Testimonies

In 1992 a transport plane crashed into two blocks of flats in the district Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam. Dozens of people were killed. Although no one filmed the actual crash, there was only footage of the scene after the catastrophe, many people stated that they had seen the plane go down. Even when they were in no position to witness the event.

Many years after the Second World War some of the survivors of concentration camps testified about their encounter with dr. Mengele. Even though they had never actually met dr. Mengele as he had never visited the camp where they were imprisoned. After World War II he became the most vicious icon of the concentration camps because of his horrifying medical experiments on the prisoners. His name became a symbol for the fears and tortures the prisoners endured.

When I was four my younger brother died. I have hardly any memories of him, not even of his dying days. Nevertheless I withhold two images of his death which give me great sorrow. About thirty years later I spoke to my father about these images. He told me that I could not have experienced my brother’s death the way I thought because this was not how it had happened. They were fictitious images.

Ronald Ophuis