She was sitting there crying

Heroes Remember

She was sitting there crying

Transcript

I woke up one morning and there was the, a lot of artillery fire and air planes in the sky, and all this and that, and that was the very first thing we saw of the Germans. And later on, the same day, I guess, you would see the, the big columns of troops move into the town, and all that stuff, and you, you can’t help be feeling ill, you know. Well, I, I, I was fourteen when it started and I remember my, my, my neighbour he had . . . grandma stayed with him and, and the day they . . . you only fought for four days, eh, in Holland, the, the Dutch Army. And on the day, the day they capitulated, the, the grandma was sitting outside by the house and she said, "What's going to happen to Holland? What's going to happen to Holland?" I remember that very well, it's just . . . And she was sitting there crying. I remember one time we were out on the, on the road, and we were . . . there was my friend, my friend and I, and we were stopped by a group of soldiers, and they were gonna go on, on leave and they needed our bikes to go to the city, to the, to the other station. And they give us a real hard time because we were not really give 'em, you know, that, that easy, but, but, you know, you had no choice, eh. 'Cause they, they then asked you many questions. Either you do or you don't, and they got shot. They were very trigger, trigger happy, really. But, like, as a kid, you know, it doesn't really sink in, you know. Not until you, not until you get older. It lasted five years, and some of the guys I used to go to school with, they were picked up and sent to Germany to work in the factories. Some of them never even came back, you know, these air raids every night. No wonder people got killed in the cities.

Description

Mr. Lammers discusses aspects of the German occupation, on his family and friends.

Henk Lammers

Mr. Lammers was born near Amsterdam, Holland, on March 11, 1926. At the time of German occupation, he was 14 and worked on his and his neighbour’s farms. He offers numerous perspectives on life in Holland during the Second World War. In 1946, Mr. Lammers joined the Dutch Army and served a tour of duty in Dutch Indonesia, namely Sumatra and Java. Mr. Lammers now resides in Ayton, Ontario, where he has been actively involved with the Cadets.

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