“Do you now understand why I cry” is a documentary from 1969 in which an ex-resistance fighter traumatized by the war is followed during his LSD therapy with psychiatrist Jan Bastiaans. The documentary, but especially Bastiaans’ treatment method, was a breakthrough in the Netherlands where until that time there had been no tradition of special help and/or treatment of victims of war.

In the sixties there was a renewed interest in the Second World War. Lou de Jong’s television series De bezetting [The Occupation] (1960-1965) was highly appreciated by a very large audience. Subsequently the book Ondergang [Ashes in the Wind] by Jacques Presser, which described the destruction of Dutch Jewry, made a very big impression.  Starting in the 1960’s there was attention and understanding for the traumas that tortured some war victims. During the years of post-war rebuilding these experiences had been hidden as deep as possible by those involved and by the bystanders. Professor Jan Sebastiaans made the so-called concentration camp syndrome into his specialty. He developed a treatment method whereby the patient was given a limited amount of LSD.