Martin Veltman (* 1943) was born during the war, the son of a Jewish mother whose father was a communist resistance fighter. His father was betrayed after collaborating in organizing the February Strike against the Nazi regime in Hilversum Netherlands and the family was soon betrayed. Baby Martin’s false identity was forged and he was registered as Martin Faber, the surname of the family that took him in together with his mother. After only a few short weeks, he was separated from his mother and hidden in another location. His father ended up in the concentration camps of Vught and Dachau, from which he managed to escape toward the end of the war. Martin’s mother also joined the resistance and took on courier duties – an extremely dangerous task for a Jewish woman. All three of them survived the war and were reunited as “a family,” who felt like strangers to each other. The traumatic experiences of disruption and terror as well as the long period of separation scarred them. Martin Veltman has spoken to schoolchildren about the circumstances of his life, seeking to impart the harmful consequences of intolerance and to inspire respect for others. In his book “Ik heb niets voor de winter” (I Have Nothing for the Winter), Martin Veltman recounts the war experiences of his parents – the story of two young communist resistance fighters during the Nazi era.
