Word: kempen
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...musicians of Amsterdam's distinguished old Concertgebouw protested when the orchestra manager picked Paul van Kempen to take the place of their sick-abed regular conductor...
...Kempen was born Dutch and had been a Concertgebouw first violinist at 17. He had, years later, become conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic and a German citizen. That was not so bad, but Van Kempen conducted in The Netherlands during the occupation, a few times for the benefit of the Wehrmacht. Many a Dutchman found it hard to forgive that. The musicians warned that Van Kempen would be "a source of pain." Nevertheless, the Amsterdam town council voted, 21 to 17, to hire...
...first concert, some 1,000 young men and maidens milled outside in protest. Inside, as the conductor raised his baton for the Verdi Requiem, someone yelled "Down with Van Kempen." Others took it up, added "Sieg Heil" to the chant. Two students began singing the Horst Wessel song, two others tossed bottles of tear gas. Police cleared out the troublemakers and the concert went...
...next night. Expecting trouble, many an older concertgoer gave up his ticket to someone younger and hardier. Trouble came swiftly: a woman screamed "Naziknecht" (Nazi tool) when Van Kempen raised his arm, and the old hall became a bedlam of cap pistols, noisemakers, yelling, whistling. Another woman screamed "Shut up!" at the demonstrators. Van Kempen's impresario, sitting next to her, mistook her for a demonstrator and slapped her. "Stop it," she yelled, "you dirty Communist...
Comely, black-haired Martha Minnen kept no peacocks, but she had other eccentricities. To her neighbors in the tiny village of Witgoor in the Kempen region of Flanders they smacked strongly of witchcraft. There were her cats, for instance. "It's just beyond belief," said one Witgoor villager, "the number of black cats you see around Martha's house at night." Then there were the sparrows. Why should a woman want to give a neighbor's children a nest of baby sparrows...