Hi All, Was reading some post that deals with trying to write down or record W.W. II stories of our kin. Here one of mine. (Written down now) I’m 51 and was born in the town of Vlaardingen, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands. My father was Dutch and my mother is English, My Dutch Grandfather was a Shoemaker in that town. Originally he was a Fisherman with his own boat. But after the bombing of Rotterdam and surrender of the Dutch Armed Forces in May 1940, his boat was confiscated by the German Luftwaffe and rebuild as a small flak ship. (It was sank later in the war) My grandfather always liked working with leather and became a good shoemaker. He set up shop and started to make good shoes. This came after a while to the attention of an Army Officer billeted in town. He became busy making and repairing boots and shoes for German Officers. He was very resentful of the German Armed Forces for losing his boat and trade. He told a friend about this and was told he could help out to “fool” the Germans. Unknown to my Opa his was in the Vlaardingse Resistance. At that time the Germans began to ration food (you needed coupons). And you needed travel documents with official stamps. To forge the coupons and travel documents was easy, but the stamps they would change randomly. So when German Officers would come for new boots/shoes, they had to be fitted. My Oma would take their jacket to be brushed clean in the other room. And took pictures of their papers to pass on to Opa’s friend. So the stamps of the “week” were forged. They did this until the end of the war. It got a bit hairy when the German Forces capitulated To Prins Bernhard May 5th. 1944. Contingents of the Prinses Irene Brigade were dispatched to protect some Resistance workers, who the towns folk thought were collaborators. When I was very young my Opa’s friends would drop by and with the help of a bottle of Jenever (dutch gin) and cigars talk about these stories until they passed away I always remembered their stories (or most of them) until today. Makes me feel good that my Opa and Oma helped a lot of people during those dark days. Less We Forget, Ben Oskam
Thanks for posting Ben. They were brave people in a most difficult time. Do you have pictures of them?
Unfortunetly I only have a couple of pictures of my Opa and Oma from after the war. I do not know were the others are. Around Rememberance and Liberation Days a foto album from that period whould be on the dinning table. Asked my mother, but she doesn't know where it went. Cheers, Dutchie
Hey Dutchie, you should have a look at the Hoek van Holland threat on this forum, I visited this place a few months ago and took pics of the Atlantik wall there. I know Vlaardingen very well , that's where Mrs Skipper goes to the mall when I go roaming in bunkers and she does not want to come with me.
Well, I am not so new anymore but here is an account from German experience. My aunt was quite a brilliant student and as such she was awarded a scholarship due to the fact that her parents weren’t in a financial position to support her. Her father – my grandfather had a company running together with his Jewish friend and WW1 comrade. In 1934 my grandfather convinced his friend to sell of their company in order for him and his family to get out of Germany. Unfortunately my grandfather’s friend loved his Fatherland so much that he returned in 1937, he was later deported and killed in a concentration camp. After selling off the company my grandfather worked as an office clerk with a new company and was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1939. In 1938 my aunt was cited to the principal and confronted with either joining the BDM or losing her scholarship fund. She decided not to tie up with the Nazis and as such she was stripped of her scholarship in medical school and decided to become a nurse. Due to the upcoming war she was forced to spend her entire youth with the Red Cross alongside the Wehrmacht. Her biggest nightmare was the witnessing of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. What infuriated her most during her lifetime was people walking up to her and calling her a Nazi after recognizing her as a German. Regards Kruska
