Jan. 27 was Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would like to thank Kris Holloway and John Bidwell for their guest column in Tuesday’s Gazette “Holocaust Remembrance Day: ‘Never a bystander,’” bringing attention to this day and underlining the importance of bystander actions.
My grandfather, Christiaan de Jong, grew up in Leiden, the Netherlands, and became a teacher and the vice principal of his town’s high school. He, my grandmother, and their three teenage children (one being my mother) looked on in horror as the Nazis overran their country.
Many in the Netherlands were complicit with Nazi rule, but there were also many others who bravely resisted, my grandfather among them. He assisted Jewish high school students in acquiring alternate identification cards, and he and my grandmother hid a friend, a Jewish college student, in a back bedroom for several months. For this action, the entire family could have been deported or killed if discovered.
He was outspoken against the atrocities of the Nazi regime when many people feared to say anything. You simply could not trust your neighbors. On Jan. 4, 1944 my grandfather and two others, all three well-known and respected community members, lost their lives when they were taken out of their homes and shot, in retaliation for the attempted murder of a Nazi official by resistance members.
My grandfather was most likely betrayed by some members of his very own school committee who were Nazi sympathizers and well aware of his views. I ask myself, would I be as brave in those circumstances? I just don’t know, but I hope so. Meanwhile, we can all raise our voices about numerous urgent issues, rising hate and antisemitism among them. Decide to say or do something, somewhere, sometime soon. Participate. Write a letter. Go to a rally. Call your representative. Donate to a cause. Pay attention. Get involved in some way.
Passivity and indifference are not among the options here.
Carmen Junno
Florence