Medical doctors, science broadcasters and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken team up to research their family tree.
From behaving like silly schoolboys, joking and bickering we also see a serious side to them. “I feel I want to look away from this part of history,” says Xand, “but I suppose it’s necessary to know about it.”
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WDYTYA - 29 June - Chris and Xand van Tulleken - no spoilers
Re: WDYTYA - 29 June - Chris and Xand van Tulleken - no spoilers
It was interesting to see that only days after this episode aired that the Dutch King, Willem-Alexander confirmed that the monarchy had benefited from the slave trade for over 200 years. He then made a public apology for the Netherlands' historic involvement in slavery and the effects that it still has today.
Re: WDYTYA - 29 June - Chris and Xand van Tulleken - no spoilers
Yes, I noticed that about the apology, although the Dutch Prime Minister (Mark Rutte) I am told apologised last year. I did wonder about the coffee trade in the former Dutch East Indies mentioned in the episode and whether that was involved in slavery. In the last few years the Dutch Government also apologised for their role in assisting the Nazis in The Netherlands during the Second World War, this appears to have been against against what Queen Whilemina asked them to do (help the Dutch population), as were Dutch Railways in transporting Jewish people to the concentration camps with Dutch Railways being paid by the Nazis for doing so. They seem to have woken up far too late in my view, mind you they used to commemorate the Second World War only once every five years until recently.