Chapter 8

THE WAR YEARS

Then came 1939.  There had been rumours of war for years, but most people didn’t pay much attention to it.  They were too busy just trying to keep food on the table to support their families.  There was no television yet and not many people owned radios.  Many rural people didn’t even read a newspaper.  Apart from events that occurred locally, not much attention was given to world events.  Even though they lived so close to the border, it seemed to them that Germany was very far away and there was little to worry about.

In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and then England and France declared war with Germany.  For Holland it meant that the army was called up and sent to the borders.  When so many people were called to the army, a lot of jobs became available that were filled by unemployed people.  So the high rate of unemployment was reduced drastically.  Suddenly there was also a need for all sorts of products and the whole economy started to improve.  Still almost nobody worried about war in Holland itself.  During the First World War the army had been at the border also, but Holland had remained neutral and everyone was confident that Holland would stay out of this war too.  This period was called the “mobilization time” and took 8 months till May 10, 1940 when Germany suddenly attacked Holland. 

The invasion took only 5 days.  Lathum, being so close to the German border was run over on the first morning already.  Five days later, after Rotterdam was bombed and largely burned down, Holland gave up its defence and admitted defeat to avoid any further deaths.  The Dutch army was badly outnumbered, had out-dated weapons and quite a few traitors in the army.  Only in parts of the province of Zeeland, were they able to hold out for almost a month longer, but in the end they had to give up there too.  Many soldiers managed to cross over to England during this time.

When the war broke out in 1940, Oma and Opa lived on the farm with six children.  Jantje and Hendrik were almost at the end of their school years, being thirteen and twelve years old.  Geertje, Derk and Wim went to school and were 10, 9 and 7 years old, and Gerard was still at home at 2 years of age.  Hendrik Jan Heinen was also living with them.

At first the war was a big shock to most people, especially the fact that the country was taken in just a few days and that the government, the queen and all her relatives, had fled to England.  At first the people felt betrayed by this, as though the Royal Family were thinking only of themselves and not showing any concern for the people they governed.  Later everyone understood that it was wiser for the government to leave.  In England they could do more than they could have done in captivity.  They had also taken a lot of documents and all the treasury money with them, which were a big loss to the Germans.

The first change the Germans made almost immediately was to change the clocks.  Dutch time was 40 minutes later than German time.  The Germans insisted that everyone move their clocks 40 minutes ahead so they would have the same time as in Germany.  In Holland most of the country already had daylight savings time between summer and winter, just like here in Canada.  However, most farmers thought this was nonsense and stubbornly refused to change their clocks.  Thus meeting times, etc., always had to be announced in two times.  Sometimes this was called “old time and new time” or “winter time and summer time” and sometimes “farmer time and city time.”  Now the Germans insisted on another change and these same farmers opposed this too, so now there were three different time frames.  There was one farmer, Meerkerk, who refused to change to the German time, but since calculating 1 hour and 40 minutes was difficult, he decided to move his clock ahead ten minutes, because 1 hour and 30 minutes was much easier to calculate.  All these different times and stubborn habits were a favourite subject for jokes.  Gradually most people gave in and by the end of the war almost everyone, with the exception of Meerkerk, had the same time.  Eventually even he had to give in, but at least he had the satisfaction of never having bowed to the Germans.

Soon things settled down and in the beginning things didn’t look all that bad.  The Germans tried to be as polite as possible.  The Dutch army, which was at first interned in camps, was set free and sent home to show their good will.  The Germans blamed the English for the war.  According to them the English were planning to occupy Holland and the Germans had come to protect them.  In Holland many people were somewhat anti-English.  In the Middle Ages through to the eighteenth century there had been many wars with England.  And around 1900 the Boer War in South Africa had really increased this anti-English sentiment.  Many books were published about this war.  Especially those written by Pennings and Daan Maas were very well known and eagerly read, and they were very anti-English.  Holland also had better export connections with Germany than with England, and the Germans tried to profit from these feelings, telling the Dutch they were brother nations.  Silently they had infiltrated the newspapers and radio so they controlled the news, but at first they were so careful that it was not really obvious.  The economy also picked up at first and unemployment disappeared completely.  For years there had been people who worked for the Germans, who had formed a political party, the N.S.B., the National Socialistishe Beweging, and who had spent years preparing for this invasion.

Most of the Dutch mistrusted the German  Nazi’s, or “de Moffen” as they were called, although in the beginning some opportunists,  started working for the Germans.  Their attempt to sway most of the population to their side failed.  Later in England, a Dutch program was sent over the radio, called “Radio Oranje” and the Dutch people were told what the Germans really were doing and how the war was going.  At first the Germans tried to infiltrate this program by sending noises over the same air waves so it couldn’t be understood.  Later they ordered that all radios be turned in at the town hall to be confiscated, with severe punishment threatened for those who disobeyed. 

From then on more and more restrictions were announced.  All persons 15 years old and over had to carry a legal document that contained their picture, signature and finger prints.  All food, clothing and fuel were rationed, with the rationed amounts becoming smaller and smaller as time went on.  The Jewish businesses were closed and the Jews themselves transported to the camps.  This was done so secretly that many people were unaware of it.  There were no street lights and curfew was often from 8:00 pm till 6:00 am.  In that time nobody was allowed outside.  Schools were often closed for a few months in winter as there was no fuel for heating.  Not many people had a car and there was no fuel available except for those who worked for the government.  The cars were later commandeered and later even bikes were taken by the occupying Germans.  At first there was still some bus travel.  The buses were equipped with a converter.  It had a heavy iron cylinder on the back which produced methane gas by cooking small pieces of wood.  These buses could only drive about 40 km per hour and had to stop every 15 minutes to stoke up the converter.  After a while there was no bus transportation at all.

Until 1943 most people could get by, especially if they lived in the country.  All the agricultural products had to be sold to the government, but many farmers sold directly to the people.  Many of the people who bought potatoes before now came to the farm for anything that was edible.  Now it didn’t matter if the potatoes were crooked. 

One of the people from Arnhem who bought food from Opa and Oma was Ans Mannekes.  Some of the older nephews and nieces probably remember her since she visited Oma here in Canada quite often.  Ans was a very good looking young girl.  She hid the food she bought in a bag which she hid under the front of her dress, which made her look pregnant.  She thought that the German patrols which she had to pass before she reached Arnhem wouldn’t do a body check on a pregnant woman.  This worked for a long time, until one day, one of the German inspectors remarked that the baby seemed rather overdue.  Then Ans realized she couldn’t keep using this trick and had to think of another way to get the food past the German patrols. 

Of course, great care was needed at the farm, too, to ensure that no Germans or infiltrators observed them selling food.  But their neighbourhood was quite safe, with two exceptions.  One was the principal of the school and the other was Hendrik Jan, their hired hand who lived in their own home!  Both were strongly pro-German so everyone had to be very careful about what they said.  The children were told never to talk about the war at home or to tell stories about what they had heard at school.  Later on during the war Hendrik Jan threatened to report Oma once and so they finally had to let him go.  It was not easy to send an old, lonely man away who had lived for so many years with the family, but Oma was too scared for her family to take the risk of letting him stay. 

The Germans had tried to lure people to serve in the German army and to work in German factories, but with very little success.  They made billboards showing happy soldiers in uniform showing how much good they could do, and there were billboards about showing how good it was to work in Germany.  They even tried to convince the Dutch that they were morally obliged to work for them since their own men were fighting for their protection.  All kinds of promises of rewards were made.  In 1943 they started to send people to Germany, and later they picked people up from the street and held big razzias.  A razzia is a raid where the army would suddenly block off an area of the city.  All men between the ages of 16 and 60 were picked up and the houses were thoroughly searched.  All these people were sent to Germany to work.  

On the farm things also become more difficult.  There was no fertilizer available anymore, nor feed grain.  Livestock was also strictly controlled.  Farmers had to keep very accurate records of how many cows, calves, pigs, chickens, etc., they had on their farm.  From time to time a notice was given that a cow or pig had to be brought in to be confiscated.  Later the farmers also had to turn over part of their hay.  Most of the good horses were seized as well.  Parts of the German army were highly motorized, but several companies still used horses and wagons.

During the second year of the war the family grew again.  On April 27, 1942, Beppie was born.  Her full name was Alberta Wilhelmina Maria, after both parents and Opa’s sister.  It was a very cold day and they were all heavily dressed, busy in the field planting potatoes.  Oma still fed the pigs that day.  When their neighbour was told a little while later that they had a new baby, he said it was impossible because he had seen Oma just a short time earlier carrying two pails of pig feed.

 Some time later Oma was expecting another child.  One day one of their pigs had to be killed because of a broken leg, and they decided to slaughter it and keep the meat for themselves, rather than report the death and hand the meat over to the Germans.  This was a very risky decision and meant working all through the night in the dark to get the job done.  Oma was six months pregnant at the time.  While stirring a large cauldron of hot fat, it slipped off the stove and Oma grabbed it to set it upright again.  Her arm, up to her elbow, went into that hot fat.  She felt the baby jerk violently, and then nothing more.  With grim determination, she wrapped her arm in rags and kept right on working.  Not until the next day did she tell Opa what had happened.  Later she gave birth to a stillborn child, a little boy. Oma had lost one other baby, also a little boy, who died very soon after birth.  That child was born between Wim and Gerard.

At the end of the war everything became more scarce, but the food shortage was not as severe in the eastern part of the country as in the west.  Especially out in the rural areas people could survive.  There was much hunger, however, at that time in the cities and especially in the western part of Holland.  Whole droves of people came around for food.  Opa and Oma Brouwer helped as many as possible and didn’t charge black market prices, but just the common price.  But because they sold so much food they were always short of the produce which had to be turned over to the Germans.  A few times they received hefty fines.  Then the Germans sent a letter to the police department of all the farmers who were in arrears and they had to search those farms and confiscate whatever food could be found.  At the top of the list was A. Brouwer.  The man who received this letter was Mr. Engelsman, the first husband of Ans Mannekes.  He knew the Brouwers well, and hid the letter until the next day.  He spent the night carefully rewriting the letter, but in his copy the name A. Brouwer was at the very bottom of the list.

Since the Brouwers were always willing to help those in need, they were approached several times to hide Jews.  But this was too dangerous for them.  At the beginning of the war Hendrik Jan Heinen lived with them who could easily betray them, and the neighbours were too close by.  Later German soldiers often stayed on their farm and slept in the barn.  Several times they took in a child for a few weeks who suffered from food shortage.  Once Ans Mannekes brought a little boy that Oma thought was Jewish.  Ans strongly denied this, so the boy stayed.  But twice a merchant came to the door and remarked that the boy looked very Jewish, so they realized it was too dangerous to keep him and he had to go somewhere else.

In the last year of the war Hendrik turned 16.  That was the age that boys had to go to Germany to work in the war factories.  He refused and stayed home.  They had a hiding place and took some precautions.   Fortunately he looked quite young and was small for his age.  Hendrik, who was later a big man, was small as a teenager.  He was so small in fact that it earned him the nickname “Krielkip”  (tiny chicken).

It seemed as though the Brouwer family were going to get through the war alright.  But just at the end, things became much more critical.  Geertje became severely ill with pneumonia.  It took a long time for her to recover and Oma thought that she was not strong enough for farm life.  So Oma decided to send her to stay at her sister tante Geertje’s place in Bodegraven.  City life was not so difficult and tante Geertje didn’t have children of her own, so Oma thought this arrangement would be good for both parties.  Geertje wasn’t very happy, but she went.  Soon she wrote that she wanted to come back home.  At first Oma discouraged this, but after a few months she realized that Geertje was homesick and had to come back.  She was 14 at that time.  Jantje was sent on a Monday early in September to pick her up by train.  But the next day was “dolle Dinsdag” (crazy Tuesday). 

Earlier in June the Allied forces had landed in France to liberate the western countries from German occupation and to defeat Hitler’s army.  At first it went slowly but gradually most of France was liberated and part of Belgium.  Then on that Monday afternoon in September, rumours started that the Allied forces were close to the Dutch border.  On Tuesday that rumour spread like wildfire.  Every half hour more news came in that they had crossed the border, etc.  Soon it was reported that they were in Breda, then Dordrecht, etc.  Whole German army units fled.  The Dutch who had collaborated with the Germans also fled to Germany.  Every-thing came to a standstill and it was thought that the war was over.  Some people in hiding and some Jews came out in the open.  Soon everyone learned that it was all just rumours.  The Germans returned, more fierce and bar-baric than before.  All lines of communication had broken down and travelling became almost impossible.  Jantje, however, wanted to go back home knowing that their parents would be very worried if they didn’t return.  Tante Geertje didn’t like it but had to give in.  She gave the girls a whole list of addresses of friends and relatives who lived between Bodegraven and Arnhem, so that if they couldn’t go any further they could try the closest address.  They left by train.  Close to Utrecht they couldn’t go further, because the train just ahead of them had been bombed, and nothing else could pass on the tracks.  They walked to the closest address on their list, to an aunt of Oma’s.  It was a 1½ hour walk, and there they spent the night.  The next day they started walking again.  On the last day they walked more than five hours, carrying their heavy suitcases.  It was very dangerous for two young girls to walk so far during the war, especially at a time of real chaos, but thankfully they arrived home safely.  Very soon after this communication and travel became completely impossible.

By late summer of 1944 the Dutch expected to be free very soon.  The Allied forces had liberated Limburg, Brabant and parts of Zeeland.  But after the battle around Arnhem failed, the battle more or less came to a standstill.  The Dutch remained under German occupation for another winter.  The winter of 1944-45 was a really cold winter with a lot of snow and ice.  At times the roads were too slippery to walk on and it was safer to walk on the frozen canals instead.  There was very little to eat and very little fuel for heating.  During this winter many people starved and this time is often referred to as the “hunger winter.”  Then in late March the Allies broke through the German lines at Nijmegen and pushed northward, coming very close to Lathum.  The Germans fled with the Canadian army in hot pursuit.  The farmers who had a horse and wagon were forced by the fleeing Germans to help bring them back across the border, and Opa was forced to help too.  Henk said that Opa was too old for that so he took Opa’s place.  When they arrived at the German border they found that the Canadians were already there, so they took a more northerly route to get around them.  There was a lot of gunfire and bombings going on all around them.  One night they stayed in a German village that was bombed.  Almost all the houses caught fire, including the one they were staying in, and they had to flee.  Henk was together with a group of nine other men from their village.  Once in Germany, they fled from the Germans they were transporting and tried to get back to Holland.  They were afraid of becoming hostages.  One night as they slept in a deserted barn, they were suddenly attacked by American soldiers who took them captive at gunpoint.  Fortunately one of the men, who could speak some English, convinced the Americans that they were Dutch civilians and not Germans.  Then they were treated better and allowed to go home.  Finally they arrived safely back in Lathum.  Ten farmers had left with horse and wagon.  All ten returned, but five without their horses and wagons.  Henk came back with his horse and wagon, although his horse had a slight burn from a bullet on its head. (According to Oma’s book they had been away for 10 days, others thought it was 14 days).

As the Germans retreated, early that spring, they blew up anything that might be of value to the Allies.  In Lathum they blew up the castle and the brick factory.  They were also planning to destroy the church and steeple, but the pro-German teacher was able to talk them out of this.  The church and castle dated back to the 1300s.

Then for a while the Brouwers lived in the war zone.  They lived on the east side of the river Yssel and were liberated by the Canadian army.  The Germans, however, held out on the other side for more than a month.  (This is the area described in A Bridge Too Far).   The Yssel river had high dikes on both sides, which made it impossible to see across to the other side.  This provided a real sense of safety for those below the dike.  One afternoon the Canadian soldiers started a soccer game at tante Marie’s farm and lots of people came to watch.  On the other side of the river there was a brick factory and the Germans used the high chimney as an observation post.  When they saw what was going on they suddenly started shooting.  One Canadian soldier was killed and another wounded.  Beppie, who was three years old was hit in the leg by shrapnel, which is still in her leg.  Her cousin Johanna was badly hit in the face.

During this last year many people had to flee from the war zone and find shelter in safer areas.  The Brouwers got their share of live-in guests too.  First Oom Hendrik and Tante Mina, Opa’s brother and his wife, came with two children and their cattle, and stayed for several months.  Tante Mina was quite selfish and it wasn’t easy to get along with her.  As soon as she arrived she wanted to take over the cooking and running the household, etc.  Opa had to defend Oma and insist that Oma was in charge of her own house, so tante Mina had to give in.  She didn’t help much, but liked to act as if she was in charge.   After they left, the family Boerboom came with four teenage sons.  They also had malnourished children from the cities from time to time during the last two years.

The Brouwers maintained contact with many of the people who stayed with them during the war, and a few even visited them in Canada.  When Opa died, an announcement was placed in “De Wekker” the Dutch church paper.  Some former guests who had lost contact with them, read the announcement, took up contact with them again, and some even came for a visit.

It is very difficult to really understand what life was like at the end of the war.  There was very little food and many people had to eat sugar beets (food grown to feed the horses) and often even tulip bulbs.  For years new clothes or material could not be bought.  The clothes people wore were completely worn out.  Many children had outgrown their clothes but had to keep wearing them anyway.

Jantje, Geertje and Wim spent countless hours in the war spinning and knitting.  Jantje and Wim were so good at spinning that eventually they were able to read and spin at the same time.  Geertje then knit the spun wool into socks, stockings, woolen underwear and undershirts.  Laundry was sorted into wash and dry or wash, dry and fix piles, and often the latter pile was the bigger one.  Then completely unrepairable clothes were cut up into patches or extensions to sleeves and pant legs so they could continue to be worn.

Often there was no electricity and flashlight batteries were not available either.  The flashlights were called “Knypers,” which were very small flashlights that had to be pumped continually and gave very little light.  It was very dark.  There were no street lights and the windows had to be covered securely so no light could be seen from the outside.  This was to prevent the Allied planes from detecting where they were while flying over Holland on their way to Germany.

The climate in Holland is often milder than here in Canada, but during the war there were some unusually severe winters, especially in 1941, 1943 and 1945.  It was very cold, there was a lot of snow, and the humidity was very high, which often made it feel much colder than the actual temperature.  For people who were already under-nourished and poorly dressed, this made the last winter a time of extreme hardship.  There were many people, especially in the big cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam, who died of starvation. 

Holland lies much further north than southern Ontario, being at approximately the same altitude as Edmonton.  Daylight during mid-winter was from 8:45 am till 3:30 pm.  It was very hard to get candles or kerosene oil for lamps.  In some places people brought a bicycle into the house and mounted it onto a makeshift platform.  Family members took turns peddling so that the bicycle lamp would provide a bit of light for sewing or reading.  Fuel for heating and cooking was almost non-existent.  At night many people went out secretly to cut down trees, fences, etc.  Even railroad ties were stolen and used for heating.   During one winter storm a house collapsed.  The people who rented the house had removed nine of the twelve ceiling beams and used them for fuel!  With all of today’s city lights, it is never really dark.  But back then, during the war, it would be pitch, pitch black at night.  Meetings were usually held early in the evening so the people could be back home before curfew, and could really only be held when it was full moon so people could travel safely.

Many medications were not available anymore.  In the beginning of the war doctors were not that busy.  A lot of people even felt better after losing some excess weight, and people were too occupied with the war and the German occupation to worry much about their health problems.  Later when cold and hunger weakened many people, there was more trouble with infections, especially boils.  Not only were some medications not available anymore, but there were fewer doctors as well.  Some doctors were in jail because the Germans discovered that they had treated sick Jews, resistance workers who were in hiding or English pilots whose planes had been shot down.  Some doctors also had given their patients false medical papers, which declared them sick, or having some health problems, so they would not have to go to work in German factories.  Many doctors who had helped the Dutch resistance movement had also gone into hiding. 

The police force was also in trouble with the Germans.  In the beginning the Germans had added the N.S.B.’ers to the police force.  These were Dutch people who were pro-German and who could be relied on to report incidents of Dutch resistance to the Germans.  Many police officers did not like having to follow orders that would hurt their own people and they set up a secret warning system so they could warn people when a search for people in hiding or goods was planned, and in other ways work to avert German plans.  As the years went by, more and more policemen were forced into hiding for their own safety.  After “dolle Dinsdag” Radio Orange, which operated out of England, ordered that all railway personnel had to go on strike and into hiding.  This order was promptly obeyed and the whole rail system came to a standstill. 

All “legal” citizens of Holland were given ration cards with which to buy food, although by this time there was hardly any food left.  Those in hiding, of course, had no ration cards at all.  A large part of the resistance work was to smuggle and steal ration cards, false identification papers, and food for those in hiding.  The Germans harshly punished those caught doing this.  Many people had to pay with their lives for helping Jews or those involved with the Dutch resistance.  In the village of Putten, someone tried to murder a high ranking German officer.  As punishment, almost all the men of the village were rounded up and sent to hard labour camps and only a few survived. Beside diseases there was also a problem with bugs.  Frequently the remnants of German units that had been defeated in Russia or France were sent to Holland for a short rest to recover and regroup.  These soldiers had often spent months holed up in trenches and their personal hygiene was deplorable.  They slept in Dutch farm houses and brought diseases, body lice, bed bugs, ring worm and scurvy with them.  Ring worm, which is a tiny worm that lives inside the skin, making it very itchy and scaly, spread rapidly.  Many people had a hard time eradicating these plagues completely.