The 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands after World War Two was remembered on May 5th. The celebration was far reaching as Weyburn’s Reina Reimeijer reflects on her experiences as a young woman living in nazi-occupied Amsterdam. She was 14 years old when German soldiers first marched into the city.
Life under occupation
“I can remember waking up this morning and hearing singing. And it was funny, it was down the street. And I looked and there were German soldiers marching in. And we didn't know what was going on until one of the girls that looked after us came in and told us the Germans had landed. They didn't get much fight at the border because our army was just very small at that time. And the Germans just marched in and took over.”
Reimeijer explains how things changed after the city was occupied, from shortages of essentials like food and clothing, and the uncertainty that came with it.
“The nights were worse. Start on the short day after supper that the planes would go over. And we knew that the Germans were going over to England, to bomb England. And then early in the morning you would hear them come back. Until we were being shot at. And we were holding our heart that they didn't hit our home.”
She explains some of what they did to manage during these hard times, remembering certain farms they would visit to trade for essential items.
“You wouldn't tell anybody else their name. But we would get there and we would get eggs and meat and whatever we needed. And we would exchange that for some of our clothes, you know, or bedding, new bedding. Just to get something to eat.”
Reimeijer notes they were once intercepted by German soldiers on their way back from the farm, where they were stripped of everything they had gone to trade for.
She remembers efforts she and her parents had to take, hiding valuables in the walls that would later be traded for food. However, nazis could come at any time to search for hidden Jews, and confiscate valuables.
She describes her neighbour, who harboured a young Jewish boy for much of the war.
“They were looking after this little Jewish boy for their parents. They were taken by the Germans. And he must have been well-trained. He never said that he was a Jewish boy or that his mother and dad were gone. He was so well-trained, it's unbelievable.”
Reimeijer says her father had a radio and a gun hidden in the home as well, she recalls an evening they heard soldiers would be coming to collect Jewish people.
“They called it a racha to pick up Jews. My girlfriend and I left early in the morning to go and warn this teacher. We got there, and he was gone. His house was empty, and he had been gone. And I'll bet you anything, he had been picked up.”
Her own family was spared of participation in the war, however she remembers a cousin who she describes as “more or less a spy, I think she was. But she also took Jewish people and people that were shunned by the Germans. She would take them over to England. How she ever did it, I don't know what she did. She was honored by the Queen. She had been given a beautiful medal.”
She had her own form of dissent, explaining a time German soldiers had asked her for directions.
“I sent them the wrong way. I just hoped and prayed that they wouldn't come back and find me. They didn't. You did whatever you could do, you know.”
When it comes to the participation of others in the war, Reimeijer explains her shock at what was done to Jewish, and other people groups, under nazi orders.
“Terrible, those concentration camps. Boy. How anybody can just take another person and stick them in an oven. It's just... You can't grasp it, that somebody can do such a thing. But they must have been well-trained soldiers by Hitler.”
“This boy's mother and my mother were talking every day, you know. The back of the homes had verandas, and they would stand on the veranda and just talking to one another. This boy came back from the war. The Germans had taken him, and he had to put Jewish people and other people in the ovens. He had to do that. Well, he was home two weeks, and he committed suicide. Couldn't live with himself.”
She also notes the care with which they shared with the people around them, saying it was hard to know people's allegiances. One dutch woman who supported the nazi’s lived nearby Reimeijer’s home.
“After the war they dragged her down the stairs, three flights of stairs, just dragged her. They shaved her hair off and tarred and feathered her. She deserved it. Because they were frequent visitors in that flat.”
Toward the end of the war, things began to change. Reimeijer explains she went to school running from door to door to avoid detection by nazi-soldiers posted on the roofs of the buildings.
Her school itself held a different purpose by the end of the war, as a hospital for mothers and babies, many the children of German soldiers. Reimeijer and her peers looked after these babies.
Otherwise, she passed the time reading. She explains she would read by candle or lantern light during blackouts.
“I had a bookcase full of books. I can remember my dad coming in by night when it was mass because it was late. He used to grab my book and put it back in the bookcase and told me, now get to sleep, that's enough. But I liked reading. I still do."
She would also go for bike rides with her friend named Kitty, going out of Amsterdam, exploring smaller towns and seeing if there was anything to buy. Still, Reimeijer says it “didn't do much for excitement. There was no excitement.”
She does recall liberation day, describing when Canadian soldiers came through the city.
“People were just crazy. They jumped on the tanks and on the motorbikes or whatever they came on. They were free.”
Journey to the prairies
It was after the war that Reimeijer met David Charles Robertson, a Canadian soldier from near McTaggart. He and another soldier were lost and looking to get back to their truck.
“Amsterdam at that time was already a big city. They were lost. They didn't know how to get back. So my friend and I took them back to their truck. And from there on in, I don't know how it happened. It just happened. We came back and came back again.”
They would often meet and walk through the Dam Square. Robertson returned to Canada in 1945, and Reimeijer began the immigration process the year after. This was a challenge, as immigration offices closed during the war to prevent Jewish people from leaving.
After waiting for immigration offices to reopen, she arrived in Canada in March of 1948, journeying on the ship Kota Inchen.
“It was a troop ship for troops to go back and forth. It wasn't much of a ship, I'm telling you. Oh, dear. But I had a bed to sleep on. And there were four students, university students, that were supposed to look after us. You know, they're not like the kids today because those boys did an excellent job of looking after us. They really did.”
She arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax Nova Scotia and travelled to Moose Jaw, where Robertson was waiting to pick her up. They were married on April 17, 1948, within six weeks of Reimeijer’s arrival. Otherwise, she would have had to return to Amsterdam.
“I didn't know where I landed. Nothing. For miles and miles and miles and I came from Amsterdam.”
She lived on her husband's farm after that, learning a new language and a new way of life. Reimeijer was unable to return to Amsterdam until 1968. After that she visited many times.
History shared through generations
Reimeijer’s daughter, Marion Scott, connected with DiscoverWeyburn to get her mothers story shared. She describes the significance of these stories to her life now saying “somebody asked me here a while ago why I'm interested in the genealogy type of story coming from this. And my answer was because I didn't listen well enough when I was a kid. This is very important and meaningful to me. I want to share it and pass it on.”
Scott comments on the hard work and courage her mother displayed in enduring the war and moving to Canada, and her father serving in the war.
“I didn't understand it and appreciate it as a child. But now I have nothing but respect. They didn't speak of it much. Mom didn't speak a lot about her circumstances and the veterans very common. They didn't speak about it much either.”
“You don't realize it for me as a child growing up, the effects that that had on both my parents. You don't realize that as a kid. You learn through maturity."
Her daughter, Pam Scott, recently travelled to Amsterdam where she gleaned more information about her family’s history, and celebrated the 80th Anniversary of the Netherlands liberation.