Tineke Klaasen’s Memories of World War 2
On Sunday 19th July 2015, Ms Tineke Klaasen shared her memories with us of what it was like to live through World War 2 in The Netherlands. Because of distance and time, very few of us really know what the impact of World War 2 was on ordinary human beings. The Netherlands, like Ireland, was neutral, but that did not matter to Hitler.
When did you first realise that there was something to fear?
My parents were always following the news. Of course, we knew that Hitler was a dictator.
When he started to take the parts of Czechoslovakia, we knew he was on the warpath. We heard he went into Poland. Then England declared war. That was September 1939. In April 1940 he went into Denmark and Norway.
The Netherlands were not prepared for war. We were neutral in World War 1 and declared neutrality this time as well. There was only 20 years in between the 2 wars. The army had not been modernised.
What happened on 10th May 1940?
On 10th May 1940, we were woken up the by the noise of a lot of planes droning. We put the radio on and heard the war had reached us. Parachutes were dropped in the west of the country and fighting had started, where the Rhine comes into the country and at the Afsluitdijk, a 42km dike which connects Friesland and Northern Holland.
These were anxious days. The 5th day Rotterdam was bombed and also the harbour of Amsterdam. We could see the black smoke from the burning oil-containers and the enormous cloud from Rotterdam 90 km away.
Then we heard Nederland had capitulated. We were shocked.
Queen Wilhelmina and Princes Juliana, Prince Berhard and their 2 daughters and most of the ministers fled to London. We felt abandoned. But after some time we realised she had been right. King Leopold of the Belgians was kept in his palace and could not do anything while Queen Wilhelmina could help to organise the resistance and knew what was happening in our country.
Many soldiers had died near the Rhine. There is a war memorial near the place where the fighting was worst. Now the Germans went to get Belgium and France. Hitler wanted the coasts of all the countries of the continent in case of an invasion from England.
The German soldiers came in triumphantly, showing off their tanks and armoured cars, etc.
People who were national socialists called the NSB, pro-Germans, lined the streets.
What changed for you in your day-to-day life?
Changes came soon. All Lord Mayors lost their jobs and NSB-ers got them, also in other high places, they got the best jobs. The head of state was a man called Seys Inquart, nicknamed six and a quart: Zes and kwart in Dutch.
Rationing came soon because people started hoarding. We needed coupons for bread, meat, sugar, potatoes, clothing and shoes. The Netherlands always exported food, but it was going to the soldiers and Germany. Our school had to take another school, because other schools were taken as Barracks. Jews had to wear a big yellow star. We had to get a photo ID and we had to carry it always with us. There hold-ups or check-points called “razzias” (raids) you had to show your ID. If you didn’t have it, you were in trouble. They picked up 18-year- old boys and sent them to the munition factories in Germany. Jews had a large J stamped on their passport. Jews were picked up that way as well. That was the time when many Jews went into hiding. But many could not find places to hide. The normal city flats had no hiding places. So many were taken and put on trains to the concentration camps. We didn’t know at the time how bad that was.
We were forbidden to listen to the BBC and Radio Oranje. The BBC was so kind to give the occupied countries their own station. Only local radio was allowed. People tried to find places to hide their radios and still be able to listen to news. Any time you could get a house inspection. The NSB was very active, to please the Germans. They were real traitors. Across the road from us lived a NSB family. You had the feeling they were always watching us. Jazz was forbidden to listen to or being played. When we were in Art school we had the head office of the SS across the street from us, at lunchtime we often put the drawing tables on their sides on top off each other, so they could not see us dancing to Jazz music. Only German films were shown. Later on curfew was introduced, we had to be indoors at 10 o’clock and if a German was killed by the resistance, we had to be in at 8 o’clock. My late husband’s brother was stopped at 14 years of age, and with many people he had to watch, 4 resistance men being shot in public on a square. He came home in a panic.
There was often siren alarm, when allied planes came over. You were supposed to look for shelter, but there were not enough shelters. They came mostly at night. One of my school friends had a dreadful experience. Planes came over that night and the Germans were shooting at them, suddenly a bullet shot through the window. It went over her parents, lying in bed, through the wall and a linen cupboard with a mirror, that broke in thousand pieces on my friend’s bed. It was a wonder she was not badly injured. Because it was winter she lay under lots of thick blankets. The panic it caused. After that experience they were so afraid of every alarm signal.
A brother of another friend was got in a razzia and sent to Germany to work in a factory.
Tell us about the 6th June 1944 and what you remember of that.
When we heard on the 6th June 1944 of the landings in Normandy, we were so excited. Would this mean the end of the war was near? It seemed so, they went so fast through France. Even the Germans and the NSB people became afraid. There was Dolle dinsdag, Mad Tuesday. Many fled. But the allies were halted at the Ardennes in Belgium. There was a heavy battle.
The Battle of Arnheim in September 1944 was significant – tell us about that?
At Arnhem was the only bridge over the Rhine that had not been blown up.
It started on 17th September 1944. Allied parachutes were dropped north of the city and another regiment of soldiers were near the bridge South of the river. What the resistance had not known or sent word in time, that there was a unit of German soldiers just in the area north of the city. The fighting was dreadful and many died on both sides. Also in the city, there was a lot of fighting. The allies were not able to take the bridge. My future sister-in-law’s father lost his life that day, a bullet or shrapnel went through him. They were near a shop when it happened. She was all right. I only heard it many years later. She didn’t want to talk about it.
The film of Cornelius Ryan: “A Bridge Too Far” describes the whole battle in detail.
My brother and his first wife and 4-month-old daughter were fleeing the Rhine area at Wageningen. He had taken a baker’s tricycle with a container large enough to put his wife and child in and some belongings, and cycled west in our direction. Friends, a couple, who lived on a house-boat in a little harbour on the Rhine fled south. She was pregnant and was due. They went to the first farm they saw and they were so kind to take them in. The baby was born a day later. They were lucky to be in the liberated area. Their boat was sunk by gun fire. After the war it was lifted and repaired and they lived there again.
My brother and his little family was not so lucky, They came to face the most difficult time we ever had to face.
When the battle was over the railwaymen went on strike. This meant there was no coal, no electricity and food became very scarce. Our rations were reduced below what you need to live.
Some people were so inventive. From a peace of stove pipe about 40cm high somebody made a cooking stove. It had a little grid you could move a bit and there was an opening wide enough to put little twigs in. It was put on the big stove for air circulation. You sat beside it and fed the twigs in and hoped the fire would not go out. The soup or broth was cooking slowly on top. With the big pot you had to careful it would keep its balance. Another thing was a little dynamo; it was oval, easy to hold in your hand. With your thumb you pressed a lever and inside a wheel turned and the light came on. These things were so quickly produced; we could buy them in certain shops.
The razzias came more often. A rumour went around that there would be one in Amsterdam. My boyfriend Cor – who later became my husband – came to us. In his parents’ flat was no place to hide. We had a cellar with a little trapdoor where you could go under the house. He crept through it. We put a cupboard before it. With some blankets and food and water he was hiding there. It was very low, he could barely sit up. There was a razzia in the Haarlem area as well. When soldiers came to our house, they believed my father, when they asked him who lived in the house. They didn’t come in, to search the house so Cor was safe. After a week he went home again. Young men had to be so careful going out.
That Winter is called the Hunger Winter. It was a difficult time. It was a very cold winter with ice and snow. There were no cars, only doctors were allowed a car. Many people in the large cities went to the country to barter or beg for food. I had to go as well. I went on my bike with a little cart behind me; together with a friend we went North. All I could get was 4 cabbages and a big sack of oats ground very finely. All of a sudden when we cycling, a spitfire appeared and shot at a car with German soldiers in it. The car was shot off the road and went into the canal. We got such a shock. It was so quick. We went as fast as we could away from this awful place. We didn’t want to go further and made our way home. It was still a long way and we had to cross the big North Sea canal on the ferry and where the SA, NSB officials could be, who were searching what you had gathered. They would take what they wanted. You were anxious, would they be there or not. We were lucky, they were not there. Because so many people went out to get food, the farmers were running out of stuff too. Spring was still to come.
The resistance got better organised. They were printing ration cards for people who were hiding Jews. Printed the flyers, where we could read what went on at the front. They were distributed by hand. They also killed Germans. Many were betrayed and executed.
In April Sweden gave us wheat. The bakers were suddenly able to bake lots of bread. Everybody could get one loaf of bread per person. It tasted like cake. Also the planes came over and dropped food parcels instead of bombs. It was just fantastic. It was distributed very quickly. For so long we had eaten soup and broth that our mouths became soar from the hard army biscuits. They were collected in pillowcases full from distribution places.
Tell us about your memories of VE Day (8th May 1945).
On the evening of 4th May 1945, we heard people outside on the road shouting. My father went out to see what was happening. People were shouting, “Hitler is dead. The Canadians are coming!!”
Next morning, 5th May 1945, we were liberated! Seys Inquart signed the capitulation in Wageningen in Hotel De Wereld. Peace had come at last after 5 years. Where peace was signed for the whole of Europe and who signed it, I don’t know. That was on 8th May 1945.
I went to Amsterdam to my boyfriend Cor, and people danced in the streets and we joined them. I think we danced for days on end. The record shops could at last play the Jazz, we had not been allowed to hear during the war. Everybody put the flag out. There are pictures of all the city streets with a sea of flags. Everybody was so happy, talked, sang and laughed. We were so happy.