Why Truus Wijsmuller Archives?

TRUUS WIJSMULLER ARCHIVES

On March 8, 2020 – not at all coincidentally coinciding with International Women’s Day - the premiere of the documentary Truus' Children took place in the prestigious Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam. In attendance were some of Truus’ Children who flew in from over the world, a few of them even accompanied by their children and grandchildren. Little did we know that for most of us, this would be the last time we were to visit a theatre, or any other public place, for a long time: the world came to a standstill due to the Covid pandemic, and the documentary did not get to travel around the world as planned, to be screened during various film festivals. But we did use the time when the world was ‘closed down’ wisely, and were able to help organize many impactful online screenings in several parts of the world, bringing together audiences from different countries, ages, and religions. The Q&A sessions were deep and meaningful and also made us realize a very important thing: apart from the documentary itself, we had something very special in our hands, namely a total of 90 (!) hours of interviews that we had taped for the documentary.

Already during the filming of Truus' Children, and even more during the lengthy process of editing these almost 90 hours of film, we started to realize that with all the interviews, the documents that we were able to collect during the research, the unique archive images that we found back, and the letters/documents that were provided to us by the 'Children of Truus', we have gathered material with great historical value and we better make sure this doesn’t get ‘lost’.

And so the idea for the Truus Wijsmuller Archives (TWA) was born, a digital platform that is now accessible to as many people as possible all over the world: from pupils, students and teachers to scientists and researchers. The advantage of this digital form is not only that it is accessible from wherever you are, but also that we as compilers will be able to add any new material that may come our way in the future.

By setting up this archive, important historical material is being stored in an orderly manner and made accessible for everyone, certainly also for younger interested parties, and thus preserved forever.

The reactions of some of the over 1 million viewers that have already seen the documentary, have made it very clear that there is still a great need to know more about this part of our modern war history. The Truus Wijsmuller Archive will meet this need.

Through seeking collaboration with several historical archives in the world, we are building a network that will make us visible to more and more people; not only in Truus Wijsmuller’s native Netherlands, but certainly also far beyond.

This Truus Wijsmuller Archive wants to honor all the brave people who faced the Nazi regime, who fought, who helped, who were there for people in need, and to honor the survivors, who showed us the courage to share their stories by going back into their memory to remember what happened almost 80 years ago. We owe them this Archive.

Pamela Sturhoofd & Jessica van Tijn