大象传媒

Friday, 10th May 1940. I was 9years old, an only child, called Wilhelmina, born in Leiden, the University City in the west of the Netherlands. I was woken up at four in the morning by very low Messerschmidts and Dutch fighter planes, firing at each other. My father came in and said 鈥淚 think the war has started鈥�. The radio had already informed us that German paratroopers had been dropped over Valkenburg, a military airfield near by.

After our milkman had told us that he had no milk for us as the Germans had already milked his cows in his field, we got on our bikes to see for ourselves. We saw Dutch soldiers, guns ready, lying in the ditches. When I pointed them out, they shouted 鈥渄on鈥檛 point at us, there are Germans everywhere鈥�. We made a quick return home.

My father was an air raid warden and was on duty when the German鈥檚 bombed Rotterdam. He was on top of a large windmill and could see Rotterdam burning 30 miles away. The sky was glowing red. My Grandmother, who also lived in Leiden, had two soldiers with anti-aircraft guns on top of her roof. My mother and I came to see if my Grandmother was alright. Then a special announcement on the radio came; the Dutch Government had capitulated. The two airmen cried and it was the first time I had seen grown men cry. The war was over or so we thought!! It was 15th May 1940. It had lasted only five days.

The next few days we watched the German troops, tanks and equipment move into the city. There were not enough barracks to house the German troops, so every civilian had to take in one or more German soldiers. We were sent a German farmers son from Bremerhaven, called Johann Schulz. He had to leave when his battalion left for Russia and we heard that he was killed in Stalingrad.

The German鈥檚 immediately introduced their summertime, as well as ration cards for tea, coffee, semolina, macaroni, paraffin oil, butter and margarine. Within two months there was not much left for sale. German soldiers were seen walking with large bags filled with anything they could lay their hands on.

Story continues鈥︹��. What I remember of the War in the Netherlands 鈥� chapter two.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Cheryl Phillips of the Stoke CSV Action Desk on behalf of Wilhelmina Slight-Metselaar and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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