This picture, taken in 1946, is of a classroom in a Swedish school on the island of Rörö. I am sitting there somewhere in the back, an 11 years old Dutch boy. Thanks to a Swedish organization called "Föreningen Rädda Barnen", "The Save the Childen Organization". my parents could send me to Sweden for a year of rest and recouperation after the end of WWII and the occupation of The Netherlands. I and hundreds of other children were found foster families who were willing to adopt us and take care of us as their own. I found a home with Karin and Edvard Edvardsson and their three daughters Edith, Kerstin and Elsebritt. They lived on a small island in Gothenburg's Northern Archipelago. After my return home, we stayed in contact and I visited them a few times. But over the years we lost that contact. The last time I flew to Sweden was in 1982. Then I decided I should revisit my second homeland and try and find my foster family back. That is why the picture is there and why I traveled again to Gothenburg in 2005. |
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