>The main suspect in the long-running investigation that led to raids on Thursday is a 59-year-old Dutchman who authorities believe acquired the former military bunker in Traben-Trarbach
I'm shocked because I've been given a tour of this datacenter by the man's sons, whose mother is friends with my grandmother, and whom I have known since a very young age. Like, the mother, the sons, my mother, my grandmother, and me, all toured a 6-levels deep NATO bunker & the surrounding buildings. It was an amazing sight to see. They did not talk much about what they were doing there, only that it was meant to be a secure datacenter. Their mom was just so happy that the father and sons were finally working together on something lucrative, and that they had a place to live (the bunker & surrounding buildings had a lot of facilities).
By the time of the tour, which was 2015, I hadn't seen them for several years. Catching up, I told them that I had a career a US federal gov contractor working in cyber security - to them, and I didn't realize it at the time, this was probably a red flag. I wanted to talk a lot about cyber sec stuff, but they seemed oddly quiet. Shortly after the visit, they went out of touch with my family. The final connection we had was one Facebook account belonging to the youngest kid - probably the 20yo one mentioned in the article. It seemed odd to me that he didn't use his real name, but now I understand why. It's been deleted.
These kids had an interesting backstory. Their mother was a black woman from the Dutch colony Curaçao. She met the father sometime during or before the 90s. Their children were mixed race, and were never accepted by their grandparents, who allegedly were Nazi-affiliated. The prospect of marriage fell apart, and this single mother had to raise the two sons on her own. Living in Westervoort nearby Arnhem, she met and struck up a close friendship with my grandmother, who became kind of a surrogate grandmother for those kids.
That NATO bunker is built upon a spot where Nazis would have used it during WWII. I thought it was an amazing turn of the tables for a black woman who was scorned by Nazis to now have a claim to it.
I had pictures of the inside of that NATO bunker, which was amazing to see, but the iPhone they were stored on got stolen later that year. I wish I had them. If I'm lucky, some combing through DropBox might uncover a few.
I'm shocked because I've been given a tour of this datacenter by the man's sons, whose mother is friends with my grandmother, and whom I have known since a very young age. Like, the mother, the sons, my mother, my grandmother, and me, all toured a 6-levels deep NATO bunker & the surrounding buildings. It was an amazing sight to see. They did not talk much about what they were doing there, only that it was meant to be a secure datacenter. Their mom was just so happy that the father and sons were finally working together on something lucrative, and that they had a place to live (the bunker & surrounding buildings had a lot of facilities).
By the time of the tour, which was 2015, I hadn't seen them for several years. Catching up, I told them that I had a career a US federal gov contractor working in cyber security - to them, and I didn't realize it at the time, this was probably a red flag. I wanted to talk a lot about cyber sec stuff, but they seemed oddly quiet. Shortly after the visit, they went out of touch with my family. The final connection we had was one Facebook account belonging to the youngest kid - probably the 20yo one mentioned in the article. It seemed odd to me that he didn't use his real name, but now I understand why. It's been deleted.
These kids had an interesting backstory. Their mother was a black woman from the Dutch colony Curaçao. She met the father sometime during or before the 90s. Their children were mixed race, and were never accepted by their grandparents, who allegedly were Nazi-affiliated. The prospect of marriage fell apart, and this single mother had to raise the two sons on her own. Living in Westervoort nearby Arnhem, she met and struck up a close friendship with my grandmother, who became kind of a surrogate grandmother for those kids.
That NATO bunker is built upon a spot where Nazis would have used it during WWII. I thought it was an amazing turn of the tables for a black woman who was scorned by Nazis to now have a claim to it.
I had pictures of the inside of that NATO bunker, which was amazing to see, but the iPhone they were stored on got stolen later that year. I wish I had them. If I'm lucky, some combing through DropBox might uncover a few.