Weyburn local, Pam Scott, left the streets of the community to connect with her family’s history, travelling to Holland for their 80th Liberation Day celebration. Scott explains the significance of the trip comes though her grandparents.
Her maternal grandfather from the Yellowgrass area, David Robertson, served in World War Two, however, she explains she wasn’t able to hear of his experience as he passed away in the early 1980’s.
However, she was able to hear the stories of her paternal grandfather from Radville, Stewart Scott, who served as well. He attended the Remembrance Day Service in Radville annually and was the last serving member of the Radville Legion.
Finally, her maternal grandmother born Reina Reimeijer, who was raised in Amsterdam during nazi occupation in World War Two.
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Reimeijer often spent summers in the largest city in the north of the Netherlands, Groningen. Scott explains that this was the first stop on her trip.
“I went to Holland, landed in Amsterdam, and my cousins picked me up right from the airport. And we went up to the north of Holland, near Groningen. And then spent a couple days up there. Then we went down to another cousin's place near Rotterdam, toured around there. Then we went down into France for a few days and then back up to the north of Holland and toured around there and then back to the airport. It was about 12 days.”
Ther trip hosted a number of celebrations, opportunities to remember history, and connections with family. Scott notes King’s Day on April 26th, when they held a family barbeque.
“I reconnected with family and met new ones! The kids tested out their English with me and were excited to meet their Canadian cousin.”
She toured three cemeteries, Vredenhof Cemetery on Schiermonnikoog, one of the Dutch Frisian Islands at the north of Holland, as well as the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, and the Beehive Cemetery in Willerval, France.
Scott notes the significance of visiting the Beehive Cemetary, saying she asked to go to visit her grandfather’s uncle had been buried there after dying in World War One.
“In the middle of potato fields inside a beautiful grove of trees and shrubs was a tiny cemetery. It was immaculate, with its own monument. When you were inside and looked beyond the trees and shrubs you only saw green, and in the distance rolling hills and trees."
"It was beautiful. Beside him laid two other Canadian Soldiers that died on the same day, September 29, 1917. One was also from Saskatchewan. The place had a peaceful, serene feeling.”
Scott toured numerous museums on her travels as well, including Somme Museum in Albert, France, Bunker Museum on Schiermonnikoog, and 40-45 Museum in Rotterdam. Still, she says the places themselves were painted with remnants of their history.
“You're walking down the street and there are gold plaques in the sidewalks engraved with the names and the dates of Jewish people, but also the unwanted people that Hitler didn't think were perfect. Those are the locations that the people were taken from or where they lived and it would list their birth date, the date they were taken and the date they died.”
Scott notes the historical sites she was able to take in, including bunkers, the Normandy beaches of Juno, Gold, and Omaha, and Vimy Ridge.
“Fun fact, there is a Vimy, France and a Wimy, France so when you’re speaking to your Dutch cousin and think that they are just being funny or it's their translation, make sure you question them. Turns out Beehive Cemetery is very close to Vimy but not very close to Wimy. Good thing we figured that out before we started driving” she laughs.
On May 4th and 5th Scott remembers experiencing the Dutch Remembrance and Liberation Days, explaining that on the 4th they remember, and on the 5th they celebrate.
“On May 4th, we were at the Remembrance Day service in Groningen, and they do a lot of the same things we do and as they were laying the wreaths. There was a family member from Canada who was laying the wreath for Private Fred Butterworth. He was from Manitoba; he was the first Canadian soldier to die while they were liberating Groningen.”
She says she and her family had laid Canadian flags after the ceremony.
On the 5th, she visited her grandmother's cousin in Groningen, where she was gifted pottery pieces that belonged to her great grandparents, and attended a parade in Appingedam, and attended a festival in Groningen she describes as “full of music and celebration”.
" While we were walking to the Liberation Day Festival I looked over and saw a wreath and flowers lying in front of a residence and then looked up and saw a plaque. My cousin told me that it was the exact location that Fred Butterworth died in his tank after he was hit and ran into that residence. There was also a letter left for him with the flowers and wreaths by a 25-year-old woman.”
Certain experienced were unique to Scott, including a visit to the Holland America Lin building in Rotterdam, where her grandmother boarded a ship called the Kota Inten, and began her voyage to Canada in 1948.
She also had supper at a restaurant that was formerly her great great grandfather Remeijer’s blacksmith shop.
Even her travels home was rich in history, as she shared a flight with 20 Canadian veterans who had toured Holland.
“The Pilot said he had flown for 25 years and that this was his favourite flight. We celebrated three of their birthdays by singing Happy Birthday to them. They were 99, 100 and 102. There were many cheers and tears on that flight home. I sat beside the granddaughter of the only Saskatchewan Soldier of the 20. He was from Swift Current.”
Scott says the trip made her feel more deeply connected to her family’s history and her grandparents.
“I'm so fortunate because my grandma is still here and to be able to go on that trip. I spoke to my mom and my grandma while I was in France and, talked to her about things that we were doing there and then come home and talk about it all. That was really special, not just to get to go, but to get to come home and talk to her about it.”
This was not Scotts' first trip to Holland, as she says she went with her parents in 2014, where she was introduced to the family members living there.
“During that trip we found the flat that my grandma grew up in in Amsterdam and we were taken to the former blacksmith shop of my great great grandpa in Groningen. After that trip I knew I was going back.”
She initially planned to return for the 75th Liberation Day, but her plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She soon began making plans to go for the 80th celebration. She contacted her cousins Jolanda and Manon who made the trip possible.
“They picked me up at the Amsterdam airport and became my tour guides, chauffeurs, personal chefs and translators. The only other thing I asked for in addition to Liberation Day celebrations was to go to France. They filled in the rest, and we had a great time!”
Find photos from some of these moments in the gallery below, all photos courtesy of Pam Scott.