Engelbregt album (2) - a photo on Flickriver

            A photoalbum from my own collection, there is no background information apart from what I deduced from the pictures.
If there is anything you can tell me about these photos, please let me know.

What I've learned so far;
This is the story of some Dutch young men and their friends before and during WW2.
The album is a bit chaotic, pictures from very different years and locations have been mixed up.
It starts as a holiday album but either the album has been put back together in the wrong order or maybe later older photos were added because the owner didn't or couldn't use another album.
In 1936 there was a holiday to Hilvarenbeek. Heerlen and Arnhem, when the original owner of the album might have stayed at a youth hostel.
In 1939 they went on holiday to Belgium.
Pictures taking during that holiday show "father and mother" at the Gordelweg, but I am not sure if these are indeed the parents of the album owner because sometimes at youth hostels that is what they call(ed) the hosts.
I think they stayed at a youth hostel in Belgium at the Gordelweg and Talmastraat.
Pictures in this album were taken in Voorburg, Moordrecht, Namen, Dinant, Roermond, Bruxsells, Gileppe, The Hague, Blijdorp, Vise, Gouda, Heerlen, Klimmen, Rockanje, Rotterdam, Mechelen, 

In March 1940 there is a picture of a young man in a Dutch army uniform.
It seems like our album owner or someone close to him was mobilised.
Later there is a photo of a monument for the dead of the May 1940 invasion and another photo of another soldier.
There is a group photo of Dutch soldiers next to a photo of a wooden gate with flowers and wreathes in front of it.

In 1944 a picture was taken in Bussum.
Also in 1944 the owner of our album was forced to do manual labour for the German occupier, a picture of the group he was in was taken on the day of the invasion.

There are two pictures of young men with names, Wim and Frans Engelbregt.
I've found Wim in the NIOD war archives because he kept heavily illustrated diaries that are part of the collection there.
He writes a lot about summer holidays in the south of the Netherlands.
This all matches the album rather perfectly so I am assuming this album belonged to Wim or someone very close to him.

In 1944 there is a sports event for people involved with the food distribution in The Hague in 1944.
Which sounds like a job that could have kept Wim safe from being ordered to do forced labour by the Germans, but it seems like it wasn't or maybe Wim did something else that got him in trouble because there are two photos of Wim as a skipper in 1944, but it is a cover.
He is pretending to be one to hide from the Germans, we call that "diving under", he probably did this to avoid being send to Germany for forced labour.

One photo shows Frans in German in 1944 in a dark room, it could be a barack, was he caught and forced to work in Germany or did he volunteer?
Is this the reason Wim went into hiding?

There is a family photo lf the Engelbregt family.
From the archives I know the sister is called Regina.
There is also a photo of Mr & Mrs. Engelbregt Sr. in Gouda, who appears to be the grandparents of our album owner.

There's another name, a young man with a bicycle called Dick Steensma, near Blijdorp in 1936.
There is a couple called Rien and Annie who live in Moordrecht.

I think it is Wim who dressed up as Black Piet in two nice Saint Nicolas group photos.

There are also two group photos showing office staff and finally the album ends with a photo of a bearded man at a hostel in Vieuxville in 1939.

So I think this album likely belonged to Wim Engelbregt.
If it is him, he was born in 1920 in Rotterdam, got his bookkeeping diploma in 1939 and became an assistant accountant.
His father lost his store during the German bombing of this city in 1940.
His best friend Tom died during another bombing.
The albums, letters, drawings and postcards that are stored at the NIOD can only be viewed with special permission.



   

Taken on: July 22, 2019

Tags:

wim engelbregt

frans engelbregt

den haag

photoalbum

fotoalbum

photo

album

found

lost

old

1930s

1940s

ww2

1940

mobilisatie

mobilisation

Rotterdam « less

Sets appears in: • Engelbregt album • Found photo's

Groups appears in: • Found photos detectives • The lost photos detective more » • Photo Detectives « less

Stats: 2,036 views

go back

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: