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The Flight from Jersey by Martha and Hugo Veerman
written by Wietkes Young nee (Veerman).
This story was submitted to the peoples war site by Peter Nicholas of Link into Learning, Cornwall County Council. It was written by Wietkes Young and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs. Young fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.
My parents, Martha and Hugo Veerman, were married in Jersey on September 24th 1938 in the Methodist Church of St. Helier attended by two witnesses, Gladys and Charlie. My mother and father were Dutch Nationals and had moved to the Channel Islands as my father was a Tomato Grower and was keen to start his own business. In Holland it was difficult to do this kind of thing as land was and still is very hard to buy. So they left their own country and began to make a new beginning together in St. Helier the capital of Jersey.
They rented some land and a small house and began to grow vegetables especially tomatoes. They made friends and attended the Methodist church . On December 5th 1939 their first child was born , a daughter who was named Annette .
In the September, war had been declared on Germany and at first this was no threat to Martha and Hugo. As the months passed, however, it became very apparent that the Germans were a definite threat. My parents listened avidly to the Wireless and were very worried when their own country was invaded. Soon Hitler was through Belgium and into Paris . Now the Channel Islanders were concerned and looked to London for help. The orders were for all those who wished to do so to head for England with the women and children going first. My parents realised that they had to make a move. If the Germans found them on the island it was fairly sure that Hugo would be sent to work in Germany and what would happen to Martha and the baby?
So they made plans to travel to England . My mother and my sister would go first. So the idea was to fly to Southampton and then to a Methodist minister in Andover. When the plane reached England , there was thick fog at the Southampton airport and the plane was diverted to Bristol. So Martha and Annette landed at Bristol and were taken by bus to the main railway station . They boarded the train in the direction of Andover . Of course by now my little sister was getting hungry and thirsty , she was not yet one year old. There were many British soldiers on the train and it seems they were quite taken by this Dutch lady and her baby and they saw to it that a bottle of milk was warmed up and that a nappy could be changed.
My mother was always very grateful to these soldiers as she was now a refugee in a strange country with only her school girl understanding of the language. I would like to say also that my mother was a very attractive lady and my sister had the most beautiful blonde curly hair. So, thank you to those kind people. At last Andover was reached and my mother arrived at the house of the Methodist minister very tired and totally disoriented. Now she had to hope and pray that her husband could get out of Jersey safely as well.
Hugo had to wait until all those women and children who wanted to leave had done so either by plane or boat. While he was waiting his turn, he tried to sort out their private possessions . He asked some trusted friends to look after the more valuable pieces . My parents had been engaged for five years so you can understand that Martha had collected quite a trousseau . Among these belongings was a beautiful box of silver cutlery , it had a lid and a separate tray , and was a complete set. My father decided that the best and safest thing to do was to bury it in the ground . He had a greenhouse at the time and one night he dug a large hole and, wrapping the cutlery in several cloths , he buried it deep, away from German eyes and the eyes of nosy neighbors.
After that, he tried to make his escape from Jersey before the imminent march of the boots of German soldiers. He packed a case and made his way to the airport in his car. On arriving there he could see that it was very chaotic . He noticed a man who was not as desperate as the others and he approached him. He asked if he would be interested in his car in exchange far a place in the queue. The man agreed and my father handed over the keys. The other man was a Jersey man, my father was a ‘Foreigner’ and had a greater need to leave the island. He flew away from the Channel Islands breathing a sigh of relief. Days later the occupation forces arrived!
My parents were reunited in Andover where they stayed for several weeks . It was decided that my father should try to join the Dutch Home Army who were based in Shropshire. He managed to do this and my mother joined him in Shrewsbury with Annette. They only had a suitcase of belongings and rented a few rooms for the time being. Hugo became a driver as a Private. A few months later, he contracted Sciatica and was unable to drive. As he was a vegetable grower, he soon found a job with the co-op growing food .By this time my mother was pregnant again and in September 1941, my second sister, Mia, was born. By now, my father had made some friends and he was advised that the best place to grow vegetables was Cornwall and they decided to move to the South West.
In 1942, they reached St Blazey and rented rooms and a piece of land. My father began to grow food for the War effort.
In October 1943 , their third daughter was born, that was me, Wietske. No more children till after the War . Life was not easy for these refugees who looked like Germans and spoke with a foreign accent. My parents made some good friends and there were people prepared to help them start up their own business but there were also times of unpleasantness from some who considered them interlopers.
In January 1946 my brother, Eddie , was born and also that year my father was able to return to Jersey to find their belongings . He went back to the greenhouse and dug up the silver cutlery which obviously needed a thorough polish but it was all still there , not a piece was missing .
Many of their other belongings returned to England over the next few years and many were never seen again .
I grew up as a child with the box of silver cutlery . I used it and I polished it and I ate my food with it.
The canteen of cutlery is still intact although the box has long since fallen to pieces. It is in the care of Annette, the only one to be born in Jersey, and it will stay in the family along with the stories of its adventures.

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