'I didn't know children died here'

Students of the SSgN listen attentively to Rob Jaspers' story.

Students SSgN silent upon hearing stories of war

Can you imagine going to school and never coming home again? That your classroom is hit by a bomb? Or that you survive, but your little brother doesn't? The students of the Stedelijke Scholengemeenschap Nijmegen (SSgN) are quiet about it.

Many third grade students have lived in (the vicinity of) Nijmegen all their lives. But if you ask them how Nijmegen was affected during the Second World War, they are unable to answer. Was there fighting, did bombs fall, and how many victims were there? They don't really know.

Rob Jaspers is a former journalist for De Gelderlander and knows a lot about the history of Nijmegen. He visits several schools to tell the stories of the bombing to the students. "Because I want to show what madness war is," he said.

At 15 or 16, the war feels far away. Yet young people are touched by the stories Jaspers tells. How in two minutes the inner city of Nijmegen was destroyed, killing almost 800 people and injuring thousands. That really hits home. Although most young people visit the center quite often to store or eat something, they have not really noticed that large parts of the city have been rebuilt. "Plein '44 used not to be a square, but on that spot ran three little streets where residents liked to go shopping," Jaspers says. "After the bombing, those were all destroyed."

The video showing old street scenes and the station as it looked before the war impresses. "Nijmegen was so elegant and chic," say Elise and Aenea. Ruby has walked past De Schommel's monument on Marikenstraat more often than not. "But I usually just come to store and never educated myself about it, so I just didn't know there was a school here where children died."

Grandpa and grandma were there

Things are different for Gina. Her whole family is from Nijmegen, and she has heard more than once how Nijmegen was affected during the war. "I believe a brother and sister of my grandfather were at that school, but they stayed home that day because they were sick. He told me that once. Not that my grandparents told me very much about it, because it wasn't something they liked to think back on. I did visit all kinds of museums about the war, such as the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek. As a result, I know pretty well what happened in Nijmegen."

The whole class listens for an hour to Jaspers' stories. To the big story about the enormous destruction, but also to the small anecdotes. Like about Cor den Hartog, who was a sales representative in a cookie factory and happened to be in Nijmegen that day for work. He was an excellent soccer player at Sparta and dreamed of a leap in his soccer career. But with the bombs, his dreams were also destroyed. He perished on Feb. 22, 1944.

SSgN students continue working on a project around war after the lesson on the bombing. They take an imaginary journey, taking their classmates on a presentation that combines history, poetry and literature. They can also contribute to the time capsule, in which everyone is invited to write down their dreams for the future. This time capsule will not be opened for another 45 years.