Invasion and liberation memories still fresh for the Dutch
By Mona Mattei
The month of May brings forth memories of war for those of Dutch descent. Memories of invasion and freedom. My mother was only five-years-old when the German soldiers took control of her homeland, Holland, on May 10,1940. Five years later, on May 5, 1945, the country was officially liberated by Canadians. For many Dutch immigrants here in Canada, these dates bring forward both pain and happiness. As the child of a Netherlands’er touched by war, when former Grand Forks Mayor Jake Raven, who was just a young man during the war, sent me an email this week about the commemoration of the liberation of Holland I was intrigued to hear his story.
The invasion of Holland, based on blitzkrieg, was swift and devastating. The country surrendered just six days later as the military was unable to cope with the speed of blitzkrieg. The Dutch royal family’s children came to Canada during the invasion to be safe; creating a connection between the countries that lasts to this day.
Raven was only eight-years-old when the war started. He was living in a small hamlet with 42 homes called Breezand. The farming area was located nearby a fishing and naval city on the coast. His memories of those times float between good ones to the ‘not so nice’ ones.
“One time there was 25 big bombers that came over, we were 25 kilometers from Den Helder naval base, they (the Allies) came over and bombed the naval base and then they swung around and came back over our district and then over the coast. They (the Germans) were firing at the aircraft and they couldn’t hit nothing! Then that afternoon one of their own fighters came in and all of a sudden everything opened up and it was just like the fighter ran into a wall. They shot their own plane down! Oh, we laughed,” remembered Raven.
The locals celebrated the losses of the Germans like when the barracks the Germans were staying in caught fire, said Raven. “The Nazis chased us away because we were all laughing and having fun!”
Painful memories include when the Germans rounded up everyone in the neighbouring communities and took them to work in the naval yards in the city. Raven’s neighbour ran out to try to get away. “He couldn’t handle it and he ran out into the field, of course it was as bare as can be, wide open. They saw him running and started hollering at him and then they started shooting at him. He got shot three or four times.” He survived though with the help of another neighbour who was a medic.
Of Jake’s three brothers, only one was killed in the war although all of them were at risk. One brother was working in the shipyards when it was bombed and he was killed. Another brother was in the camps in Germany, but survived. Raven’s third eldest brother was in hiding throughout the war as he participated in the underground. Raven often helped with the underground movement by spying since the older men couldn’t get away with being seen. Raven also helped take the underground paper around to the neighbours to read. “Near the end of the war paper was very scarce. You’d get one mimeographed sheet and that was my job – to walk around to trusted people to let them read it. Then I had to take it to the next person.”
Raven recalls the struggles of his country town, the neighbouring farms, and those of the city folk. The soldiers had forced entire populations of cities to be exiled and so they were living around the countryside.
Just before the end of the war they lived through what was called the ‘hunger winter.’ “People were starving, and they would come out into the country where we lived and beg for potatoes and wheat and beans. I saw them beg for tulip bulbs to eat. I didn’t even know you could eat tulips.”
When the country was liberated, supplies started flowing within a couple of weeks giving relief to everyone. The feeling of liberation was indescribable, said Raven. “You can’t really describe it. I was young but still it was a real, real deep feeling of satisfaction and happiness. Because there was so much you couldn’t do. They used to go to the beach on their bikes, swim in the ocean. We weren’t allowed on the beach so even that was foreign to us.”
When Jake remembers those times, he often thinks of those who were lost in the war, and he tries to remember that there were good times too. He just wants to be sure that people don’t forget the very real pain of war when many of his generation who lived through it are starting to pass on.
“Eisenhower instructed his troops to take all the pictures he could because he said, one day somebody is going to deny that that happened. And he was right! But it happened. We knew people who didn’t come back.”
