大象传媒

The war became a serious reality for the storyteller when as a girl of fourteen she heard a radio broadcast that Rotterdam had been bombed in May 1940. She wasn't expecting this to happen. Dutch resistance crumbled quickly and within a few days the German Army had entered her home town of Utrecht.

An immediate military curfew was imposed and life became difficult under the occupation. Within two years all boys aged sixteen were conscripted as slave labour in Germany. They were ordered to assemble in the Market Square with a blanket, sandwiches, which was difficult as there was very little food, and the clothes they wore. The storyteller's brother was transported to Hamburg to unload crates of chemicals from ships in the port. The workers were issued with food coupons at the end of each day if they had achieved their quota of work. Her brother became effected by the chemicals as he was provided with no protective clothing and couldn't work. He subsequently died of starvation.

The storyteller's second brother was due to be deported in 1943. He went into hiding to escape this fate. He hid in the foundations of his sister-in-laws house with his brother-in-law and another friend until the liberation. By the end of the war he was a living skeleton and had contracted T.B. It took him two years to recover in a sanitorium. The Germans searched for the boy on his disappearance. They ramsacked the family home whilst doing this and her father was taken away for questioning. He was returned a few days later. Another of the storyteller's brother-in-laws was arrested for distributing illegial pamphlets and sentenced to be taken to a concentration camp. He was rescued by the Dutch Resistance and remained hidden until the liberation.

Food supplies in the town were always limited. By 1943 there was no food in Utrecht. The storyteller and her sister were forced to seek food in the surrounding countryside. The bundle of turnips and rabbit they acquired was at a very inflated cost. The skinned rabbit was used for food, the fur cured and made into a hat and mittens.

There was no heating as there was little fuel for the purpose. It was freezing in the winter. Cooking was a problem and the family cut down trees in the street for firewood. Cooking was done in a tin with legs heated over a fire. It was a very slow process. Often there was only a slice of raw turnip for breakfast.

In 1943 the storyteller and her sister decided things were so bad that they would leave home. They walked 160 miles across Holland to Groningen where a cousin, who was a Nun, was living. They were taken in by the Convent and food was a little more plentiful there. They left the Convent when the Nuns began to pressure them into becoming sisters. The local Evacuees Committee for orphaned and lost children took responsability for them. The storyteller's sister was billeted with a family with seven children and she was assigned to a family who owned a gentleman's outfitters. She was treated well and stayed with the family until the liberation of the town by Canadian troops. Groningen was the scene of hand to hand fighting and very dangerous at the time. The family hid in the cellars but were frightened that the troops might think it was an enemy position and blow it up as wounded German soldiers also found refuge there.

The sisters decided to return to Utrecht as soon as possible and set about walking home. They were given a lift for part of the way by allied soldiers, one of whom robbed them and attempted to rape the two women. Utrecht was under quarantine restrictions when they arrived but they were allowed to go to their home. No one was there when they arrived, their parents were in Church and were not overjoyed at their return.

The storyteller subsequently left Holland and moved to England where she married and has lived here ever since.

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