Portraits of families dislocated by war, then and now

Photo: The Van Noordenburg family.

Wherever a war rages, people are cast adrift. They have to flee because it becomes too dangerous, the occupier chases them away, their house is shot to pieces or the surrounding area is flooded. Entire families lose each other, living in fear of how their loved ones will fare. That was true in World War II, it is still true today.

The Infocentrum WO2 Nijmegen will soon devote an exhibition to it, fueled by experiences of the families of Henk Noordenburg in 1944 and of Ukrainian Kateryna Nazarenko now.

The Noordenburg family lived in the Betuwe in 1944. Originally the family consists of father Gerardus, mother Margaretha and fifteen children. In 1944 father and daughter Jans had already died. The family experienced the liberation of the Betuwe in all its intensity, from the landings of paratroopers to the flooding of the area by the Germans. She then has to leave.
Henk, one of the sons describes it like this in a letter:

"Jan comes into the basement. Henk what do we do? I say, grab horse and cart. Action. Effort. Soldiers help. They say across the Waal. Beds, some clothes, bread, children, mothers, Ant, Reed, Co, Toon on the wagon. Jan takes them away."

Some of the family ended up in the Nijmegen region, in Heumen and Appeltern. Others in the area of Breda, the last in Belgium. The Netherlands is torn into military zones, contact with other parts of the country is difficult, the telephone still barely functions. The siblings send letters to all the places where they suspect relatives. Who is still alive? Who is not? Fear. Worry.

Photo: Kateryna Nazarenko and her son Sacha in Nijmegen.

Anno 2023, 40-year-old Kateryna Nazarenko has one advantage over the Noordenburg family, if you can call it that: the cell phone. She and her 18-year-old son live as Ukrainian refugees in Nijmegen. Her mother, brother and other relatives are still in the Russia-ravaged homeland. At least they can have contact with each other. The fear and worry are not, however, any less.
Kateryna:

"Now that I am safe here in Nijmegen, I see and hear the reports of the Russian bombing of Odessa and Mykolajiv. My family lives there. It emotes me tremendously, I am scared and it hurts so much.''

Kateryna and her son live in a small accommodation in Nijmegen. When will they be able to return to Ukraine? No idea. When she will see her family again? Maybe her mother can come to Holland to celebrate Kateryna's birthday.

When the Noordenburg family returns to the Betuwe in 1945, after World War II, they find many houses destroyed, but mother, brothers and sisters are still alive. The story of this Betuwe family is the focus of "Het Mysterie," an interactive quest for children at the WW2 Infocentrum in Nijmegen.

To this will soon be added, as a reflection in time, the story of Kateryna Nazarenko and her family: a cinematic exhibition. This will create a link between then and now.
Kateryna does not know what the future will bring her and her family, but she is happy to cooperate with this double exhibition. "It is precisely the help we Ukrainians receive in the Netherlands that makes me so grateful. Therefore, with all my might, I also want to cooperate with your beautiful project about Freedom in the Rijk van Nijmegen."

When the double exhibition will launch is not yet clear, probably in late October.