‘My Parents Met Under Extreme Circumstances’

The Germans ordered the evacuation of Gendt on 6 October. Initially, the Braam family received an exemption, because Moeke Braam had been suffering from epileptic seizures since giving birth to her daughter Anneke. However, in the end, both parents evacuated, taking with them the injured girl, Mientje Janssen, who had been staying with them after the bombing of the church in Haalderen. Mientje was taken to the Elisabeth Hospital in Arnhem and from there to the emergency hospital at the Kröller-Müller. Moeke and father Braam travelled via Pannerden to an unknown destination.

The Braam sisters Coby (21), Marijke (19) and Anneke (17), who were still living at home at the Nijmeegsestraat, remained behind with Harry te Riele (22). Their married sister Ethy (23) and her husband Dolf Arends (28) were also with them. They had been living in Grave since 1943 but had come to Gendt. Marjan explains, “She thought she would be celebrating the liberation with her parents and had brought her valuables with her, including her wedding dress. But because of the fighting, they were unable to return to their home.”

Later, two more people went into hiding with them: the Jewish man Lo and resistance fighter Wim Gransjean. On 1 November, the group created a hole in the floor to hide in the crawl space—”das Loch”. When the weather was stormy, they could wash outside at the water pump. Living in the space under the floor led to tensions and arguments. Members of the Hitlerjugend stayed in the house for a while. The hiding place filled up with water.

Nine weeks after the evacuation order, the group was still in Gendt. The food supply was running low, and it was bitterly cold. “At first, they searched for food at night in the ruins of neighbouring houses. But when it started snowing, their footprints in the snow would have given them away.” The Germans had already come to the hatch of das Loch on two consecutive evenings, banging on it with their rifle butts and shouting, “Aufmachen!”

On the second evening, the Germans even began trying to force the hatch open by pulling off the carpet. “During their search, the air raid alarm went off. It saved the people in hiding and the family. Otherwise, they would have been severely punished or killed. The Germans had to seek shelter and left.” That night, the group hid in the town hall. At first, they relieved themselves in a preserving jar, later they used a bucket.

Since the English were reportedly already at the brick factory in Haalderen, the Braam children and resistance fighter Gransjean devised a plan on the night of 7–8 December to find the liberators there. When they stepped outside, they discovered that the Germans had breached the dikes: the floodplains were under water. Dead animals floated in the water. They crawled towards the brick factory, sometimes under barbed wire, in which some of them got caught. At dawn, they hid in an abandoned farm underneath the hay.

“They were cold and wet. The following night, they debated: some wanted to surrender to the Germans. They decided by majority vote not to continue on that night.” The next day, the Germans searched the farm; a soldier tripped over Marijke’s foot, which was sticking out of the haystack. He jabbed his rifle into the hay—just as the air raid alarm sounded. He had to seek shelter for himself. “Once again, saved by the air raid alarm.”

The group left on the night of 9 December. Along the way, they encountered the roar of aircraft, search lights, and passing patrols. Upon reaching the brick factory, the resistance fighter realised it had been abandoned. So, the group of eight pressed on. As dawn broke, Lo heard English being spoken. He climbed up the dike, waving a white flag. The English were stunned when seven more people appeared, covered in dirt beyond recognition. Suspecting they might be spies, the English transported them by boat to the command post in Nijmegen the next day. There, they were locked up separately, because the English found it inappropriate for men and women to be imprisoned together. “Even though they had spent all that time in Gendt together in such a small space! The men were afraid something would happen to the women and kept banging their eating utensils against the pipes until they were reunited.”

The eight were interrogated and asked to point out the situation in Gendt and Haalderen on a military map. Four days later, they were released and taken to a monastery in Hees, where they were deloused and disinfected. Her father and mother, by then a couple, presumably went to his parents in Utrecht. “They met under extreme circumstances. My mother had also promised my father that if he died, she would inform his parents about his final moments.” The couple probably did not stay with the Te Riele family for the rest of the war. “His parents found my mother too provincial.” Where did they go? Marjan does not know.

When they returned in April 1945, the Braam family home had been destroyed. Only the barn remained, which they converted into a living space. Everything had been looted. The vegetable garden had been dug up, but they still found some of the silverware including Coby’s Holy Communion cutlery. It was not until 13 December 1948 that they could move into a new house on the same spot.

Marjan recalls that her parents absolutely refused to holiday in Germany during her childhood. “My mother would help us with homework, but not with German vocabulary.”
Her father’s diary—“A small brown notebook”—she was not allowed to read while he was alive. After his death, she read it multiple times. “It spoke of horror, grief at what people could do to each other.”

Following heavy bombings in Haalderen, many people took shelter in the church there. The Gendt doctor, Burg, asked second-year medical student Harry te Riele for assistance, along with nurse Regina Gransjean. Dominican Father Piet introduced them from the pulpit as the doctor and nurse.

In October 1944, the church was bombed again. According to Regina, there were 350 refugees inside at the time. Te Riele saw two injured sisters: a five-year-old girl with a crushed arm and a two-year-old girl who had lost both her lower legs, with her intestines exposed. The older girl was sent by Te Riele to the doctor in Gendt. Father Piet took her there by bicycle. Doctor Burg performed a guillotine amputation with his wife and Coby Braam—just in time, as gangrene had already set in. The girl stayed with the Braam family until transport was arranged for her.

Te Riele transported the younger girl to Gendt in a wheelbarrow. “I remember his words: ‘The entire way from Haalderen to Gendt, I couldn’t stop crying.’”

Interview with Marjan te Riele (1957) about her parents, Coby Braam-te Riele and Harry te Riele
By: Ineke Inklaar