Thuisreis

The exhibition Thuisreis tells the personal story of the early years of Marga Minco (1920–2023). The author of the wartime chronicle Het bittere kruid (1957) was born in Ginneken and grew up in a close-knit Jewish family where art and music were an inseparable part of life. In 1938, she began her writing career as a trainee journalist at the Bredasche Courant, not yet knowing how drastically the world would change within just a few years.

“In my dreams, I often return to my birthplace, Breda.”

Breda: 1920 – 1940

Photographs by Jan de Jong (1898–1971) give a glimpse of Breda around 1935—the city of Marga Minco’s youth. Through her memories, such as those of the Valkenberg park and the Kasteelplein, you see the city through her eyes.

“My sister and I run to the Valkenberg, linger by the pond to watch the ducks, and are drawn again and again to the mysterious cactus garden, hidden behind tall shrubs.”

Memories in Words and Images

Marga Minco recorded her memories not only in words, but also in images. This lesser-known visual work is being shown to the public for the first time. The small paintings depict elements from Minco’s childhood in Ginneken and Breda. Combined with family photos and an album of drawn ‘memory flashes’, the exhibition offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a Jewish family during the interwar years.

Minco created the album in 1942 as a wedding gift for her sister Bettie. She believed it had been lost during the war, but years later it was returned to her through a relative in America.

“It felt as if the motor of my memory had been turned back a notch. The evidence was undeniable: this is how it was. This is how we looked. These were the little events that meant so much in our carefree youth. The album contained twenty-three pages. I closed it.”

Het bittere kruid

Minco’s most famous book, Het bittere kruid, is a classic of European literature about the Second World War. The story follows a Jewish family in Breda and is based on her own experiences with the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands.

“I stood still, watching the people get off the train, as if I were waiting for someone. Someone with a familiar face, right before mine. But I lacked my uncle’s faith. They would never return—my father, my mother, Bettie, nor Dave and Lotte.”