Hunger Winter 1944-45 Part 2

Without the Canadian Army liberating us on May 5 1945 I wouldn’t be
here to tell you this story.

It happened on the West Coast of Holland where the biggest cities are
like Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Haque (International Court of
Justice.) I lived in THE HAQUE (Den Haag.)

During the 5 years of occupation by the Nazies I will tell of the
"HungerWinter"1944-45.

On September 1944 in order to hurry up our Liberation by the
Canadian Army all our railway people quit working (30,000 workers).
The Germans didn’t like that and said you be back on Monday or you
will be shot! They were very free with their bullets.

Well by Monday practically all workers stayed away but the necessity
for going under ground was obvious unless you looked forward to get
shot. So many were hidden by other people and many at the farmers
etc. So, it was announced that anyone found to be hiding railway
workers or Jews would also be shot, or put in a concentration camp.
Since the threat didn’t work the Nazis now declared that if there were
no railways, no food could be brought in for the large population in the
West of Holland. German railway workers were imported to do only
German work, like machinery out of our factories were moved to
Germany and the buildings blown up. From then on the food situation
in that area went from bad to worse. We were fast approaching winter
and of course it was one of the coldest winters on record.

And from here on the story will be told, some parts of which you will
find hard to believe but every word is true and I was the eye witness as
well a victim of what transpired. My age by then was 14.

Find hard to believe but every word is true and I was the eye witness
as well a victim of what transpired

Hunger Winter 1944-45

Well, we now get more into the thick of things.

As I said the Germans did cut us off from ANY food supply for the West
of Holland, where there were about 4 million people living, because the
railway workers went on strike. But now with the coupons we had you
could not get anything by way of food or anything at all. Big stoves and
heaters could not be used because they took too much fuel. Instead
we made a small stove out of a (former) coffee tin. By Xmas things
became very bad. It now was necessary to line up at a cart in the
street that dispensed one ladle of tulip bulb soup per person per day.
One very low and only halve loaf of bread per person per week was
still available but not so anymore by Xmas. There was no electricity
anymore.

I was approached by an older boy of age 16 to join the resistance
movement against the Germans. I was interested but when he asked
me to learn how to shoot a gun, I got cold feet at age 14. Good thing I
did say no, within a few weeks the Gestapo rolled up that movement
and the boy according to his neighbors, was shot down while trying to
run away. Fortunately he died right there or who knows he may have
given me away also. All the time my parents were never told of this of
course.

Then we heard that a store where the Germans could shop a few
blocks over from where I lived was overpowered by the people,
because they had baking oil in stock, we used it to have an oil lamp to
burn at nights.

As soon I heard I also went to that store but the show was all over
when I came there. A passing patrol car with Germans got there before
me and took 8 people hostage just left and right. They had to line up in
front of the store and were shot to death. No-one was allowed to
remove the bodies, by way of example what would happen following
that sort of thing. Bad luck, if you just passed by there at the wrong
time.

Not long thereafter a cart full of potatoes did park in front of a German
office and I followed that cart. When it stopped there, people crowded
around it and so did I, the two men in the cart started to throw the
potatoes out of the cart and I got a good portion of them stuck under
my shirt when I made my getaway. The crowd had been very
threatening to the two men. On my way home I saw a German patrol
car driving fast to the cart and once again I got away in time.

With another two boys we did go to the park and cut down a tree, for
firewood. Then started to cut it in pieces and the German patrol car got
us. They were friendly and told us to go on.

After some hours we had the job done and when the Germans ordered
us to load up a truck, we got the picture. They gave us a kick in the
butt and fired a gun over our heads, I wet my pants, yes, I sure did! We
ran away, hearing them laughing, I set the record time for running fast
ever achieved, I swear!

In the next part we get deeper into trouble and what I saw was almost
impossible to believe.

PS, not all Germans were bad people. It was the Gestapo and SS that
were the real bad ones and some fanatics