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The last week has been a little strange. We heard ten days ago of the unexpected death of Lisa van Meerten, who has been a long-term friend and supporter of the TRC, as well as a dedicated textile enthusiast who attended many TRC workshops. We attended her funeral on Monday and flowers were sent in the name of everyone at the TRC. All very sad.

Detail of an embroidered girl's dress, Kabul, Afghanistan, early 21st century (TRC 2008.0044b).Detail of an embroidered girl's dress, Kabul, Afghanistan, early 21st century (TRC 2008.0044b).

On Tuesday we went to a refugee camp in the province of Groningen, in the far northeast of the Netherlands, to take new and second-hand clothing to an Afghan couple with seven children between the ages of two and twelve. They had arrived from Afghanistan only a few weeks ago. All the Afghan refugees housed in the camp were especially invited and brought over to the Netherlands because of their links with the Dutch presence in the country between 2001 and 2021.

Willem had known and worked with the family when he was based in Uruzgan, in southern Afghanistan, between 2008 and 2011. Both the father and elder brother of the man had been killed during the war. We were struck by the sheer happiness of the Afghans and their children and their relief of being 'safe', and by the many activities that were organised to entertain them, including Dutch language sessions.

Gillian could laughingly commiserate with them about the Dutch language and its gutturals. She always thought that Dutch is a sore throat language. For Willem it was a brief encounter with Afghanistan; all the childen and adults still dressed in Afghan clothing, their hospitality, sense of humour, and overall gentleness and courtesy.

We briefly discussed the idea of asking some of the Afghan ladies in the camp to come to Leiden to look at our extensive Afghan textile and dress collection. They would particularly be asked to look at the embroidered items, and we would love to hear their comments and suggestions, and discuss how we can improve the collection and catalogue in terms of provenance, correct local terminology, as well as hearing and recording the stories behind some of the garments and what they mean to them.

The TRC is also thinking about setting up a small workshop where Afghan women can meet women from other immigrant communities and others to talk about their specific textile traditions. Dress is a silent language, but so are textiles, and in our experience it is often a great success to bring women together from different parts of the world and 'talk' about textiles without understanding each other's spoken language. In all, our brief stay with the Afghans was thought-provoking.

Handkerchief with the embroidered names of interned Nazi-sympathisers, Stadskanaal 1945 (TRC 2015.0193).Handkerchief with the embroidered names of interned Nazi-sympathisers, Stadskanaal 1945 (TRC 2015.0193).The next day we went to the small town of Stadskanaal for a very different mission, namely seeing the place where in 1945 a small handkerchief (TRC 2015.0193) was embroidered that is now in the TRC Collection. It was the subject of several blogs a few years ago when we had an exhibition about the history of the Second World War (1939-1945) told via textiles and clothing.

The handkerchief was embroidered in 1945 in an internment camp just outside Stadskanaal, in a straw cardboard factory called Ons Belang. The factory buildings were demolished in the 1980’s, but we really wanted to see the area and explore the layout of the land.

Straw cardboard factory 'Ons belang' in Stadskanaal, 1912.Straw cardboard factory 'Ons belang' in Stadskanaal, 1912.The handkerchief tells a disturbing story of internment camps for women who had been supporting and fraternizing with the Nazi-German occupying forces between 1940 and 1945. The handkerchief includes the embroidered names of many of the interned women, apparently proudly embroidered onto this piece of cloth. The contrast between this internment camp from 1945 and the place where Afghan refugees are housed right now could not be greater. 

On the same day we went to see the site of yet another camp with a most tragic history. Kamp Westerbork was built by the Dutch authorities in the late 1930s to house Jewish refugees from Germany. However, when the Germans occupied the Netherlands they turned the camp into a Durchgangslager (transit camp), where Jewish people were interned for sometimes a few days, sometimes a few weeks, before being transported to the extermination camps in Germany. More than 100,000 Jewish people passed through the camp. Few returned.

Immediately after the war, in a strange irony of the time, the barracks were used to house Dutch sympathisers with the Nazis (like the internment camp in Stadskanaal), and later they were used to accommodate refugees from the Dutch East Indies. The camp was demolished in the 1970s, but has since been developed into a memorial of the Holocaust.

How do you display and inform the public about the history and relevance of such a place? Collections of small and large suitcases, some with contents including clothing, were used to sobering effect.

Small cloth badge with a woven design of a Dutch woman in Staphorst regional dress and the name of Overijssel province (misspelt!) with the coat-of-arms of both the province and town (TRC 2021.2018e).Small cloth badge with a woven design of a Dutch woman in Staphorst regional dress and the name of Overijssel province (misspelt!) with the coat-of-arms of both the province and town (TRC 2021.2018e).And then in total contrast we went on to Staphorst in Overijssel province. This place is known for being one of the few villages in the Netherlands where women are still walking around in traditional clothing. We had a shopping list with the idea of going to a local textile shop, to make a reference collection of contemporary textiles suitable for the different elements of the regional clothing for both men and women. Sadly they were on holiday until the 3rd August. We will soon return....

What this trip to the northeastern provinces of the Netherlands has made very clear, again, is that the study of textiles and clothing can take you to so many different, exciting, mundane and at times totally depressing places, in this case three camps, each with a totally different character and history. We returned to Leiden feeling somewhat subdued.

Gillian and Willem Vogelsang, 31 July 2022


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