February strike took Tinie's dad lives: Message lives on

She got to know him by reading more than 500 papers. Joop IJisberg was one of the men who made ​​sure the strike - one of the greatest acts of defiance - was headed in the right direction, but before that was later executed by the Germans. Tinie was two. "I see his message lives on."

It has become a part of her identity. All her life is long Tinie (now 76) to commemorate the February strike on February 25. After World War II with her ​​mother. Later Tinie took away her children. And from 1981 she was always there as a member of the committee organizing the commemoration.

,, And every time I stand at the statue of the Docker on Jonas Daniel Meijer Square, I feel that pride again. The pride for my father, because of the person he was, the message for which he stood.

taking
It was February 25, 1941 when Joop IJisberg, tram conductor of the municipal transport company, went to work to strike. The persecution of Jews in the capital had the days before peaking. Over 400 Jews were discharged after raids.

,, My father did not live in a society in which people were humiliated and deported. It was for him no option not to act, "said the now former chairman of the committee. So Joop went to the depot to convince his colleagues not to ride in protest against the persecution of their Jewish fellow citizens.

,, I was two. Six months after the strike, my father was arrested by the Germans. I was three when he was shot, "said Tinie. ,, The feeling of impotence after that, which was really for. A mother stayed behind with her ​​children. No one could do something." Her father was not spoken at home. Tinie think it is partly because Joop his wife "Please be happy," had given the order. The family had to move.

notes
In the 80s Tinie got to really know her father only. When family she took a box of Joop notes on. More than 500 were there, written by him in the six months he was imprisoned. ,, They were all, one by one smuggled out of prison. He must have written every day, on pieces of cardboard packages, pieces of cigarette paper, on whatever he had available. "

The notes were addressed to his wife and children. It took years Tinie them to read. It has long been an emotional issue for women. ,, It was so sad to read the impotence of the man so. "He was a caring man, as it turned out for Tinie. ,, He wrote about getting the coal. We had to strike time and we eat at such and such a person had to go long. In one of his last letters, he wrote that he hoped his actions would not have been for nothing and he wished us a happy life. "

pride
The pain of his loss is worn. ,, The Remembrance Day on 4 May, I think of him, my father, at the commemoration of the strike, I think mainly on his actions and what that meant. What now prevails is proud. That people now, 75 years later, still understand what this has meant my father and have respect for what he stood for. That young people today are in and doing. "

The ceremony of remembrance start Thursday at 16:30 at the Jonas Daniel Meijer square. Tinie will be there again. Along with King Willem-Alexander, two strikers and the children at school who adopted the statue of the Docker, she will lay a wreath. During the commemoration of the strike and the role of her father's pride will dominate it. ,, His message lives on and is still relevant today. "

minute of silence
Actually began the 75th anniversary of the February strike on Monday for Tinie. The Amsterdam Municipal Transport Company, for which her ​​father worked, named a hall after him. It was a nice tribute. Tinie also heard it from the minute's silence on Thursday morning took place at 11:00 . ,, I wanted to experience. For the first time since 1941 would be of the public transport trams and buses stop. "With daughter Mary was she stepped on line 14, which then stopped at the Rozengracht. ,, Mayor Van der Laan was there. It was great. At the same time I thought "my mother had just been through this. '"

Source: http://www.ad.nl/   By: Kees Graafland Photo: Screenshots AT5 / Fotomontage AD