Dresden 1957 on CBC Fresh Air

CBC Radio host Ismaila Alfa (left) with John Hovius in the studio. My dad's Dresden diary and papers are on the desk.

On Sunday, CBC Radio broadcast an interview with John Hovius and myself. John lost his father and older brother in the Dresden tragedy.

Sunday, April 28, was Canada's Day of Mourning for workers killed on the job. The Dresden tragedy is one of the worst in Ontario's history, but today it is almost completely unknown. And while I can talk about the facts of this event, only someone like John can communicate its emotional impact.

The interview provides a pretty comprehensive overview of what happened in Dresden and the story of Dutch postwar emigration. Perhaps most importantly, it illustrates the vulnerability of immigrant workers, a sad reality which is relevant today.

It was a real pleasure to meet Ismaila Alfa, who interviewed John and me. In a strange way, Ismaila played a part on my decision to make a film about the Dresden tragedy. That happened a few years ago, when I heard Ismaila interviewing a safety expert about a more recent trench collapse in which a worker had been killed.

At that time I was doing a lot of thinking about my father's documents from Dresden. Those materials seemed too important to just sit in a drawer somewhere; they should be in a museum. But, as I was learning, the Dresden tragedy was not mentioned in any museum (or any book). That interview showed me there were people who cared about these issues and who knew about the history of workplace safety in Ontario. It rekindled my desire to do something with my dad's papers and find some way to tell this story.

So, thank you, Ismaila for giving me that nudge - and for the interview on Sunday . And, especially, thank you John for doing the interview with me. It's not easy. Although the disaster was many years ago, John says he feels 13 again when he talks about it, and the pain is still raw.