大象传媒

(This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer from Three Counties Action on behalf of Mrs Nuze and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Nuze fully understands the sites terms and conditions).

I was a teenager and lived in Arnhem in Holland and on the 10th May the Germans came into Holland and from then on we were under German occupation. On the date of the Bridge Too Far 鈥� the 16th September 1944 there was a battle going on but the South of Holland was free but the centre and the West was still occupied. It was called the Hunger Winter. There was no food left and people were starving. We were evacuated from Arnhem into the West and that took 9 months. After 9 months when the war was over in the May when Hitler was dead we were able to go back.

For 5 years everyone was hoping the war would be finished, so we were full of ambition, whatever sacrifice we went through we thought would be worth it to be free. We had nothing but in the end we didn鈥檛 mind as we were free.

On the 16th September 1944 we were told at 10 o鈥檆lock in the morning by a bulletin that the town had to be empty by 6 otherwise you鈥檇 be shot 鈥� whoever you were. My mother couldn鈥檛 walk as she was an invalid and it was hard getting out as the Germans took everything 鈥� bikes and cars. So we needed to get my mother out so we went to the greengrocers and got a wheelbarrow and took her out that way. We had to walk between 5 and 7 miles and we stayed with friends just outside of Arnhem. After a fortnight more bulletins went up and the evacuees were told to leave. So for 3 days we walked to the West and along the way we had to sleep on floors in factories. As we made our way there were between 6 and 7 horse and carts and they were full of people who were unable to walk, my mother was one of them but my father, sister and me all had to walk. Planes came across and ducked thinking we were a German convoy but we waved our white flags at them and then they realised we were evacuees. At the time everyone thought it would only be for a couple of weeks but that turned out to be 9 months.

The Hunger Winter was terrible. There was no food, children used to go through bins to find food. In the night you could hear children going to the farmers trying to get food, you could hear them walking. One time it was early in the morning and a boy was out walking with a little buggy and it was covered up. They said to him 鈥測ou have done well, what have you got?鈥� and he took the cloth off and it was his mother, collapsed as she was too weak to go to the farms to get food. That happened a lot!

When we were evacuees my sister and I stayed with some hairdressers and my mother and father stayed with some other people, they had to take in evacuees there was no choice for people. And my brother went to church and he had paces to hide from the Germans as he was little.

You weren鈥檛 allowed radios, you couldn鈥檛 read newspapers. The only news you got was if anyone had a quiet radio and you got news from England. Then it had to be secret. You could pass the news on but very carefully. My brother was once stopped by the Germans, he had nothing on him, they questioned him but let him go.

Sometimes the Germans came into homes looking for young men to take them way. So the word was spread as much as you could and then they hid the men as best they could but if they were found they were taken away, so luckily they didn鈥檛 find my brother as he was hiding in the church.

People sometimes say 鈥� you were occupied by the Germans weren鈥檛 you afraid they would make a nuisance of the girls, but there was some discipline and if you went out in the black outs they wouldn鈥檛 attack the young girls.

My brother in law was taken by the Germans and asked why he wasn鈥檛 working for them; my brother in law said 鈥淲hat! I will never work with the Germans鈥�. So he was taken off and had to dig holes. He made out he had mental problems and caused all manor of trouble. The Germans said he wasn鈥檛 worth having so he escaped. He walked miles and miles to get back to us. He was only away for between 3 or 4 weeks but by the time he had got back to us his head was full of lice, he had a beard and he was dirty as nothing had been washed.

As we came back into Arnhem the Germans had been organising taking everything good out of the homes to take back to Germany but they must have been disrupted as when we went back things were left on the footpaths. I remember seeing a row of sewing machines outside in the street. We got ours back but it was rusty as it had been out a long time.

My father had a hair dressing shop and because he had a shop we were one of the first to be allowed back into Arnhem after the war. We had no food, but very slowly as the businesses came back in life carried on. The Swedish Red Cross had a kitchen there for the first few weeks so we were able to eat. The city of Arnhem was ruined by the Germans.

Also all the girls who were friendly with the Germans during the occupation were gathered up by the police. They had their hair shaved off and they were sent to prison 鈥� I think to camps in Germany.

My eldest brother was picked up from another part of Holland where he was living with his wife, 2 children and a baby and taken away by the Germans. It seems unbelievable but it is true. His wife had a sister who had a husband who got in the army for the Germans so she had some benefits getting to the authorities, which she did and she told then about my brother so he was freed.

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