RACHELTJIE DE BEER

A movie about this South African icon is on its way. Afrikaans speaking children way back was impressed with the story about this little girl, Racheltjie de Beer, who protected her little brother, Dirkie, in the snow. Diwwie de Beer, the most acknowledged researcher of the De Beer family history in South Africa, however, could find no genealogical trace of such a family. Still, the story about bravery of South Africans has been established --among others-- into the history books forever.

It is speculated that the South African author, Eugene Marais, read about a brave act of an American girl in the USA who saved her brother in the severe cold weather and may have customized it into a South African version. This happened in the 1920's (circa). Marais was a medical doctor, well educated and must have been informed and influenced about the news reports around the world.

Though the story of Racheltjie "may now be genealogically proved to be historically incorrect", it will still be interesting to follow the debate about such a film.

VISIT TO DIWWIE DE BEER

Diwwie de Beer was awarded for his accurate and most complete research on the De Beer-family register of South Africa. I had the privelage to visit him and his sincere wife in a retirement resort in Lyttleton, Centurion near Pretoria.  On that very same day he was in the process to assist researchers for a film on Racheltjie de Beer.  He has a very daunted task in deed to trace all the possible family ties and links to this Voortrekker family. However, as he quoted, that although he wants to believe in the folk lore of the little girl who protected her brother in a snow storm and subsequently lost her life, he could not for certain (up to this stage) confirm their exact roots in the De Beer-family tree.  Diwwie drew a lot of flack on this stance of staunch Afrikaners who grew up with the story of Racheltjie De Beer.  Historically, however, he cannot change the facts without proven evidence of this specific De Beer-family. He traced a Rachel de Beer, but she was still living! One should keep in mind that many parents named their daughters after this famous name, namely, Rachel. Accordingly, some street names also got their names from Racheltjie De Beer...A school in Pretoria was for example named after Racheltjie while a plaque of the historical event was cast in bronze and fixed on the veranda of the former Sunday School building in Maitland Street, Bloemfontein. Unfortunately this plaque was removed when the new owners took it over and the where abouts of the plaque is unknown to me.

Diwwie is very sensitive about the story, because he says "to risk one's life for another person, is truly praise worthy". Fortunately, the script writers consulted Diwwie about the real family roots as to be as scientific as possible. We are all looking forward to the final outcome in the intended film.