7 candles for freedom

Short stories from those involved
who have lived in fear
who have asked themselves: What is freedom?
who have asked themselves the question: How do we deal with freedom?

This ceremony of the seven candles was greatly appreciated by those present with prolonged applause.

It involved a conversation between some committed people, past and present, looking back at that black past and looking forward to a golden future. The seven groups each lit a candle and briefly told their stories.

The following topics were highlighted with an appropriate experiential story.

• 1st candle: The forgotten Holocaust. Bluma Meinhardt and Roger Moreno
• 2nd candle [1]: Brought to Valkenburg as a Jewish child by the resistance.
            [2]: Piet Cohen and Philip Soesan
• 3rd candle: Exciting times, those liberation days.
            Ans Crolla about her father Ton
• 4th candle: The resistance [1]. [1]. Two descendants of Valkenburg resistance fighters:
            Anton Laeven and Gerda Schunck
            The Resistance [2]. Gerda Schunck about “Paul Simons”
• 5th candle: What means freedom to me?
            A Valkenburg eyewitness: Adri van de Meiracker
• 6th candle: Two cousins born in a cave in Sept. 1944
            Frans Wolters Sibbergroeve (Sibbe quarry), Frans Wolters Heidegroeve
• 7th candle: We cherish freedom
            Global Exploration and Adelante

| resistance in Valkenburg | genocide of the Jews in Limburg | genocide of the Romani in Limburg and elsewhere | Germans killed in action in Valkenburg-Houthem |