Childhood and Youth
Born in The Hague, the Netherlands Hans was the last born in a non-Christian family of colonizers with non-white blood, his grandmother having been half Indonesian. He was largely raised in Indonesia, but returned to Holland to join the Royal Netherlands Navy. Already as a teenager he had begun what would become an extensive collection of African-American music. As a junior officer, he began to study ship construction at Delft University prior to the start of World War II. There, prior to the war, Rookmaaker met and became engaged to Riki Spetter, who was Jewish.
Read more about this topic: Hans Rookmaaker
Famous quotes containing the words childhood and, childhood and/or youth:
“Having a child is the great divide between one’s own childhood and adulthood. All at once someone is totally dependent upon you. You are no longer the child of your mother but the mother of your child. Instead of being taken care of, you are responsible for taking care of someone else.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Having a child is the great divide between one’s own childhood and adulthood. All at once someone is totally dependent upon you. You are no longer the child of your mother but the mother of your child. Instead of being taken care of, you are responsible for taking care of someone else.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“An English family consists of a few persons, who, from youth to age, are found revolving within a few feet of each other, as if tied by some invisible ligature, tense as that cartilage which we have seen attaching the two Siamese.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)