When the liberation came, we were as poor as Job!

For me, the war began with a move. My grandparents lived in the Veerhuis in Brakel until old age. My grandfather was a ferryman, and together with my grandmother, he also ran the inn, where many skippers and traveling merchants would stop by. In time, my father took over the ferry work, but my mother, my younger sister, and I still lived on the dyke. In early 1940, my grandparents moved out, and we moved into the Veerhuis.

I had to help from an early age, both in housekeeping and at the inn. Quarter past six, out of bed and straight to work! Near the Veerhuis you’d find the weighbridge, where sugar beets and other goods were weighed before being loaded onto the ships. Because we had a telephone in the inn, there were always skippers coming in to make calls. We were open seven days a week, and this routine continued through most of the war. It was an incredibly busy life. My father only lived to be 52. He quite literally worked himself to death. Before the war, he even had to row people across the river Waal by hand.

In the inn, all sorts of people came by. Even people from the Resistance. That way, we often heard the latest war news. For a while, we hid two men in the attic who were being hunted by the Germans. We couldn’t tell a soul! In the spring of 1945, many German soldiers suddenly arrived in Brakel. My father was forced to ferry them across the river, because they could no longer use the bridge in Bommel. Many of the soldiers took over our home. They commandeered the two front rooms, cleared everything out, and threw down piles of straw. They slept on the pile of straw, like pigs!

They brought my mother chunks of meat. She had to cook all day long. We had no say in our own home anymore! They were terrible people. Eventually, we were forced to leave as well, because they threatened to blow up the house. The neighbors helped carry out all our furniture. We stayed with the baker on the dyke for a week. Luckily, our house was spared. It was a complete mess, though, and the Germans had taken everything. They even took my father’s boats. When the liberation came, we were as poor as Job!