Netherlands - World War 2

Alex van Gurp in 1945 immediately after being released from a Nazi labour camp. He looks pretty happy and relaxed, although very skinny!
 

 

 

This note is a lyric of a Russian patriotic song. Moscow in May, from the 1937 movie The Seventh of May. The song is still popular today. Why it was preserved in my father's personal effects since 1944 is a mystery. Perhaps it represented a new friendship in a difficult time. mp3

The ancient walls of the Kremlin
Are painted by the rising sun.
All the Soviet country
Is awaken at the dawn.
Mighty, undefeatable
My country, my Moscow
You are the most loved one!		 also
The morning light falls gently
On the walls of anchient Kremlin
At the dawn wakens up
The whole Soviet land....



Lida was a female Russian slave labourer. We have one of the OST patches, that was worn by all Russians. Many years ago my father donated his to the military museum at the Halifax Citadel. Later on he saw they weren't on display so asked if he could get them back. Of course after many years the current curator had no idea where these small patches were, so Dad got a couple of replacements from some generous guy he contacted through the Net.
This looks like a "Lager Pass".
Food ration stamps
On these stamps you can see Brood, Boter, Vlees & Melk for bread, butter, meat & milk.

625 calories a day at the start of rationing. The actual food available in 1945 was much less for most people. Soup kitchens served a thing cabbage soup.

In August, 1944 the Nazis banned Dutch citizens from using electricity. They were also not allowed in the streets after dark. People violating these regulations were shot.

My mother remembers that people sometimes snuck around the parks after dark to cut branches and get wood for heat and cooking. Many people broke up their furniture and cabinets for fuel.

She and a friend travelled by bicycle to farms outside of the city of Delft where she lived, to see if they could get some food from country people and farms. The plan was to ask for a few potatos to take home, but the farmers were very generous and always gave more.

Radios were also banned but Mom's parents hid one away. They kept it buried in a tin can in the yard and brought it out once in a while to listen to the Queen of Holland make her broadcasts on the British Broadcasting Corporation radio station (BBC). To tune in the radio station they used a bicycle to spin a generator. The antenna was a wire attached to a bed spring.

Dutch Rationing During World War 2