Ferry_vO
Retired SOH Administrator
I'll start with a little background information first. When my mother was in her twenties, she used to work with an older woman, Mrs. Nelly Vermeulen-Sopers, for an insurance company. Even though she left after a few years, they've been friends until both mrs. and mr. Vermeulen passed away. After Mr. Charles Vermeulen's death we were left with the task of cleaning up his house, as he only had one brother left who was in his eighties and they never had any children. However, my sister and myself acted as 'surrogate grandchildren' for them, and to us they were our grandparents.
Charles was quite a collector and he had a huge library, but he also kept every paycheck he and his wife every received and lots of other stuff!
One of the things I kept for myself are a series of Time-Life books about the history of aviation, books I used to read almost every time we've visited the couple.
Charles had two brothers as far as I can remember, the one that outlived him and another one that was killed on the first day of the German invasion of Holland, May tenth 1940. Charles had kept a lot of photos etc. to remember his brother, but his other brother collected most of it after his death. But inside small corners of the house, and sometimes inside books we did find a few more items. My father kept that in a little box in his house, but when he moved I managed to keep that little box for myself and I'm now busy scanning everything so I can keep a digital copy for the future.
There are some old postcards (Will scan those later for you Ralf!) and a few letters, but also some interesting WW2 related writings and photos.
This includes a hand-written copy of a manifest issued by the Dutch resistance, dated 1941. Having this in your possession in those days meant you could be arrested or worse! There are some hand-written copies of poems, one about British pilots and an alphabet (A is for Adolf.. etc etc)
I won't post most of that here since you can't read it anyway, but I also have some photos, mostly from our royal family, who escaped Holland and fled to Canada via England.
Here's a little item; the text reads "The Netherlands will rise again. From a free Dutch East-Indies a greet. Keep your spirit up!"
The 'Free Dutch East-Indies' indicates this was made prior to the Japanese invasion in March 1942.
Prince Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld, husband of princess Juliana, commander of the Dutch forces in exile in his uniform:
Prince Bernard again with his mother in law, queen Wilhelmina:
Our current queen Beatrix, with the words 'I will return!':
Our queen Beatrix again on the left, with her mother princess Juliana and her sister Irene and their home in Ottawa, Canada:
The same three once more:
It was highly illegal to own or spread photos like these in occupied Holland!
Charles was quite a collector and he had a huge library, but he also kept every paycheck he and his wife every received and lots of other stuff!
One of the things I kept for myself are a series of Time-Life books about the history of aviation, books I used to read almost every time we've visited the couple.
Charles had two brothers as far as I can remember, the one that outlived him and another one that was killed on the first day of the German invasion of Holland, May tenth 1940. Charles had kept a lot of photos etc. to remember his brother, but his other brother collected most of it after his death. But inside small corners of the house, and sometimes inside books we did find a few more items. My father kept that in a little box in his house, but when he moved I managed to keep that little box for myself and I'm now busy scanning everything so I can keep a digital copy for the future.
There are some old postcards (Will scan those later for you Ralf!) and a few letters, but also some interesting WW2 related writings and photos.
This includes a hand-written copy of a manifest issued by the Dutch resistance, dated 1941. Having this in your possession in those days meant you could be arrested or worse! There are some hand-written copies of poems, one about British pilots and an alphabet (A is for Adolf.. etc etc)
I won't post most of that here since you can't read it anyway, but I also have some photos, mostly from our royal family, who escaped Holland and fled to Canada via England.
Here's a little item; the text reads "The Netherlands will rise again. From a free Dutch East-Indies a greet. Keep your spirit up!"
The 'Free Dutch East-Indies' indicates this was made prior to the Japanese invasion in March 1942.
Prince Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld, husband of princess Juliana, commander of the Dutch forces in exile in his uniform:
Prince Bernard again with his mother in law, queen Wilhelmina:
Our current queen Beatrix, with the words 'I will return!':
Our queen Beatrix again on the left, with her mother princess Juliana and her sister Irene and their home in Ottawa, Canada:
The same three once more:
It was highly illegal to own or spread photos like these in occupied Holland!
