Samuel Kriek

Title: Forty years
Author: Samuel Kriek
Publisher: Focus on Israel
Place of publication:
Year of Publication: 2001
Location of Book: Rare Books Collection, Sir Louis Matheson Library, Monash University Clayton Campus
Cities/town/camps: Holland: Rotterdam
Note: those cities/towns/camps underlined are those which are most central to the narrative

Forty Years is the life story of Samuel Kriek and his search for identity across the decades. Pages 1-72 tell of Samuel’s survival in and around Rotterdam during and after the war. Pages 73-165 discuss his new life in Australia and his embrace of Christianity while 166-215 describe his emotional journey to Israel and reconnection with his original identity. Forty Years was written late in life and was published by Focus On Israel in 2001.

Samuel Kriek was born in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1926. His father was a violent and unfaithful Catholic who left Samuel’s family when he was a child. Following Germany’s entry into Holland in 1940, and warnings of impending danger for Jews, Samuel changed his name to Stef. Over the course of the occupation, anti-Jewish measures increased. Jews were barred from employment and public transport, were forced to wear a yellow star and often had their property confiscated. Eventually Jews were rounded up and placed on trains bound for extermination camps.

Conditions in Holland deteriorated as food was in short supply, particularly for Jews who could not obtain rations without fear of deportation. Samuel, together with his brother Cor, hid out in different parts of Rotterdam, often killing cats to survive. In early 1945 Samuel and his brother fled Rotterdam for the countryside in order to avoid a mass deportation of Dutch males to labour camps. They stayed in chicken coops, cellars and haylofts throughout the countryside, either with or without the farmer’s knowledge. In March 1945 Samuel was liberated and joined a unit of the Canadian army as an interpreter. While in the army, Samuel met his future wife, a Catholic named Thea, and married in 1947. Still living under his adopted name of Stef, Samuel was often privy to the more private antisemitic attitudes of Dutch society. On other occasions, when his true faith was known, Samuel was openly discriminated against. Convinced there was no future for them in Holland, Samuel and Thea were eventually accepted to immigrate to Australia in 1952.

Samuel eventually embraced the Christian faith. His Jewish identity, however, was later rekilndled by performing in a play about the Holocaust. This prompted him to visit Israel.This journey, in particular his emotional visit to Yad Vashem, led him to reaccept his original name of Samuel. Upon returning to Australia Samuel formed a group which aims to teach his fellow Christians about the Jewish roots of Christianity.

Forty Years is a unique story about a Dutch Jew’s search for identity. The book is not overly detailed regarding the war years and the narrative is not always chronological. Faith and God are important elements to Kreik’s understanding of himself, and the text is replete with biblical references and quotations, as well as poetry.