Willy Berends was born in 1964 in Enschede. He was the co-owner of a textile print company in Enschede from 1982-2007. From 2008 until today, he is the part time marketing and project manager for the local professional soccer team - FC Twente.Through this work, Willy became more involved and interested in developing documentaries and short films. He is the creator of a “The Conscience of a City,” and is committed to sharing this important story with the world.

Bert Woudstra was born in 1932 in Enschede. He has 5 children of his own and another through marriage, 11 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. He was hidden in 13 different places during WWII with the help of Pastor Overduin. After the war and school, he went to work in the textile industry. In 1973, Bert began teaching college students, and was a Fulbright visitor here in Palo Alto. He is the founder and former president of the “Stichting Synagoge Enschede” (Enschede Synagogue Foundation),and  the past Governor of the Netherlands Kiwanis International District. Bert continues to lecture in the Netherlands and Germany about WWII on behalf of the former German Concentration Camp Westerbork in the Netherlands, teaching young people to think about discrimination, freedom, and war.

Ellen was born in 1959 in Enschede, and was baptized by Leendert Overduin. He was my mother’s uncle. She is a graduate from the Polytechnical School of Amsterdam as a technical engineer in clothing manufacture. In 1990, she married in the church in the town of Lonneker (chapel of love) where Overduin served as a reverend until the late sixties. She has 4 children. She was raised with the deep respect for all things, material and immaterial, that history has passed on to us, and she is proud to represent the Overduin family with the English premier of “The Conscience of a City.”