In May 1943, a 20-year-old Jewish woman was arrested in Amsterdam and transported more than 1000 kilometres by train to be murdered, because the man who had given her refuge was betrayed to the Nazis by his vindictive ex-wife. The man survived Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme, but...
...died at the age of 45 in 1955. The vindictive ex remarried after the war and lived happily (presumably) ever after until the summer of 1981, when she passed away at the venerable age of 73.
If nothing else, writing non-fiction will teach you there is no such thing as karma.
If nothing else, writing non-fiction will teach you there is no such thing as karma.
What interesting to note is that the policeman on desk duty reported the arrest in detail, not only including dates of birth, addresses and full names of all involved, but also the service numbers of the arresting officers, who will have known what fate awaited the young woman.
Almost as if he hoped someone would find the information, so that justice might be served.
The young woman’s mother and sister survived the war. Helène and her father were among the 230 Jewish neighbours from my street in Amsterdam who were deported and murdered during WWII. We are currently researching and reconstructing these lost lives using various archives.
This is the only photo of Helène I could find. It’s part of a grade-3 group photo, for which the girls were apparently encouraged to bring dolls to school. 
We’re rounding off the research and I’m now writing the family histories. The next step is to approach poets worldwide, who will use the histories to celebrate my neighbours’ lives in verse. The project originally called #MurderedNeighbours has now evolved into #Unforgotten.
Thank you, friends, for your heartwarming response and support. People sometimes complain about the brutal nature of this fine platform, but I’m glad to say I have mostly encountered cooperation, solidarity and, yes, atrocious puns.
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