They wouldn’t let me compare Gaza to the Japanese internment camps On Wednesday 16 July 2025 I was due to be interviewed by one of the Dutch daily newspapers about 15 August – the anniversary of the day on which we inmates of […]
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TRANSLATION IN INDONESIAN: The Book Four Turns in Our Existence
TRANSLATION IN INDONESIAN: The Book Four Turns in Our Existence Recently the memoirs of my parents, Wim F. Wertheim and Hetty Wertheim-Gijse Weenink, “Four Turns in Our Existence, The Lost Indies, Indonesia Born” (1991), is translated into Indonesian and published by OBOR Publishers in […]
Read MoreAnne-Ruth Wertheim: ‘Racism isn’t just about contempt, but also about jealousy.’
Anne-Ruth Wertheim: ‘Racism isn’t just about contempt, but also about jealousy.’ Translation of an interview with Ewoud Butter for the Dutch opinion website and monthly journal De Kanttekening, dated 12 March 2025 Anne-Ruth Wertheim (b. 1934) studied biology at the University of Amsterdam, and […]
Read MoreTime to look at history from the point of view of the arms industry?
Time to look at history from the point of view of the arms industry? How did we end up in a situation where there is increasing talk of an emerging Third World War? A look back at a century in which the arms industry […]
Read MoreThe prevailing racism is becoming even more malignant
The prevailing racism is becoming even more malignant: more distrust and envy, less disdain. Discussions about racism or racial prejudice are still mainly focused on who can and who cannot be called ‘racist.’ The question of what actually constitutes racism is not asked as […]
Read MoreThe embarrassingly belated acknowledgement of 17 August 1945
The embarrassingly belated acknowledgement of 17 August 1945 Anne-Ruth Wertheim The recognition of the real date of the origin of the Republic of Indonesia has cost the once colonizing Netherlands a lot of headaches. But now that the Netherlands has finally found the courage […]
Read MoreFrom exploitation racism to competition racism
From exploitation racism to competition racism Anne-Ruth Wertheim In this piece I describe how I came to predict in 1993 that in the years to come the prevailing racism would change its character and become more vicious. There would be a shift from exploitation […]
Read MoreTwo guises of racism, disdain as well as envy
Two guises of racism, disdain as well as envy Anne-Ruth Wertheim Discussions still focus on who can and who cannot be called racist, while the question of what racism actually is, is posed much less and is often fobbed off with vague descriptions in […]
Read MoreUnexplainable sounds entered our Japanese internment camp
Unexplainable sounds entered our Japanese internment camp Proclamation of the Republic of Indonesia, August the 17th 1945 Anne-Ruth Wertheim In this article I describe how our family was in the neighborhood when on August the 17th of 1945 the Indonesian independence was proclaimed. My father […]
Read MoreA Special Postcard: Speaking out against Concentration Camps, by a Survivor
A special postcard (Note 1) On 18 December 1944 my mother, my sister, my little brother and I were deported to a Japanese internment camp for Jews. By sending him a postcard my mother wanted to notify my father, who had been interned in […]
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