Recently I wrote about friend and former co-worker O.K. “Buddy” Davis who suffered a disabling stroke a few years back but who continues to cover sports for The Ruston Daily Leader.
Today’s post is about another friend of both Buddy’s and mine. And while we never worked together at the same time, we did work for the same newspapers at different times in our career.
Nico Van Thyn, like Buddy and me, is a graduate of the Louisiana Tech University School of Journalism and like yours truly, he has an Internet blog. While my writing efforts are generally dedicated to the misdeeds of various politicos, he concentrates on writing in Once a Knight primarily about graduates of Woodlawn High School in Shreveport. People like Terry Bradshaw, Trey Prather, Joe Ferguson and Tommy Spinks.
But again, like yours truly, he often writes about other topics and that is the reason for this post.
Nico’s story is quite unique and we’re the better for his having written about it. It’s a story we should never allow ourselves to forget. Ever.
You see, Nico’s parents were Jewish victims of Hitler’s concentration camps. Unlike six million others, however, they were fortunate to have survived the Holocaust. And they carried the numbers the Nazis tattooed on their left forearms for the remainder of their respective lives to prove it.
(How anyone can deny the Holocaust simply defies all logic.)
Encouraged and goaded by friends to combine the individual posts about his parents into a single volume, he at first resisted but finally relented and the result is his wonderful—and poignant—book, A tribute to Survivors: 62511, 70726.
Of his book, Van Thyn says it is available through the self-publishing company, CreateSpace, and it is listed on Amazon. “The title is the story of my parents and their lives before and after they were Holocaust survivors,” he says. “The numbers in the title are the numbers the Nazis tattooed on their left forearms.”
As much as it is Rose and Louis Van Thyn’s stories, it is also the story of Nico and sister Elsa and their journey from Amsterdam to the United States.
Anyone who has followed Nico’s blog for the past five years probably has already seen much of the material in the book. But it has been a while since the early chapters, and you might not have seen many of the photos in the book.
“Doing this has been a labor of love,” Nico says, “and several people encouraged me to do it. And it also has been a labor.
“Trying to do it on my own two years ago, I failed miserably because I am not that technical savvy. It was driving me more nuts than I already am—and it also was driving someone who lives with me a little battier than she already is. So I dropped the idea. But as I kept writing about my parents’ stories on this blog, people kept telling me I should put it together in a book.
“There are a couple of heroes responsible for it finally happening. Tom Johanningmeier, deputy sports editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (my journalism home for a final decade of work), formatted the whole thing, really put it together. Janet Glaspie, who lived down the street from my parents in Shreveport for years and helped care for them, proofread the pages and made many good suggestions and necessary fixes.
“Without them, I am not a published author,” he said.
“I never had great desire to write a book, but as I state in the introduction to the book, I wanted my parents’ stories in one place for their many friends and mostly for our family, for the generations.
“And here’s what else; it can’t be said enough: The Holocaust was real, and the threat of oppression and genocide remains ever-present. There are people out there who deny the Holocaust, who excuse what happened, who say it is fictional history.
“They are so wrong, wrong, wrong. Often loud wrong. I knew two people who lived through it, and who told their stories.
“And I’ve retold those stories.”
To order the book (the list price is $15, plus shipping charges):
https://www.createspace.com/6486186 (this is the preferable option, although you might have to create a free CreateSpace account to place an order)
Kindle: (price $2.99, no photos) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MF8CYKV
(Personal note to Nico: Thanks so much. While we love our sports, your parents are the real heroes. We agree completely with all those who commented on your Facebook page: this is a story that begged to be told because it’s so important that we never forget.)
Louisiana Voice 
Thank you Nico for giving us yet another proof positive description and discussion of why we must never allow anyone to challenge our rights to freedom in all its many aspects.