PANDEMIC | The Economic Impact of the Virus

Kristi Hood loads up groceries for a self-quarantining
family. This is a new service of  the Springs
General Store. Photo by John Tepper Marlin.

PS. Here are some followup stories in the East Hampton Star. As a public service, the newspaper has a free alert on the coronavirus as it affects the Town of East Hampton and Suffolk County generally:

Suffolk Hospitals Face "Herculean" Task as Virus Numbers Grow (March 24, 2020).

https://www.easthamptonstar.com/villages-health/2020324/suffolk-hospitals-face-herculean-task-virus-numbers-grow

POSTS RESTARTING MARCH 17, 2020

March 17, 2020–I am reopening this CityEconomist blog today, having just retired as senior economist from the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress, my third retirement from the Federal Government (previous ones were in 1969 from the FDIC and in 2011 from the JEC). 

This blog is being reopened so that I can do my best to be useful while socially distant. My JEC email address is deactivated. Please use john@cityeconomist.com. With the coronavirus spreading in the United States, Alice and I are self-isolating in East Hampton, N.Y. It is an opportunity to restart this blog on that theme.

Recent Economic News

The coronavirus spells disaster for the New York City economy. https://bit.ly/2wgbLwu.

WHY POSTS HERE ARE STOPPING

Posts are stopping for now because your blogger is in Washington, D.C., serving as Senior Economist on the staff of the Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress. Contact him at  John_Tepper_Marlin@jec.senate.gov.

NYC COMPTROLLER | 4th Annual FOCEA Reunion, Florida

FOCEA, Florida 2019. L to R: Eric Wollman, John Tepper Marlin,
Steve Newman. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

January 27, 2019–Today we had the fourth annual Florida meeting of the Former Office of the Comptroller Employees Association, which goes by the name of FOCEA.

Eric Wollman (in the Kingsborough Community College shirt, not to be confused with the Kansas City Chiefs) has joined Steve Newman and John Tepper Marlin in retirement from the Office of the Comptroller. Eric wondered whether he should retire the FOCEA name. No, we said.

We talked about how hard it was to figure out 2018 taxes, and how some people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are going to be (or already are) nastily surprised by the impact of the anti-blue-state cap of $10,000 on state and local taxes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of December 2017. There has long been a steady stream of retirees to Florida and this will encourage the flow.

Previous FOCEA Florida meetups (number of former employees): 1st (2), 2016 . 2nd (3), 2017 . 3rd (2), 2018

NYC COMPTROLLER | Chief Economists

Frank Braconi (L) and John Tepper Marlin, Chief Economists to Five NYC
Comptrollers, 1992-2017. Note piñata at upper left.  It did not survive
unscathed. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

In 1989, New York City elected David Dinkins Mayor and Liz Holtzman Comptroller. 

It also approved a thoroughly revised New York City Charter, eliminating the historic Board of Estimate.

The NYC Comptroller lost some powers but gained a new responsibility – it must report on the NYC economy every December and must submit to the NYC Council annually its independent tax-revenue estimate based on the Comptroller's economic outlook.

To carry out this and other tasks, the Comptroller created the position of Chief Economist. It has been filled by five economists, all male. Over the 28 years of the title, three economists have held the job for four years. One has just started working in the title under Comptroller Stringer, one is Commissioner of Finance for Mayor de Blasio and the third became economic adviser to former Governor Pataki.

The other two Chief Economists met recently. I was one, the second Chief Economist, having served for 13 years, under Comptrollers Holtzman, Alan Hevesi and Bill Thompson. Frank Braconi was the other, my successor, who served for ten years as Chief Economist, under Comptrollers Thompson, John Liu and Scott Stringer. You might say it was an informal meeting of FOCEA, the Former Office of the (New York City) Comptroller Employees Association.

We met up yesterday evening at a post-election celebration hosted by a Suffolk County gadfly group (Resist & Replace) and the local Democratic party. We are united in getting behind a Democratic candidate in 2018 to defeat Lee Zeldin, a Tea Party incumbent Congressman from New York's District 1.

An early order of business at the event was to tackle the Trump piñata, which may be seen to the upper left in the photo.

Between us, my years and Frank Braconi's at the Comptroller's Office add up to a quarter century and take us through two attacks on the World Trade Center and four Mayors – Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg and de Blasio.

106th Mayor	David Dinkins (b. 1927) Comptroller Holtzman	January 1990 to December 1993	4 years	DEM
107th	Rudy Giuliani (b. 1944) Comptroller Hevesi	January 1994 to December 2001	8 years	GOP
108th	Michael Bloomberg (b. 1942) Comptrollers Thompson, Liu	January 2002 to  December 2013	12 years	GOP
				NO PARTY
109th	Bill de Blasio (b. 1961) Comptroller Stringer	January 2014 to  Incumbent	4 years & Counting	DEM

Postscript, January 28, 2018: Meanwhile, Eric Wollman visited Vero Beach, Florida, and we had our third annual Florida meeting of FOCEA. 

BLOG VIEWS | 340K—Top Ten Posts, Six on WW2 or Depression

Hitler Pays His (Last) Respects to
German Democracy, 1933.

The clicker has passed 340,000 views on this blog, about two million on all of them combined.

Thank you for checking in!

Here are the top ten most-viewed posts in the last month. Nos. 1, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 all relate to the Great Depression, FDR, Hitler and the Holocaust.

1 HITLER | Mar 5, 1933 — Nazis Elected, End Democrac... Mar 5, 2017

2 NYC | Universities and City Invest in Tech Mar 22, 2017

3 BLS | "Phony Numbers" on Their Way? Jan 23, 2017

4 SPORTS BIZ | Fastest-Growing Game–Pickleball (Upda... Mar 2, 2017

5 HOLOCAUST | Remembrance Day–It Started with Words Jan 27, 2017

6 NEW JERSEY | Huge Fire in North Bergen Dec 21, 2016

7 OXFORD BLOG | 200K Views—Top 10 Most-Read Posts Si... Mar 18, 2017

8 FDR | March 4–Inauguration Mar 4, 2017

9 IMMIGRATION | Centennial of (Anti-)Immigration Act Feb 5, 2017

10 THE DEPRESSION | Causes Oct 16, 2014

NYC COMPTROLLER | 2nd Annual Florida Meeting

Standing, L to R: Steve Newman and
Eric Wollman. Seated: John Tepper
Marlin. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

The second annual Florida meeting of the Former Office of the Comptroller Employees Association (FOCEA) took place in Vero Beach, Fla., with a 50 percent increase in attendance over last year! That is, attendance of full members rose from two to three:

• Deputy Director, Contracts, Bureau of Asset Management, Eric Wollman, Esq.
• Former First Deputy Comptroller Steve Newman.
• Former Chief Economist John Tepper Marlin. 

The combined number of years of NYC Comptroller's Office service of those attending the Florida meeting was 40+24+13=79.

The meeting occurs annually during the week following a collectors' convention in Titusville, Fla. But this is not a rule–FOCEA has no rules.

The meeting started at 12:30 pm with drinks, chips and avocado dip, and continued with crusted tuna slices and salad, finishing with blueberries and ice cream and coffee.

Spouses, FOCEA Florida Meetup, 2017. L to R:
Alice Tepper Marlin, Rosemary Polsky-Newman.
Photo by JT Marlin.

The main topic was Transitions, it being the end of the first week of the Trump Administration.

(The lineup of NYC Mayors and Comptrollers is unchanged from the 40-year list shown in the 2016 meeting report.)

The attendance of spouses doubled, from one to two:

• Rosemary Polsky-Newman.
• Alice Tepper Marlin.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm. 

More photos
2016 Florida FOCEA Meeting.
1992-93 NYC Gatherings.

BLOG VIEWS | 310K–Top 10 Posts, December

The CityEconomist blogsite just passed 310,000 page views. 

Thank you for reading my blog.

The three most-read recent posts are about a World War II book featuring the Resistance in Holland, for which I wrote a foreword, and two posts relating to the November election of Donald Trump for President. 
– John Tepper Marlin.

MOST-READ POSTS IN DECEMBER 2016

WW2 | Foreword to "The Borrowed House," by Hilda v... Dec 4, 2016

JOBS | Two Job Numbers for Trump to Beat (Updated ... Dec 14, 2016

TRUMP | Mr. T Goes to Washington (Updated Nov. 11,... Nov 10, 2016

DODD-FRANK | Maloney Asks Five Agencies for Data Aug 30, 2016

GUTENBERG | Aug. 24–Bible First Published Aug 24, 2016

ART BIZ | The Economics of the Art Auction Market Nov 25, 2016

SCAMS | The IRS Is NOT Calling You! Aug 25, 2016

NEW JERSEY | Huge Fire in North Bergen Dec 21, 2016

BLOG VIEWS | Greetings–300K–Top Posts Dec 20, 2016

ART BIZ | Some Forgers Are Good Nov 1, 2016

BLOG VIEWS | ONE MILLION–Mar. 9, 2016! (Updated July 21, 2016)

Thank you for reading!

My G+1 Google counter shows page views for my blogs passed one million on March 9.

(Make that 1.2 million in July 2016. 50,000 per month.)

A milestone...

Top blogs:

In order of popularity since inception, here are the main 8 blogs I maintain as of March 9, 2016:
CityEconomist.blogspot.com (Economic Analysis, Policy)
Ox-Cam-NYC.blogspot.com (Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, Heraldry)
Writers4Kids.blogspot.com (Children's Books)
NYCtimetraveler.blogspot.com (History, Sci-Fi)
CSRNYC.blogspot.com (Corporate Social Responsibility)
Warriors-Families.blogspot.com (Military-Security-Families)
HildavanStockum.blogspot.com (Hilda van Stockum)
InezMB.blogspot.com (Inez Milholland, Boissevain Family)

BLOG READS | 230K Views–Thank You–Most Read

Jan. 28, 2016–Today the CityEconomist blog site just passed 230,000 page views.

All blogs together have passed the 945,000 mark.

Thank you for reading. Here are the Top 10 posts for the past month. 

FIX THE MIX | Missing Glass-Steagall! Jan 21, 2016

MIAMI | Gun Problem? (Carl Hiaasen, March 1988)
Jan 10, 2016

COST OF 9/11 | Gulf War II–a Non Sequitur?
Jan 26, 2016

JOBS | U.S. Boom Amidst Global Gloom
Jan 8, 2016

OBIT | John E. Zuccotti (1937-2015)
Nov 28, 2015,

WW2 | SUPERLINK–Boissevains in the Dutch Resistanc...
Jan 26, 2015,

DEPRESSION | Cause–the Fed? Or Real-Estate Specula...
Feb 23, 2009,

ART BIZ | Did Van Gogh Sell Just One Painting? (Up...
Mar 16, 2015,

WW2 | 5. Armed Resistance: Jan Canada and Sons (Up...
Jan 29, 2015,

JOBS | NYC Tech Firms Top Growth List–"Inc. 5000"
Sep 1, 2014

MIAMI | Gun Problem? (Carl Hiaasen, March 1988)

The Book, Cities of 
Opportunity, 1988.

January 10, 2016–Last March I wrote about my being in Miami in 1988 on a book tour  for "Cities of Opportunity". Miami then ranked #1 for homicides and total crimes. (The ranking improved but the violent crime rate has been rising since 2010; in one weekend last month 14 people were shot in four unrelated incidents in Miami-Dade County). 

Columnist Carl Hiaasen noted the book in his column on March 7, 1988 (just before his 35th birthday). I just found the article:

Tarnished Image Alert: Miami officials are concerned that a new book contains outdated information that gives a wrong impression about the area.
     The book, due out in May, is called Cities of Opportunity. It lists 42 American cities that are promising and exciting places for young people to relocate. Miami makes the list.

Carl Hiaasen

Sounds very positive, except for one glitch. The author, John Tepper Marlin, dares to suggest that we've got a little gun problem down here in South Florida. Now, where would he get a crazy idea like that?

In particular, he mentions the infamous loophole in the state's new handgun law that made it legal to walk around with a six-shooter on your hip. That part of the law was hastily fixed, but not before Marlin had already sent off his manuscript.

The city had a chance to point out this mistake, but was two months late in replying to Marlin's publisher. Consequently, the gun stuff stays in the book.

Some complain that it's not fair to bring up the Dodge City slur again, and fear that the book will present a distorted view of how safe it is to live down here.

If only Mr. Marlin had taken the time to visit in the last week or so, he would have gone back to his typewriter with a completely different outlook about guns in South Florida.

These are some of the stories he would have seen on TV, or read in the papers:

• Someone with an automatic weapon opened fire from a passing car at teenagers on a street corner in Coconut Grove. Three youths, including two high-school football stars, were wounded in the apparently random attack.

• An ex-con robber with a violent past pulled a 9 mm Smith & Wesson on a Miami cabbie, who quickly shot him to death with a Colt .45, one of two pistols he was carrying in his taxi under a new concealed-weapons permit.

• A University of Miami law school graduate named Irv Ribler was shot to death while driving down 1-95 in North Broward. Police believe the murder stemmed from a brief traffic altercation with strangers.

• In Liberty City, three men were shot on the street when somebody in a white Camaro or Firebird opened fire with a shotgun. As the car roared off, the gunmen kept shooting at bystanders, and wounded a 19-year-old woman.

• As her children watched, a woman upset over a custody battle shot her ex-husband to death with a pistol in the parking lot of Dade's main juvenile court.

• Four friends out cruising in North Miami decided to play Russian roulette with a .38-caliber pistol. Jose Cotto, age 14, lost. He was the third teenager to die this way in Dade County since January.

• Police arrested two men for the robbery-slaying nine months ago of a children's ice-cream vendor near Kelsey Pharr Elementary School. Authorities noted that this murder was not related to the robbery-shooting of another ice-cream vendor near the same school in January.

• A former member of the Yahweh religious sect pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two tenants who refused to leave an Opalocka apartment when the Yahwehs tried to evict them.

• In Fort Lauderdale, a Canadian tourist was shot to death in his beachfront hotel room while Spring Breakers partied along The Strip.

• Burglars who broke into a Northwest Dade home stole a 9mm handgun, an Uzi semiautomatic machine gun, a .32-caliber pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Beretta of unspecified caliber.

This is only a recent sampler. Yet, anyone can plainly see that not one of these incidents resulted from so-called "loopholes" in Florida's firearms laws.

So maybe next time a Mr. Smartypants Liberal wants to write a book, he'll buckle down and do his homework.

A gun problem? Us? What an imagination, this guy.

CITYECONOMIST | Dec. 18, 2015–220K Pageviews–Top 10 Posts.

Thank you for reading. The ten most-read posts in December 2015 were:

TECH GROWTH | NYC Firms Top Inc. 5000 List Sep 1, 2014

OBIT | John E. Zuccotti (1937-2015) Nov 28, 2015

OBIT | Adele Wick, Economist (1950-2015) Dec 10, 2015

FOMC | Job Numbers Mean EZ Decision Dec 4, 2015

GLASS-STEAGALL | Why Moyers Likes Stockman Dec 9, 2015

WINE BIZ | NY State Planning to Do a Bad Thing Nov 23, 2015

LOSS | Terror Attacks – Paris vs. 9/11 (Postscript... Nov 16, 2015

NYC More Catholic, Jewish, Muslim Feb 15, 2008

LOUIS XIV | Finance Minister Fouquet's Folly (Upda... Oct 1, 2015

ART BIZ | "Van Gogh Just Sold One Painting" Is a C... Mar 16, 2015

NYC COMPTROLLER | 1992-93, Then & Now (As of Nov. 15, 2015)

1. Fred Palm, Joe Benitez, Barry Skura, David Eichenthal, 
Bob Harris, at Russian Café Andruska. We said Bon Voyage 
to Bob, leaving for Moscow, 1993. Photos by JT Marlin.

Benitez, Joe
Carlsen, Guy
Cohen, Libby
Gmach, David
Dignam, Rhea
Eichenthal, David
Gu, Zheng
Halverson, Dick
Harris, Bob
Hathaway, Dixie

2. L to R: Marlene Rehkamp, Alice Tepper Marlin, Ibby 
Lang, Barry Skura, Joe Benitez, Bob Harris.

Holtzman, Comptroller Liz
Lang, Elizabeth (Ibby)
Marlin, Alice Tepper
Marlin, John Tepper
Mattei, Suzanne
Nairne, Michael
Neustadt, David
O'Marah, Maeve
Palm, Fred

3. Ibby Lang, Fred Palm, Benitez, Barry Skura,
David Neustadt, Bob Harris

Paul, Alice
Rosenthal, Andrew
Sanzillo, Tom
Schindelheim, Marc
Skura, Barry
Stewart, Lincoln
Tallarico, Claire
Wollman, Eric
More here from years 1994-2001.

If you can update present status of anyone on this list, please email me.

4. Bob Harris, Rhea Dignam, Michael Nairne.

Barry Skura
THEN: Office of Policy Management
NOW: Health and Hospitals Corporation



Bob Harris
THEN: Director, Office of Policy Management

5. Maeve O'Marah, John Tepper Marlin, 
David Gmach.

LATER: Gig in Moscow, married Russian lady
NOW: Retired


David Eichenthal
THEN: Deputy Director, OPM
NOW: State of Tennessee, Chattanooga


David Gmach
THEN: Comptroller's Office
LATER: Headed up Business Improvement District


David Neustadt
THEN: Press Officer
NOW: Press Officer, Financial Services Dept., NY State, Albany


Eric Wollman
THEN: Attorney, Comptroller's Office
NOW: Attorney, Comptroller's Office
(and manager of FOCEA, Former Office of Comptroller Employees Association) 


Lincoln Stewart
THEN: OPM
NOW: Department of Finance, NYC

6. Eric Wollman, at leisure.
He runs FOCEA (Former Office
of the Comptroller Employees Assn.).

Maeve O'Marah
THEN: Comptroller's Office
LATER: Went to Massachusetts Budget Office


Marlene Rehkamp
THEN: Assistant Comptroller
NOW: Editor, Writer



Rhea Dignam
THEN: Executive Deputy Comptroller
NOW: Senior Counsel, Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, Securities and Exchange Commission

7. Holiday party, Fiscal and Budget Studies (FABS), 1992.
Who will tackle the Santa Claus piñata? L to R: Zheng Gu,
John Tepper Marlin, Bob de Laurentis, Andrew Rosenthal.

Tom Sanzillo
THEN: Deputy Director, Office of Policy Management
NOW: Leader of
Energy Nonprofit in Cleveland

9. Santa doesn't have a chance. L to R: Zheng Gu,
Dick Halverson, Guy Carlsen.

8. Zheng Gu steps up to
 the plate.

Postscript, Jan. 30, 2017: More information on FOCEA is available in these posts:
2016 FOCEA Florida Meeting
2017 FOCEA Florida Meeting

10. L to R: Lincoln Stewart, Dixie Hathaway, Andrew Rosenthal.

WW2 | BOISSEVAIN Links (Updated July 23, 2016)

To get back here fast, just type two words in Google: Boissevain WW2.

The outline and links below are designed to facilitate review of my draft book on The Boissevains in World War 2 for editing purposes so that review copies will be available at the Boissevain Family Reunion in April 2016. Chapters are currently of unequal length and the goal is to make them approximately equal. If you have suggestions, please contact the writer–john@cityeconomist.com.

Book Outline with links to Chapters

Introduction 1-2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12
Appendix A–Sources. Appendix B–Walking Tours of Herengracht and Keizersgracht . Appendix C–Walking Tour of 20th C Amsterdam. Appendix D–Boissevain Reunion, 2016.

Introduction - Why this book is being written now–before the number of those living today who were alive during the war shrinks to zero. We need them to help identify letters and other source materials and ensure the record is correct. Not everyone in the Boissevain family was a brave member of the Resistance. Even those who never intended to collaborate with the Nazis were tricked or bullied into revealing things that helped the Nazis in their evil work. But the Boissevains and van Halls had more than their share of brave activists. They did things daily for which they could be summarily shot by the SS thugs who ruled them. Many of the people who were bravest said they only did what was expected of every Dutchman. When the Queen in exile said her country was a nation of heroes, the underground papers were silent because they knew that no one was seeking to be a hero, any more than she was when she fled Holland after Rotterdam was bombed, and when heroism meant endangering. It is essential to recognize that for Dutch people none of the possible responses to the invasion was easy. It took powerful determination and a trusted network to defy the crazily murderous Nazi regime and support the Resistance. The most reliable networks were to be found in patriotic families, which were hard for the Nazis to infiltrate–not that there weren't collaborators  inside these families. Secrets were kept even from siblings that could not be trusted.

No one knows when or where this unsought heroism may be needed again.

1-2 The Boissevain Family and Their Homes (Before the Nazis Came). In the 1920s, the Boissevain and van Hall families were well off relative to the rest of Europe. The Boissevains left the Dordogne in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They were mostly Huguenot business and professional people who lived around Amsterdam. Holland had been neutral in WWI and prospered after the war; the Dutch expected a blockade as in WWI, and was ready for it, but they did not expect invasion.

3 The Nazi Rise and Dutch Invasion. The Crash of 1929 precipitated a loss of confidence in capitalism that led to the rise of Hitler. Speculators helped create instability that resulted in a global crash, paving the way for Nazi ideologues and other extremists. Hitler had less than 3 percent of the German vote in 1928. He got 18 percent in 1930 and 37 percent in 1932–enough for him to have the largest party in the Reichstag and to declare himself dictator (Führer) when Germany's President died the day after a visit from Hitler. In 1933 FDR nd his Treasury Secretary, Will Woodin, fixed the mess in the USA, but it was too late to save Germany and the world from the Nazis. Dutch businesses dealing with German firms were soon affected. Both Jan "Canada" and Bob Boissevain were in the fertilizer industry. In 1933 Hitler merged the German chemical companies into a single giant, I. G. Farben, and in 1936 various marketplace battles ensued, bankrupting their Boissevain partners, including Charles E. H. and Bob.

4 The First Nine Months–the de Booy Family. Truth is the first casualty of war. From May 1940 to February 1941, the Nazis hoped that by disguising their most evil plans and taking a cousin-to-cousin approach to the Dutch people, they might be widely accepted and even welcomed, as they were in Austria. Goebbels believed in this plan and was angry when he found the Dutch to be "insolent". After the general strike in 1941 following deportation of hundreds of Jews, the Nazis took off their mask of friendliness and treated the Dutch resisters with a brutal response, culminating in the "Hunger Winter" of 1944-45, when what little food was left in Holland was seized and put on trains for Germany. Han and Hilda de Booy's daughter Engelien was married throughout the war to a Jewish man, Frans Polak. The stress of not knowing what would happen to them shows through the letters of Hilda (after whom my mother was named) to her sister Olga (my grandmother).

5 How Resistance Fighters Organized. After the invasion of Holland,  Resistance groups formed almost immediately. Many were wiped out. The main functions of the Resistance were to (1) Hide and help fugitives from the Nazis, (2) Disseminate information to counter Nazi propaganda, (3) Cause serious harm to Dutch collaborators and SS enforcers, (4) Forge IDs and papers to help fugitives travel, (5) Raise money for all the above activities. Different groups pursued pieces of these missions.

6 Fight–Armed Resistance–Gi, Janka, Louis Boissevain. CS6 was organized by two sons of Jan "Canada" Boissevain, Janka and Gi. They operated out of the basement of their parents' home in Corellistraat 6. CS6 used to meet in the soup kitchen behind the Palace on the Dam. Janka and Gi are buried with their cousin Louis Boissevain in Plot 33 of the Honorary Cemetery. Their father, who was arrested first, died later in Buchenwald.

7 Flight–Escaping Holland–Hans de Beaufort. Unlike a country like Norway, whose border extends a long way with neighboring neutral Sweden, there were only a few ways out of Holland and none was easy–via Germany (from the frying pan into the fire), the North Sea (patrolled by the German Navy), and Belgium, also occupied. Early on, a few people escaped to England (the Engelandvaarders) over the water. Gi and Janka got part of the way, but were arrested en route; luckily, their cousin Han de Booy got them released. A route that worked for a long time later was to take a train to Paris, and from there to Switzerland, Spain or other unoccupied country. Charles Boissevain is seeking the recognition of Jean Michel Caubo, who gave his life meeting escapees from Holland in the Paris train station. Hans de Beaufort, son of Teau Boissevain, was active in assisting downed flyers to escape this way, mostly to Switzerland.

8 Sheltering Underdivers–The Goldbergs and Dr. Vecht. The story of a Jewish family–Leo Goldberg and his wife and one of his three children–and a Jewish dentist hidden by Bob Boissevain and his family–is told here.

9 Financing the Resistance–Wally and Gijs van Hall. Wally van Hall and his older brother  figured out ingenious ways of obtaining money to support the Resistance. They pulled off maybe the biggest single bank robbery ever, worth perhaps half a billion dollars in today's money, replacing real bank notes with forged ones and giving the real money to the Resistance. Wally is buried in Plot 35 of the Honorary Cemetery and also has a separate monument to him in the square opposite the Nederlands Bank in Amsterdam.

10 Other Family Members. What they did is not always clear because they were shot or died in concentration camp.

11 Underground Papers–H[ilda?] van Rijnbach. Many family stories are told of informal communications through carbon copies of letters, and illegal radios. Passing on news was a very important and widespread activity of the Dutch Resistance. On this matter–getting unfiltered news about the war from the outside world–the Dutch police were prone to turning a blind eye if they could be sure of avoiding reprisals from their Nazi overseers. H[ilda?] van Rijnbach worked as a housekeeper for Hilda de Booy and her daughter Engelien de Booy.

12 After the War–Awards, Joys, Tragedies. Awards went to family members from Yad Vashem, the Dutch Government and other governments. The Goldbergs' story (Chapter 7) has a happy outcome for the three who were hidden by Bob and his family and two other children who were not. The daughter who was hidden, Anya (Anna Ormont), emigrated to Canada; another daughter stayed in Amsterdam; and a third child, Max, went to the United States where he prospered and had a son who as of this date has two sons of his own. The postwar story of the fourth guest in the house, Dr. Jacob Vecht, was much sadder.

Appendix A–Sources
Appendix B–Walking Tour
Appendix C–Boissevain Family Reunion, Amsterdam, April 2016
Dutch Boissevain Website (in English)
Daniel Boissevain (1772-1832) Family Group
Charles Handelsblad Boissevain (1832-1927) Family Group