April 1942, right in the middle of World War II. Chinese labourers from Rotterdam are employed as stokers on Shell oil tankers. A dangerous job, on menial wages. They start a strike. As the strike becomes more and more grim, the police and the guards from the refinery on Curaçao intervene. Mercilessly they shoot and kill fifteen Chinese. All these events have been reconstructed in the book De Aprilmoorden (The April Murders). The author fights for rehabilitation of the Chinese contractors as forgotten victims of war. And successfully. Annually the victims are commemorated and honoured on April 20th, the National Day of Remembrance 'The April Murders'. That's to say, on Curaçao. What does the Dutch government do? Nothing. In this book the author presents the results of new research, with new documents and... statements from witnesses. Nizaar Makdoembaks is physician-researcher and also chairman of the Stichting Eerherstel Oorlogsslachtoffers Curaçao (Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Curaçao Victims of War). Previously he published De Aprilmoorden - Berichten van het Kerkhof van de Schande ('The April Murders - Messages from the Graveyard of Shame', 2012, available in Dutch and Papiamento).
