Today is my 28th wedding anniversary. I still vividly remember my wedding day. It was the hottest day of the 20th century, at least in the town of Geleen, the Netherlands, where I got married. It was 42 degrees Celsius. Despite the heat, it was a beautiful day because both my and my wife’s family were there to celebrate the day with us.
I have often thought about how the day would have been without family.
The picture at the top of this post is the Wedding photo of two Jewish survivors: Isidor Sassen from Sittard and Rosalie Wijnbergen from Eindhoven. Isidor was the only Sittard Jew to return from Auschwitz, and Rosalie had gone into hiding with the Reformed Blok family in Heerlen. Both of their families were murdered. They got married in the garden of the Blok family in Heerlen. Completely penniless with no home, no money, and no family. Heerlen is only 15 km from Geleen, and Sittard is even nearer.
So many were married without their family or friends being present for the joyous occasion. They were not there because they didn’t want to attend but because they were murdered.
“As long as a name is mentioned, someone is not forgotten,” meaning if you mention the name of one person, that person is remembered. I know it sounds quite obvious, but when you think about it for a minute, it is the essential first step to ensure that the Holocaust will not happen again.
I will be mentioning more than one name, I will be mentioning all the names of the Jews of Heerlen who were murdered in the Holocaust. To give a context to it, Heerlen is a city in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. It is only a stone’s throw away from Germany, and it is also very near to my home town of Geleen. I would have often visited Heerlen. I also have family living there.
On 5 May 1998, a monument was revealed in Heerlen to remember all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, who were from Heerlen or who had lived there.
The text on the monument says
“BECAUSE THEY WERE JEWISH THESE CITIZENS FROM HEERLEN WERE CARRIED AWAY THEY DID NOT RETURN”
Lange Jan(Long John) was the name of the 135 meter(442ft) tall chimney of the former coal mine “Oranje Nassau 1” in Heerlen in  the province of Limburg in the south east of the Netherlands.
It had been erected in 1937/1938 and had been dominating Heerlen’s skyline. To put it in perspective the Big Ben tower in London is 96 meters (314ft)
The “Oranje Nassau I” had stopped production in 1974 therefore the tall chimney did not use any purpose anymore, The decission was therefore made to demolish the “Lange Jan” on the 21st of August, 1976.
However “Lange Jan” was not going away without a fight and plotted revenge by falling in the wrong direction after the explosives had been ignited,bringing down with it several power  cables.
The people from Limburg are very proud of their traditions therefore to commemorate the event they arranged for a symbolic funeral procession and even printed some prayer cards.
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History of Sorts 
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