LIFE DURING WORLD WAR II

When mother died, my Dad remarried a wonderful woman, from a fine family, whose former husband said:

"...Sept 1, 1939, the German Army marched into Poland. The next evening I met with Ursela. To give you an idea how the German people were poisoned by the Nazi regime, I include the following: It is not meant to be funny.

I told Ursela that I was called back to Holland because Holland had mobilized and I was now a Dutch soldier again. Ursela was a nurse and wanted to go back with me to Holland. There was an opportunity to do that. I still do not know why I stated the following question, being young myself, brought up in Christian surroundings, but not very serious: 'You said you love me but tell me who is greater to you, Hitler or god?' She started crying and told me I do not want to lie to you, but Hitler is greater. He is my god. We departed as friends but I will never forget that moment."

This second story is told by my kind step mom who was in kindergarten in Holland in about 1936: "(The doctor said that) my tonsils and adenoids were too big. He would make arrangements with the big University hospital in Leiden. A few weeks later an excited little girl (me) was taking a trip with the the train and spending about five days in the hospital. Of course, no one told me that they were going to take these things out without anesthesia and just hold me in place...I thought they were going to kill me. No fair."

In 1945, she was 14 years old and wrote: "When we heard on the radio that the Allies were planning the final invasion, we could hardly sleep. We heard the drone of planes flying high over our country to drop their bombs on German towns. I had a hard time being glad about that, thinking of all the innocent people and children being killed so that we could be free. My father and brother were glued to the radio until finally they heard, 'Germany has surrendered! THE WAR IS OVER!!!!