That was my mother, officially speaking, as she had to show her ID every week at
the police station, until 5 years after World War II.
A family tragedy, with a morbid twist of life, wars, and little luck.
Grandpa was a German plumber who worked and lived in the Netherlands because he was a craftsman with a job in the town of “Zwolle”. There he met my grandmother, they raised a family of 2 girls and a boy. Grandpa, called “Eugen” was also a bandleader of a small dance orchestra and he played, I am told, trumpet and violin rather well.
World War I raged in Europe as well as in much of the world, in the end, the German army ordered Eugen to come to Germany and play for the departing troops. When they ran out of troops, he also had to fight, being transported to the city of Verdun in Belgium, a horrific massacre for all armies.
ed. The First World War is the first major war involving millions of soldiers and civilians worldwide. In this conflict, the ‘central’ (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the *Ottoman Empire) opposed the ‘allied forces’ (France, Great Britain, and Russia)
After the German government surrendered, he had to go home to Zwolle in the Netherlands.
It took him three months to make that journey, dirty, all covered in lice and with shrapnel caused by a large grenade still in his head. After announcing that he was back home shortly after my grandmother became pregnant with my mother.
Eugen took a job in Enschede after the war, but for the birth of their upcoming 4th child, they went to a German hospital just across the border (“Gronau”).
It was the best way to get health insurance and make it affordable and safe to give birth, and she did. So my mother now officially became a German citizen. Grandpa was asked by the Dutch Philips/Eindhoven to come and work there, he was a craftsman.
Everything was ready for the trip, but within 3 months of the pregnancy the shrapnel ignited, and surgical operations at that time could not help.
Grandma had to leave Germany since she was Dutch without a German husband, to start a new life (again) in “Enschede”, therefore she returned to the Netherlands, as a single mother with 4 children in 1920, struggling for a living. earn households, and rent out a room in her house.
Around 1942 my father got engaged and married my mother in 1943. My parents, with two sons, moved to the city of Hilversum in 1947, my dad (Lucas) had applied to work at Philips (NSF), a Dutch transmitter factory that later became PTI / ITT.
I was not aware of all the implications for a woman of German descent in the Netherlands, and the obligations that come with it. Mother (named “Hermine, Catharine”) first told me at age 75+ that she was bullied every week by the local police who had to check her ID.
In 1950 the Dutch government put an end to that ruling and she officially became Dutch.
During monthly air raid siren testing, nationwide on a Monday at noon, she immediately took shelter under the sink, with a large pan on her head, a traumatic relic from the war, after being bombed 33 times in WWII it was the safest place in your home during an attack. As Benjamin of the family, I am the only one, of all 5 children, who is officially completely Dutch.
Why the family story?
War conflicts mostly the “normal people”, often forced to fight for “The Greater Good”,
shaped by a dictatorial ruler…
Scars inflicted on souls that barely heal, echoing in the years after with war traumas, and physical and mental suffering. Makes my parents always wary of it and find it hard to shake off the deadly dark fear and insecurities they witnessed for 5 years.
Later on, my father also became a priest, who after the war tried to help many victims from the concentration camps, who had great traumas and nightmares. Father was a good listener; strict but fair, we children always added…
In my whole family, world wars 1+2 caused a lot of pain and loss of life and innocence.
My mother’s sister survived the four years of “The Burma railroad” with two young children in a Japanese prison camp, which continues to this day.
There was more than 40 years of peace in the Netherlands, something to cherish and guard, Mama often said. Later, the Berlin Wall came down, ending the last threat of nuclear war.
I’m just glad my parents don’t have to witness another war in Europe or beyond.
“Let Love Rule” / “Let Ukraine Be and Stay Free”
SLAVA UKRAINI
Ottoman Empire
*from Egypt and Greece to Arabia and Iran
The empire has had several capitals, these are Söğüt, Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul. The Ottomans ended when Modern Turkey came into existence and the rest of the Middle East became modern as well.
Luc van de Steeg /LucFineArt 02032022
Weesp NL