´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Peacehaven Library on behalf of Lena Affonso and has been added to the site with her permission. Lena Affonso fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

In September, 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. Holland was trying hard to keep neutral just as she done in the war of 1914 — 1918. We loved our freedom and our peace.

On 10th May the Germans invaded Holland, it was chaos. The Germans were everywhere. That day the shops were closed and people stayed at home.

Our small airport was bombed and trucks were passing me carrying the bodies of dead Dutch soldiers.

On the 14th May 1939, the German government declared an ultimatum: surrender or they would bomb Rotterdam to the ground.
There was no surrender

On the afternoon of the 14th May, I stood at the riverside and watched the city disappear under the German onslaught. Amidst dust clouds and terrible fires it vanished before my eyes. My favourite church, St Lawrence, was burned to the ground.

On the second day, the Dutch government decided to evacuate the Royal Family by ship to England. Queen Wilhelmina was not keen to leave her people behind. After the evacuation, friends of the Royal Family emptied the royal palaces of carpets, paintings and other treasures and stored them away in a secret, safe place until the war was over.
To show their loyalty to the crown, on 31st August,Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday, every house displayed a vase of marigolds on the window sill.

The next threat was other cities would be bombed unless we surrendered. There was no point in continuing to fight, we were totally overwhelmed.

I now had an enemy and I hated them and I was only 13 years old.

Our laws were scrapped and new laws were introduced. They were called ‘The New Order’. Our money was changed and we had to carry identity cards. Food and clothing became rationed and became increasingly more difficult to obtain. One day we were told we even had to hand over our radios because the Germans realised that people were listening to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and Radio Holland but my mother sold ours!
We were then told that they wanted our brass ornaments, my Grandmother had such a lot. I wrapped them up in layers of old newspaper, put them in a box and buried them between the water pipes under the house!
Our bicycles were taken from us as were our horses and cars. We became poorer and poorer. Gas and electricity were rationed to a few hours use per day.

Jewish people were told to wear a yellow star on their coats and eventually they were taken to Germany.

The winters were extremely cold and childrens shoes and clothing needed replacing. My aunt took old dresses and coats and altered them to fit me. In the end I wore my father’s army boots and long army coat.

How I hated the Germans for this humiliation.

In 1944, the situation became desperate. I went to farms to see if I could buy or beg some food. Later that year my Mother had a baby and we needed milk for him. Trying to keep the family warm and fed was so very difficult. I remember my mother exchanging her Singer sewing machine for half a loaf of bread and taking up the floorboards in the loft to use as firewood to keep the children as warm as possible.

The Germans began a policy of closing off certain districts and Dutch men from these areas who were between the ages of 14 and 45 were sent to work in Germany. This action finally resulted in a general strike, the railways, the trams and buses stopped running and schools, colleges and universities were closed. Fortunately for me, I had already taken my final exams and passed.

Now the situation became critical there was no food, no heating and no transportation. People were dying. My aunt who worked in a hospital in Delft, asked me to help out there, so, on 31st January, 1945 I set out. I walked for 4½ hours to get to there and started work the very next day from 7am to 7pm — it was very hard. However, every day we were given some food and I saved some of my bread and a hot meal and on my day off I walked home to give my mother the food — and they were waiting for it.

Within a week I was approached by the underground movement and asked to become a Girl Guide. This organisation had been declared illegal by the Germans. From my nurses dress, my aunt made a uniform and once we were enrolled I took part with others to help the underground movement. I knew what it was all about because when I was at home, I had helped with distributing illegal news and pictures of the Royal family. Sometimes allied planes came to bring arms or spies and we had to lie in a field using lights to bring the plane safely to land and take off again. The weapons were thrown out. We didn’t know who was taking part — it was safer that way.

In April, Queen Wilhelmina asked permission to send food to Rotterdam. The Germans knew that they were losing the war and agreed to this. One day loads of planes, full of food, flew over Rotterdam and dropped lots of food in the fields. No one was allowed to go out. The food was collected and stored in a warehouse. We didn’t receive any of it.

On 4th May 1945, Germany surrendered — The war was over.

I was in Delft and that night at 7pm there was a thanksgiving service in a beautiful church. It was fantastic! The bell had been put back in the tower (It had been hidden for 5 years) and was ringing out over Delft.
We all thanked God that we had survived and that we had our freedom back.

Freedom — The most important thing in your life, you can’t see it when you
have it, but you know when you’ve lost it.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.