Umbrella to former resistance groups to disband next year

RIJSWIJK – The national federative council of the former resistance, an umbrella for local resistance veterans groups, has decided it will disband as of June 30, 2010 following the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands. Youngest council member Loek Caspers, who is secretary and archivist of the NFR, is now 84 while the oldest of the 10-member board is 106. There are still 400 members spread over member groups, a number which at one time was as high as 2,000. Caspers thinks that about fifteen local groups will soldier on without the umbrella. The NFR lost one fifth of it members over the past three years to illness and death.