Femmigje Appelo 1915-2001
Second-cousin Marjolein:
My great-aunt, Fem Appelo, started her training for nurse in 1934 by the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam. She had to interrupt her study because of tuberculosis, but in 1941 she continued her training.
Once she told me that she was present at the Dam during the shooting in 1945. She said it in the way ‘I was there’. Maybe I was to young to realize that I had to ask more about it. I have no further information about that period, it must have been intense for her. No one in the family knows about it. She had told it only to me.
You have done a lot of research about what had happened. My great-aunt was a nurse and I wonder: did she help? Or…? Is the name Fem Appelo familiar with you via witnesses from others? Does anybody know or other nurses from the Valerius Clinic were present?
I’m very curious if you have any information.
May 2017