Yesterday, we got a surprise visitor in the person of Diet Eman, a Kentwood resident and former Dutch Resistance fighter during World War II. We sat and talked with Diet for close to an hour and were simply amazed at her stories of living in a concentration camp and receiving Red Cross packages, which turned her into a lifelong Red Cross volunteer who has since traveled all over the world.
She gifted some artifacts to our chapter, which can be seen here:
(Image 1: a Dutch Red Cross bag that reads “Help Us Help” and a copy of the needlepoint Diet made while imprisioned in the Vught concentration camp; Image 2: copies of a set of letters written to and from the Dutch Red Cross, in regards to the monthly packages she received while imprisoned; Image 3: A cover (copy) from one of the packages)
Look for her story (well, some of it anyway!) in the fall newsletter, set to come out in October 2009.
In the meantime, you can read her book, Things We Couldn’t Say, or watch the documentary, The Reckoning: Remembering the Dutch Resistance, where she is featured alongside five other extraordinary people.
Filed under: Red Cross History, Stories, Volunteering | Tagged: American Red Cross, concentration camp, Diet Eman, Dutch Red Cross, Dutch Resistance, grand rapids, michigan, red cross, World War II
[...] Red Cross Volunteer Posted on November 5, 2009 by Caroline Clunk A few months back, we wrote about how our office received a surprise visitor in the person of Diet Eman, a local WWII concentration [...]