Cultuursmakers programs fascinating lectures and interesting excursions (Kalmthout)

At the invitation of Cultuursmakers, Peggy Poppe will tell the story of ‘A doll for Hannah’ on May 16 in the Kruisbos service center. During the summer you can also make two interesting excursions with the cultural organization.

“Peggy Poppe wrote the book ‘A doll for Hannah’, based on true facts and will talk about it in detail on Thursday, May 16. Peggy is the granddaughter of Charlotte Hamburger who left for Auschwitz in 1942,” explains Alain ‘tKindt, chairman of Cultuursmakers Kalmthout. “The book tells the true story of the Jewish Esther. She ended up in prison at Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen because she protested against the way Jewish people were treated during the Second World War. While in prison, she keeps thinking about her daughter Hannah, who lives with her grandparents and is not allowed to visit her mother. Esther then makes a rag doll for Hannah together with some fellow prisoners and calls it Charlotte. She can smuggle the doll out of prison through the dirty laundry. From then on, doll Charlotte continues to talk about her dangerous journey in the book. You can still admire the doll Charlotte today in Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen. Every year during this period we organize an activity to commemorate the end of the war and the liberation of our region,” Alain ‘tKindt adds.

“We invite writer Peggy Poppe to the LDC Kruisbos on May 16. This is located on the same site as the Sint-Vincentius residential care center in the center of Kalmthout. For eight years we organized the vast majority of our activities in the banquet hall ‘t Strijboshof, but since this year of operation we have found a new home base for Cultuursmakers with the Kruisbos service center,” says chairman Alain ‘tKindt. “We already had two successful evenings there at the beginning of this year. In January someone spoke about fatal diseases in Greek and Roman antiquity and in March we invited the Kalmthout sculptor Jorg Van Daele. In the meantime, there are statues of him around the world that he can tell fantastic stories about. More than 160 people came to listen on those two evenings.”

Roma behind the scenes

“In addition to the lecture ‘A doll for Hannah’, we are organizing a day trip to Borgerhout on May 24. In the morning we take a guided visit behind the scenes of the cultural temple of Roma. After lunch, a guide takes us to unknown places in Borgerhout. Anyone who still wants to come along should register quickly because places are limited,” says Alain.

Roots of Roosevelt

“And we are also taking a day trip just before our summer break. On June 15 we will travel to Zeeland in the Netherlands, where we will look for the roots of the famous American Roosevelt family in Vossemeer. Did you know that former American president Theodore Roosevelt has a link with the Netherlands? We drive through the area where the ‘Battle of the Scheldt’ was partly fought in 1944 and there is a guided visit to Museum Meestoof. In short, it promises to be a well-filled but fascinating day,” concludes Alain ‘t Kindt of Cultuursmakers Kalmthout.

More information and registration via: Cultuursmakers Kalmthout