Getting to know Joe VanRooyen all over again
Over the years many people in St. Johns got to know Joe VanRooyen and his family. We visited him in his shoe repair shop; we may have visited in his home. We saw the concentration camp numbers tatooed on his arms. We knew there was a story there, a story Joe was reluctant to talk about. One day he talked a little about his young years on the run from the Nazis and camping out with the Gypsies.
A few journalists got a little information from him. Tim Hulliburger interviewed Joe in his shop once and extracted a bare bones outline of his story. Arlene Lounds discovered a deeper relationship that Joe enjoyed with Fred Meyer when she discovered that Fred’s Army Air Force group had dropped food to Joe’s mother and younger siblings in the Netherlands just as WWII was ending.
A little while ago Barry was chatting with Joe’s widow, Carolyn Cox. “Carolyn said she would go out to the workshop in the garage, and she could hear Joe talking,” Barry says. “At first she thought he was talking to himself, and then she learned that he was talking into a microphone and recording himself on tape. Having done that he put it down on paper.”
What we have for you today is that journal in which Joe recorded his memories in his own hand and in his own words.
In a foreword to Joe’s work his son, Mike, says in part:
He was a great man; a man of integrity, honesty, bravery and genuine goodness. He will be greatly missed.
“There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.” -Mother Theresa
Joe’s early years
The war years
Moving on with life
Trudy and Joe’s Wedding Album – Hear Joe’s abbreviated version of his courtship of Trudy here too (Turn on your speakers.)
Download a copy of Joe’s Journal to your desktop. [PDF 545 kb]
Download a copy of Joe and Trudy’s Wedding Album to your desktop. [PDF 3.48 mb]
Hint: Right click on the link; choose Save Target As.
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