old, has experienced World War II in Amsterdam and had heard about the tragedy at…
Irene van Lente
Irene van Lente *1939 I lived in the Raadhuisstraat, my father was the owner of a dairy under the gallery. Our two cousins from Arnhem stayed at our house when…
Kathleen Kohnstamm-Sillem
Kathleen Sillem *1922 Kathleen Sillem *1922, married secretly in 1944 with Max Kohnstamm *1914-2010 (a.o. private secretary of Queen Wilhelmina from 1945-1948). On May 7 1945 they walked together from…
Simpelaar en Net
Wilhelmina Gerardina Net (1921-2013) and Cornelis Jan Simpelaar(1918-1990) witnessed the shooting at the Dam. Their daughter Ilse wrote: I was touched by the article in the Telegraaf, this morning. My parents…
Hendrik Klaassen
Hendrik Klaassen (1931-2016) On May 7 1945 my father was visiting his aunt, she lived at the Nieuwendijk, and wanted to go to the Dam. He stood in the neighbourhood…
Julie Kretzschmar
Julienne Elisabeth Kretzschmar *1925 Astrid Biesheuvel, daugther in law: ‘January 13, I was visiting my mother in law. Meanwhile 91 years old, slightly demented, and trying to train her memory.…
Jan van Harlingen
Jan van Harlingen *1927 It’s a little what I can still remember. I was 18 years old and quite curious by nature. Our family used to live in the…
Leo Onclin
Leo Onclin *1938 I used to live in the Herenstraat 3 and I wasn’t allowed to go to the Dam. However, two words were of course interesting: ‘chocolate’ and ‘cigarettes’.…
Frits Bolte
Frits Bolte *1934 I was 11 years old, almost 12, with my parents we walked in the Paleisstraat; in the pram lay my brother who was then 9 months old. My…
Wiel van der Randen. May 8 1945
Wiel van der Manden registered this reports a day after the shooting. This articel was published at May 8 1947, in the "Katholieke Illustratie" as part of his report of…
Hans Vree
I’m almost 82 years old and I like to tell my story about my experience at the Dam on May 7 1945, I was then a boy of 12 years…
Wiel van der Randen
Wiel van der Randen was during the shooting present at the Dam. He was standing, with others, at the roof of the vicarage of the Nieuwe Kerk. Before, during and…
L.J. Kampen van Ommen
I was 11 years old when I went with my parents to the Dam. We stood in the middle when the shooting started. We came in an alley where I…
Tjerk de Boer
Witness from “Ons Amsterdam” by Tjerk de Boer, director of the Algemeen Handelsblad. “Monday morning arrived four Canadian tanks; they left later. The arrival of these tanks, was for the…
Aat Veldhoen
Arie Johannes Veldhoen was born on November 1 1934 at the 1e Kostverlorenkade 9, son of Johanna Margaretha Bläser and Arie Veldhoen, also an artist. On May 7 1945, Aat,…
P.K. Marquenie
In 1968 Mr. P.K.Marquenie wrote a letter to L.de Jong. A part of the letter is taking-over from the work of De Jong, The Kingdom of the Netherlands in the…
Gerard Wiegel
Gerard Wiegel *1926 Via Rob Kist we came in touch with his uncle, Gerard Wiegel, who, together with his sister, Rob’s mother Hendrika Maria Wiegel(1930-2011) were at the Dam on…
Dirk van Ginkel
Dirk van Ginkel send us this story: My mother, Maaike Altink and her eldest sister Petronella Ruys-Altink (they are 17 years apart), went together with Pieter, the youngest son of…
Joop van Beek
My name is Joop van Beek. Born in 1929. Those days I was 15 years old. Why did I go the the Dam? The rumor was that the Canadians would…
Gerrit Keet
Especially eyewitness reports can clarify by the reconstruction of specific events. My uncle Gerrit Keet (1922) lived during the war in Amsterdam. He was present by the shooting at the…
Cornelis Adrianus Burger
Cornelis Adrianus (Kees) Burger 1932-2016 Very interesting to read this all. My father was also wounded during the shooting and this has influenced his further life. He lived in the…
Gré Bouma-Hagemeijer
Gré Bouma-Hagemeijer *1939 Mrs. Gré Bouma-Hegemeijer approached us, with her statement, as a result of a newspaper report, but she appears to be one the writers from 2004 to Dora…
Jenneke Slingerland
We received from Maria Muijderman-Slingerland the witness of her mother Jenneke: My mother often told me about the incident at the Dam, once I took an interview about her life…
Leo Vleeschhouwer
"The war has taken away my childhood" On one site Leo Vleesschhouwer (Amsterdam, 1923) had a lot of luck in the war. He rescued his Jewish father from the Germans and…
Ludy Hoogvorst
Ludy Hoogvorst *1941 I was together with my mother at the Dam. I had to run on the hand of my mother when the shots fell. I saw a boy,…
Janny van Duijnen-Vink
Janny van Duijnen-Vink *1935 May 7 1945 What do you know as a 80 year old woman about what happened 70 years ago? I will never forget that afternoon and…
Impje Bes
Impje Bes *1942 My mother, more than 6 months pregnant of my brother, and I, 2.5 years old, lived temporarily by strangers in Amsterdam-West on a cold room on the attic.…
H.J. Mekkelholt
H.J. Mekkelholt (*1921) Two days after the liberation there is a liberation party at the Dam that results in a blood massacre.For Mr. Mekkelholt this day gets eventually a positive…