From April 21 until the end of August 2026, the Nationaal Onderduikmuseum presents the special exhibition ‘Over Leven’ in the Marktkamer. The exhibition tells the poignant story of Jan Tolkamp, a resident of Aalten who survived several concentration camps as a forced laborer. His memoirs have been translated into a unique art project by artist Marijke van Dijk.

Jan Tolkamp was arrested on January 30, 1944, during the raid on the churches in Aalten. He survived Kamp Amersfoort and the horrors in Nazi Germany, including the Husum-Schwesing, Neuengamme, and Ravensbrück camps. Later in life, he held intensive conversations about these traces of the past with Marijke van Dijk.

A grain of sand in the desert of suffering

The conversations and Tolkamp’s impressive memoirs led in 2010 to a hand-printed, limited edition of the art book ‘Over Leven’. The exhibition displays this art book — a copy of which was donated to the museum by the family — along with the original artworks and Tolkamp’s raw, personal texts. As Van Dijk describes it: “It is his story, unique and yet not, because there are far too many stories of this kind. The suffering must not be forgotten.”