Marga Minco (; born Sara Menco; 31 March 192010 July 2023), for some time known as Marga Faes, was a Dutch journalist and writer, and a
Holocaust survivor
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...
Ginneken
Ginneken en Bavel was a municipality in the Dutch province of North Brabant, located southeast of the city of Breda. It covered the villages of Ginneken (now a neighbourhood of Breda) and Bavel.
Ginneken en Bavel existed until 1942, when the vil ...
on 31 March 1920 to an
Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...
family. Her father was Salomon (1887–1943), and was ''parnas'' (warden) in the local Jewish community; he may have worked as a salesman. Her mother was Grietje Minco-van Hoorn (1889–1943). She had a brother, David, and a sister, Bettie. The family moved to Breda, a predominantly
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
town near her birthplace, when Sara was a young girl, and she went to the local public school.
Career and WWII
Minco began work as a trainee journalist at the ' in 1938, first writing about films, and then eventually becoming a member of the editorial staff. Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, and even before proclamation by the occupying forces of anti-Jewish measures, she was fired by order of the newspaper's
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
-sympathizing board.
In the early part of World War II Minco lived in
Breda
Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...
,
Amersfoort
Amersfoort () is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht, Netherlands. As of 31 January 2023, the municipality had ...
, and
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. She contracted a mild form of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
and ended up being treated in hospitals in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...
and Amersfoort. In the autumn of 1942 she returned to Amsterdam and her parents, who were forced by the German occupiers to move into the city's
Jewish Quarter Jewish Quarter may refer to:
*Jewish quarter (diaspora), areas of many cities and towns traditionally inhabited by Jews
*Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem), one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem
*Jewish Quarter (), a popular name ...
.
Later in the war, Minco's parents, her brother, and her sister were all deported, and she was the only who managed to escape by running out of the back door. Having escaped arrest herself she spent the rest of the war in hiding, after bleaching her hair and obtaining a fake ID card. She was the family's only survivor. She also received a new name, Marga Faes, the first part of which she continued to use.
Marriage and family
Minco met poet, journalist and translator (1918–1992), in 1938 while working at the ''Bredasche Courant''. Voeten was not Jewish and her parents were not pleased with the match while they were alive.
Voeten was forced to leave Breda in early 1940, along with thousands of other evacuees, fleeing across the border into Belgium. For three years, Voeten believed that Minco had been killed, until she managed to phone him in 1943.
Towards the end of the war, while Minco was in hiding under a false identity, and moved into an empty house in Amsterdam along with a group of artists and students, Voeten moved into the house. This house was portrayed in her novel ''Een leeg huis'' (''The Empty House''). In 1944 the couple had a daughter named Bettie after Minco's sister, who had died in the Holocaust.
They married after the war had ended, in August 1945, and both of them worked on a number of newspapers and magazines. In 1956 they had a second daughter, .
Minco and Voeten lived from 1949 to 1970 in Witsenhuis in Amsterdam.
Bert Voeten died in 1992, and is buried in the Zorgvlied cemetery.
Later life and death
Minco
turned 100
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...
in March 2020, and died on 10 July 2023, at the age of 103.
Writing
In 1957 Minco published her first book, ' ("Bitter herbs"), in which a nameless character goes through war experiences reminiscent of the author's. The title of her later book ''Een leeg huis'' ("An empty house") refers not only to the demolished house that the protagonist finds after emerging from hiding at the end of the occupation but also to the emptiness that she and her friend Yona experience in the postwar years, to which was added the distance and sometimes even hostility displayed by many people in the Netherlands towards returnees from the
concentration camp
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
s. This phenomenon was further described by Minco in her collection of short stories, ''De andere kant'' ("The other side").
Existentialism
Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...
imposes a special tightness on her work. The main characters, often survivors of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
, experience their lives as meaningless. Often, they have survived the war only by a series of coincidences, while their loved ones have been murdered. Frieda Borgstein, for example, in the novella ''De val'' ("The Fall"), manages by chance to survive the whole war without falling into the hands of the Nazis who have taken her husband's life. She dies, nevertheless, just before her 85th birthday, by falling accidentally into an unprotected well.
Awards
* 1957 – Bureau voor Postreclame en Adressen De Mutator N.V., Short story prize for ''Het adress''
* 1958 – Vijverberg Prize for ''Het bittere kruid''
* 1999 – Annie Romein Prize, for her entire oeuvre
* 2005 –
* ''Het bittere kruid – een kleine kroniek'' (1957) (Bitter herbs – a little chronicle)
* ''Het adres'' (1957) (The address)
* ''De andere kant'' (collection) (1959) (The other side)
* ''Tegenvoeters'' (with Bert Voeten) (1961) (Antipodeans)
* ''Kijk 'ns in de la'' (1963) (Have a look in the drawer)
* ''Het huis hiernaast'' (1965) (The house next door)
* ''Terugkeer'' (1965) (Return)
* ''Een leeg huis'' (1966) (An empty house)
* ''Het bittere kruid / Verhalen / Een leeg huis'' (1968) (Bitter herbs / Stories / An empty house)
* ''De trapeze 6'' (with Mies Bouhuys) (1968)
* ''De dag dat mijn zuster trouwde'' (1970) (The day my sister got married)
* ''Meneer Frits en andere verhalen uit de vijftiger jaren'' (1974) (Mr Frits and other stories from the fifties)
* ''Je mag van geluk spreken'' (in ''
Bulkboek
Bulkboek (formerly BulkBoek) is a Dutch organization that promotes the reading and study of literature. It began in the early 1970s by issuing cheap reprints of Dutch classic literary works, printed on newsprint in a tabloid newspaper format, for ...
'' 46, 1975) (Talk about lucky)
* ''Het adres en andere verhalen'' (1976) (The address and other stories)
* ''Floroskoop – Maart'' (1979) (Floroscope – March)
* ''Verzamelde verhalen'' 1951–1981 (1982) (Collected stories)
* ''De val'' (1983) (The fall)
* ''De glazen brug'' ( ''Boekenweekgeschenk'' 1986) (The glass bridge)
* ''De glazen brug'' (with Loe de Jong): ''De joodse onderduik'') (1988) (The glass bridge / Jews in hiding)
* ''De zon is maar een zeepbel, twaalf droomverslagen'' (1990) (The sun is but a soap bubble, twelve dream reports)
* ''De verdwenen bladzij – verhalenbundel voor kinderen'' (1994) (The missing page – stories for children)
* ''Nagelaten dagen'' (1997) (Bequeathed days)
* ''De schrijver'' (a literary relay with
Harry Mulisch
Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch (; 29 July 192730 October 2010) was a Dutch writer. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections. Mulisch's works have been translated into 38 languages so far.
Along with Willem Fre ...
,
Gerrit Komrij
Gerrit Jan Komrij (30 March 1944 – 5 July 2012) was a Dutch poet, novelist, translator, critic, polemic journalist and playwright. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s, writing poetry that sharply contrasted with the free form poetry, free- ...
,
Adriaan van Dis
Adriaan van Dis (Bergen aan Zee, 16 December 1946) is a Dutch author. He debuted in 1983 with the novella ''Nathan Sid''. In 1995 his book ''Indische Duinen'' (''My Father's War''), which in its narrative is a follow-up to his debut novella, wa ...
,
Maarten 't Hart
Maarten 't Hart (born 25 November 1944 in Maassluis) is a Dutch writer. Trained as a biologist in zoology and ethology at the Leiden University, he taught that subject before becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, having made his debut as a ...
,
Remco Campert
Remco Campert (28 July 1929 – 4 July 2022) was a Dutch author, poet and columnist.
Early years
Remco Wouter Campert was born in The Hague, son of writer and poet Jan Campert, author of the poem ''De achttien dooden'', and actress Joekie Bro ...
,
Hugo Claus
Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (; 5 April 1929 – 19 March 2008) was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, novels, and poetry; he also lef ...
, and
Joost Zwagerman
Johannes Jacobus Willebrordus "Joost" Zwagerman (; 18 November 1963 – 8 September 2015) was a Dutch writer, poet and essayist. Among his teachers was the novelist Oek de Jong.
Early life and education
Johannes Jacobus Willebrordus Zwage ...
) (2000) (The writer)
* ''Decemberblues'' (2003)
* ''Storing'' (stories) (2004)
* ''Een sprong in de tijd'' (essay written for the
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces me ...
ceremony in
Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam
The Nieuwe Kerk (, ) is a 15th-century church in Amsterdam located on Dam Square, next to the Royal Palace. Originally a Roman Catholic church, it became a Dutch Reformed Church church in 1578. It now belongs to the Protestant Church in the Nethe ...
, and delivered by her daughter Jessica Voeten) (2008) (A leap in time)