Arnold Gast (1913-1993)

Today is the birthday of my uncle Arnold Gast (dutch link). He was born on 14 Dec 1913 in Tiel, the first son of Jan Gerhard Gast and Driek (Hendrika Johanna) ten Bruggencate. He was the first one in this line to be born outside of Almelo, where the families of both his parents had been living for generations. Jan Gerhard and Driek had moved to Tiel in 1912; he shortly before the marriage, she followed after the wedding. He joined the publishing house of Mijs & Co., after having started in Almelo for the firm of Hillenius, which still exists today. Arnold followed in his footsteps, first joining the company in Tiel.

Changes in the Dutch spelling rules in 1934 had a devastating effect on the business, as all schoolbooks have to be reprinted, and the old ones discarded, but they manage to survive. World War II brought more trouble; Tiel was in the middle of the fighting in 1944-45; the building that housed the store sustained lots of damage; and of course people were not buying much

Jan Gerhard kept a diary of those days, reporting on world happenings, but also on the local happenings. Esp. the calls for all males over 10 yrs old to report for forced labor caused much anxiety. They were afraid Arnold (Nol) would have to go. Getting food and coal for heating is a problem. Arnold is drafted to do all kind of hard labor. Reading the diary, you realize how lucky we are not to live in a war zone; it is inconceivable to have to go through that.

But they survive, and Nol with his wife and two children moved to Leiden after the war, where he became director of a book store and publishing house. They had two more children there. He died in 1993. I have fond memories of them, and am still in contact with their oldest son.