“When they left, we all cried…”

We lived in a large semi-detached house in Kapel-Avezaath, near café De Tol. I had a younger sister, a year younger than me. I was still a toddler when the war began.

My father worked for the laundry company ‘De Linge’ in Tiel, near Voor de Kijkuit. It kept running throughout the war. It wasn’t shot at either. During the occupation, they washed the uniforms of the German soldiers there. My father had to pick them up from all the places where the Germans were stationed and return them clean. Because of this, he had an Ausweis, so he could go anywhere due to his position. Since we had so much space at home, in 1940, during the mobilization, we were given accommodation for Dutch soldiers. After the Dutch capitulation, we had German officers staying with us. As children, we were a little scared of them at first, but they soon made it clear that we had no reason to be. These men had children of their own at home… When we went to bed at night, we would wish them good night. And often, we played games with them. When they had to march, my sister and I would often walk along with them, holding their hands, through the streets. We enjoyed that. We were children; what did we know about the war?

Thanks to my father’s work, we never went without. In the autumn of 1944, we had to evacuate, and we went to Montfoort. By the time the liberation came in May, we were already back in Kapel. When the Allied soldiers arrived, naturally it was a big celebration. There was a grand parade with a liberation float, and all the women and girls dressed in white, with red, white, and blue decorations. It was beautiful!

But I also remember that we cried when the German soldiers left. They did too; all they could do was cry! We walked hand in hand with the officers who had stayed with us. You mustn’t think that those men were here for fun. They were also fathers with families. That’s just how it was!