Note in coat links 2 cities
Sometimes a random act of kindness can be a gift that keeps on giving, a kind of karmic annuity that feeds the soul and gives life meaning. Fate connected Ora Kniffen of Albany with Nelly Otten of Nijmegen in the Netherlands 72 years ago.
An ocean liner laden with 300 tons of relief supplies donated by concerned citizens of Albany — hundreds of pairs of shoes, thousands of articles of clothing, stacks of lumber, cases of medical supplies, crates of toys and more — arrived in the war-ravaged city of Nijmegen in July of 1947.
Amid that vast number of donated items, there was a young woman’s winter coat. And in a pocket of that coat, there was a note.
Though the text has been lost, the note contained a simple message of heartfelt empathy, written by 18-yearold Kniffen. It was an act of charity undertaken by her parent ’s Christian
congregation, Pineview Community Church.
The note in the coat crossed an ocean and represented the kindness of strangers and the human capacity for generosity.
Otten, who was 20 at the time, was g rateful to receive a new winter coat in Nijmegen, where such luxuries had been erased by years of war and the Nazi occupation.
The kindness that Kniffen expressed in her note touched Otten deeply. It lif ted her spirits and reminded her that there were caring people in a compassionate world. It was a balm after she had witnessed wartime atrocities and the worst of the human condition.
More than 2,200 civilians were killed and 5,500 were critically injured during World War II in Nijmegen, a city of 120,000. Its center was reduced to rubble from bombardments and heav y fighting. The Nazi occupation lef t civ ilians with severe food shortages and years of deprivation and suf fering. The U. S. 82nd Airborne Division drove the Nazis back across the border into Germany, secured the vital bridge across the River Waal and liberated the city in September 1944.
These two young women, a footnote to historic events, brought together by chance through a note in a coat, embodied the sister cit y connection that deepened between Nijmegen and Albany and continues to this day.
This week, 32 high school students and seven teachers from two schools in Nijmegen are visiting Albany as part of a cultural exchange. In their home city, they marked the 75th anniversar y of their cit y ’s liberation by American paratroopers and installed a plaque recently along the river wharf marking Albany ’s humanitarian shipment in 1947.
On Monday, the Dutch students spent part of the day at the Albany Academies, where for the f irst time, a few of the students met in person the pen pals they had corresponded with via email for the past three years.
“It was ver y special for the students, and we were g rateful for the warm, friendly reception we received at the Albany Academies,” said Anja Adriaans, founder of the Friendship Albany-nijmegen Association, an organizer of the visit, with assistance from the Dutch Settlers Society of Albany.
On Thursday at the State Museum, FA N is hosting a free screening of Dutch filmmaker Martijn Schinkel’s 22-minute documentar y “Note in a Coat.” It tells the moving stor y of the ’47 aid shipment, which was answered by a shipment of tulip bulbs sent to Albany in thanks.
Those bulbs were planted in Albany ’s Washing ton Park and the Tulip Festiva l, the cit y ’s oldest and largest public festiva l, took root. The 72nd edition of the Tulip Festiva l will be held over Mother ’s Day weekend in 2020. Inter views with students at Albany Academies who were involved in the pen pals project with Nijmegen students are included in the movie.
Three summers ago, I visited Nijmegen and met Nelly Otten’s husband, Wolter Otten, who was 87 at the time. Nelly died in 1983. He spoke of the enduring friendship between his wife and Kniffen, who he described as “part of our family.”
Kniffen traveled to Nijmegen to visit her friend more than a dozen times for two or three weeks during her summer vacations. The Ottens traveled to Albany to visit Kniffen on more than one occasion. They kept scrapbooks of their visits, and sent letters back and for th.
Kniffen was born and raised in Albany. Her family had Dutch lineage. She spent her career working as an office assistant in the state Department of Agriculture. She never married and had no children. She was a second-generation member Pineview Community Church, and was active as a volunteer and long time Sunday school teacher.
“She was always cheerful, and she devoted a lot of time to the church,” said George Jackson, a church elder who knew Kniffen for 45 years.
Kniffen had been diagnosed with dementia a few years ago. Her decline reached the point where she could no longer live independently in what had been her parent ’s home in Colonie, where she had lived for decades. She was transferred to the Albany County Nursing Home, and died there on Sept. 21 at age 91.
Pineview ’s pastor, the Rev. William Smith, spoke at a g raveside f uneral ser vice for Kniffen at Memory Gardens in Colonie on Oct. 1. About 40 people attended, most of them from her church, Jackson said.
The pastor described her giving nature and how she had devoted herself to her church.
Two years ago, Adriaans, the filmmaker Schinkel and his crew visited the nursing home. They inter viewed Kniffen, who struggled through her dementia to recall the past.
“When we mentioned Nijmegen and Nelly Otten, her eyes lighted up,” Adriaans said. “The word ‘Nijmegen’ seemed to trigger her memory. It was amazing. She smiled.”
For a moment, the fog lifted. The teenager who sent a note in a coat seemed to emerge, and the past became present.