Paying respect......what's in a Name?

September 23rd 2019, Ada Aukje Engel

For many years I have been following & visiting the Airborne Events, taking place every September in & around Arnhem, the area where my father was born and where I currently live. My father, who saw the whole operation Market Garden unfold as a teenager & had to evacuate the city eventually.

He told me many stories, knew everything about WW2 and Warbirds in particular. Living close to Oosterbeek, I have walked the Airborne walk a couple of times, alone and with family, run the Bridge to Bridge run in Arnhem, visited the war cemeteries and many other smaller monuments located around my neighbourhood.

Still I can't really imagine what it was like and how it must have been for the many soldiers who were encountering this heavy war episode & didn't survive it. I feel emotional and also a bit ashamed for being able to watch the para droppings and other remembrance events. For I am alive and so many lost their lives in a split second during that time, to give us freedom. 

I think, paying respect to War Victims, remembering Market Garden & other Warevents is very important and hopefully it will go on indefinitely. Sadly it will never replace the loss of lives or repair the hurt of broken families. Even when people are lucky enough to survive, War can remain a difficult topic during life as I have experienced myself in my family.

Some of you might have noticed that I started using two names a couple of years ago. For those who know me well, these names (Ada Aukje) have always been my names, being named exactly after my mother. My mother who, as a young girl, became a POW during WW2 at one of the Japanese Women Camps in Sumatra, Indonesia. She luckily survived, as did her mother (my grandmother), her brother (my uncle) and her dad (my grandfather), who spent tough years at Birma. Although my mother hardly spoke about it; I know her life was never the same since!

After she passed in 2015, I started using "our" names. I soon found out that it had a good practical use as well. Clients from the Netherlands seem to have no problem with my second name Aukje, whereas Foreign Relations prefer Ada without a doubt. This is my small way to pay a little respect to my mother and I am sure she would have liked it!