Jack, now 82 years old, sees it as his task, on the one hand, to remember the dead - including and especially his family - and, on the other, to show with his biography that it would not have had to end in chaos for so many, many people if only there had been enough people to help. Because help was possible, as his life shows.
When little Jack was two months old, his father and two brothers were deported from Amsterdam via Westerborg to the Sobibor extermination camp in 1943, where they were murdered. A short time later, his mother was also picked up and taken to Auschwitz. Neighbors involved in the resistance against the Nazis take in the baby and his older sister and pass them on to a group desperately trying to save Jewish children by passing them on to Christian families, who then pass them off as their children. According to Jack, blond children were placed in families in the north of the Netherlands, while dark-haired children were sent to South Limburg. This is how Jack and his sister Fanny came to Brunssum with around 250 other children. It was only as an adult that he set out in search of his family and his history. Fanny, however, seven years older than her brother, cannot and will not talk about her memories. Jack Aldewereld learns the bitter truth about the murder of his family by talking to people in the places where his family lived. Because they remember, Jack learns about his Jewish identity and from then on works in the fight against marginalization and for the reappraisal of National Socialist crimes. He has been telling his story ever since.
The students in the library, which was packed to the last seat, listened spellbound and moved as Jack used his life story to promote tolerance and human coexistence. Afterwards, they had many questions, both about his life story and the relevance of the topic in 2026. "What would you say to a neo-Nazi?" one pupil wanted to know. "Visit Auschwitz. See what happened, then it wouldn't happen." Had he visited Auschwitz himself? "No, I don't think it would be good for me. I don't think I would have the courage. My mother died there."
Many students are also concerned about whether Jack fears that history is repeating itself with regard to the war in Gaza. "Politically, I can't judge that, I live in the Netherlands," says Jack. "But humanly I can say: a mother in Gaza cries for her child just like a mother in Israel. And it's always like this: a war never has a winner."
Jack was accompanied by his wife Ina and the deputy mayor of the municipality of Brunssum, Hugo Janssen, who invited pupils and teachers to take a walk of remembrance in his town. Brunssum has set itself the task of preserving the places where over 200 children of Jewish families were able to survive in order to keep the power of courage and humanity alive for future generations to experience. The HHG gladly accepts the invitation to take a tour.
Since 2012, the Heinrich Heine Comprehensive School has commemorated the victims of the Shoah every year on January 27. With special activities in all year groups, pupils and teachers confront the atrocities of the National Socialists and remind themselves of their individual responsibility for humanity, tolerance, honesty and courage. In times when anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism are on the rise, wars are stirring up hatred, people are suffering under the power ambitions of their leaders and children are dying between the fronts, the Laurensberg Comprehensive School considers it one of its most important tasks to show young people how dangerous intolerance, racism and disenchantment with democracy are if they are allowed to flourish unchecked. A conscious examination of this history strengthens skills such as empathy, civil courage and critical thinking so that pupils can take responsibility and make human rights-oriented decisions. Through concrete stories and testimonies such as that of Jack Aldewereld, history becomes tangible, prevents the suppression of painful truths and shows the individual consequences of hatred, violence and neglect of the rule of law.