Also My Holocaust - Bearing the Pain of our Ancestors

Maurits de Bruijn is the son of a mother who was given to the neighbours as a baby when her parents and two sisters were deported to Sobibor in WWII. He is also writer, queer, Jewish, raised in a reformed home and brother of a boy who disappeared.

On Dutch National Remembrance Day (Nationale Dodenherdenking) De Bruijn will give a lecture about a life shaped by others, genes, experiences, our environment, and upbringing -- in which World War II still reverberates. He will plea for a more inclusive, contemporary approach to the commemoration of the Holocaust and share his views on the importance of paying attention to intergenerational trauma. 

This event is organized on the occasion of Nationale Dodenherdenking (National Remembrance Day / Commemoration of the dead). Ever since 1946, the Netherlands has remembered its war dead on the 4^th of May. On this day we commemorate those who were killed during World War II and during wars or peacekeeping missions after WW II.

Maurits' latest novel 'Man maakt stuk' has been shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2025. The winner will be announced on May 19th.