大象传媒

This contribution to 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War website was provided to Beah a Volunteer Story Gatherer from the 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk Action Desk at the event attended by the Norwich, Norfolk and Suffolk Pensioner鈥檚 Association. The story had been written and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf of Klazina Bliss-van der Weide.

The war started when I was only two years old. My father had to go to war but was captured on the Moerdijk Bridge and taken prisoner. Later he was sent home. I learned that Hitler released prisoners of war and sent all soldiers home as an act of mercy.
My father went underground together with the sons of both our neighbours. Now, in Holland the houses are built on stilts because of the soft ground. So under the floorboards there was enough room to hide a few men. Of course as a small child I knew nothing of this till I was older and after the war was shown where the men were hiding. All I knew was that my Father was not there but suddenly, as if by magic, would appear, sitting in the front room. Sometimes I heard coughing which seemed to come from the cupboard near the fireplace. I had no idea where it came from, as I could not see anyone, and my mother said that I was imagining it. One time I caught my mother talking with her head right in the cupboard but had no idea what that was all about.
Our front room window was right alongside the pavement and anyone could look in. My mother would therefore put a clothes horse full with wet or dry nappies round my Father鈥檚 chair by the fire so he could not be seen from the street by passing German soldiers or other passers-by. All this happened when it was safe to do so. When the word came to go hiding again, I had to go in the back room and the sliding doors between the rooms would be closed and the curtains also. When I was allowed back in again my Father had gone. Where, I had no idea. That was just as well because if the soldiers came in the house to look if any men were hiding there, one soldier would stand in the corner of the room and another would ask the woman where her man was hiding and she would say that he had already been taken to Germany to work. All this time the soldier in the corner would be watching the children in the room to see where they were looking and to see their reactions when he was walking to the spot on which their eyes were focussed. They would then shoot through the floor. My Mother would warn the men under the floor to move to where the sideboard was standing.
One day there was a knock at our front door. My Mother made her way to the door very slowly and when she opened it no-one was there. Opposite on the pavement soldiers were standing about laughing and joking. My Mother closed the door very quietly and thanked the Lord that the danger had passed us by.

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