1940-10-08 — Page 7

1 GREECE

ANYBODY LOOKING ?

How I Escaped From

Nazis

town.

a

·By- Lieut. Leonard RODRIGUES

5th Regt, Dutch Artillery

left behind when

the rest. left. Finally he returned to his post in a Dutch factory and I believe he was not molested.

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Some industries are being closed down, on the pretext that Ger- many can supply, these goods. The Dutch are encouraged to produce cggs, butter, potatoes and other vegetables and fruit.

One of the first things the Nazis did after arriving was to buy and send to the Reich all early veget- ables and fruit..

I and two Englishmen, one a I soldier and the other a civilian, arranged an escape by boat. We found a boat with oars on the beach.

get But it was hard to away, as along the entire coast from Dunkirk to Boulogne there Leaving Amsterdam was easy-were two sentries every five hun by train for the frontier

dred yards who maintained And I simply walked across the watch day and night. frontier in the dark without see- One dark night we pushed the audibly: "Po lil Holland. Po lil ing a single guard.

boat to the water's edge and then. Holland." In Brussels I stayed with friends drew lots to see. who should, go und heard that the Germans were and get food. A Frenchman had looking for chauffeurs to drive promised to bring some, but not requisitioned motor-lorries with turned up. I lost, and this saved to handle, for we Dutch are rug- Philips's radio factory is run- troops to France.

my life.

ged, single-minded people, singu-ning normally. The Fokker "and I was paid ten marks daily, that As I came back with the food Ilanly resistant to any kind of pro-Ford works have been taken over

by the Germans. lay among the sand dunes and saw paganda. my two comrades being inter-To-day the majority of Dutch Many thousands I was told. rogated. Then the sentries pushed are absolutely determined that 8,000 or 10,000 of young Ger : the soldier aside and shot him.

they won't remain under German mans being trained as airmen are I told him earlier to tear up his control. But there is a minority now in Holland. It is interesting military papers, but he would not, who say: "Well, Britain left us in to note that such large numbers saying he might, be shot as a spy the lurch, and we might just as of new German aviators.. are be-

ing trained.

is to say the equivalent of two hundred French francs, and given plenty of food and cigarettes.

Every group of ten or twelve German soldiers had a spokesman. who appeared to have the job of pep talker something on the lines of the political commissar of the Soviet Army, although he was only an ordinary, saldier: These: men held forth to their fellows.and listeners, explaining that the war would be over by the middle of August, for they would quickly launch an attack against. Britain, and all would be back at home by, the end of August.

Yet I think "Po 11 Holland" will prove the most difficult of all the occupied countries for the Nazis

...

---And This Is What I Left

Japan therefore: can only re- main out of the struggle if Ger- many and Italy are succeeding in their aims, and if the United States is willing to connive at Japanese expansion The indica- tions are that neither of these twq assumptions is ·valid, and

Some soldiers. looked pretty therefore, Japan must attempt to sceptical, but they ever opened on lending in England. He was well save ourselves trouble, and maker good her claims to hege- their mouths. Many of them seem-such a nice young man, only nine- accept whatever our powerful mony in the Far East by engaged very tired of being in the armyteen.

neighbours offer us." ing in, warion: sen. She is already and some told me that they had The Germans took the civilian) Unfortunately, the first group involved an land, and in that not been home for two years. They away a prisoner, leaving the sol- sphere she has not gained any were excellently, equipped and dier's body on the beach. I crawled great success and certainly no de- never, walked any whore, always away as fast as I could, feeling cisive.ylatory. At the moment she moving, in motor-trucks.. is reduced to bombing cities she: kannot capture.

If is often said that economics have nothing whatever to do with way, that the capacity of a nation

*

After a week of driving, a, lorry, slipped away at Gravelines and walked down to Calais.

very sick,

0.

has been rather weakened by the resentment felt against the House of Orange.

Almost every night R.A.F. "planes drone over Amsterdam on- their way to Western. Germany, but they are very high, and Ger- man AA. guns don't, shoot. The. black-out prevails, but unlike Frarice. and Belgium here is no curfew, so that cafes and cabarets go on as usual. Some cabarets are forbidden to German soldiers.

Some Jewish quarters are also forbidden to German soldiers, ap pauently in order to avoid in cidents.

One of the most awful sights of the brief war, witnessed by a friend of mine, was the spectacle of 30,000 Jews; including many Germans, who waited at Ymulden hoping to get off in the Dutch liner J. P. Coen, but British naval ment took the liner, and: sank her in or der to block the port. The despair

Only a few days before the in- vasion the Dutch were cheered When I got back to Calais and thrilled by the Queen's an- found the Germans had organised swer to an invitation to go to a refugee. train, for they did not America.. "A: Dutch Queen's place want a floating population watch- is with her own people.” ⠀ ing the endless gun emplacements. They were not in any way pre-of the Jews was terrible.

pared for her departure, No effort. was made to explain that this meant the preservation of Hol land's independence.

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Many opened veins, others jumped off the pier and drowned themselves, when they first saw the German troops. Actually, the Germans have ignored the Jews so far..

to continue the struggle is depen-though to a far less degree she dent on the will of the nation has stored rubber, oll, and scrap they were preparing along the rather than on its wealth:

métal, but 3 years of war in China coast. This obviously is not true. Ger- hus helped- to deplate her re- We went through Amiens. It was many in the last war was finally sources, while her trade with a nightmare on June 13.). The brought to her knees by the rigid Europe has been very much re-streets were littered with bodies.. blackade, imposed by the British duced owing to the European war, In Paris I joined forces, with a All the arts of Dr. Goobbels are Navy, and the-proof of that is. to What trade remains, is chiefly Briton and we set off for Mar being. turned on Holland- to-day, | Some German refugees, w be peen in Germany's post war with the United States to whom sellles. We crossed the "frontier" Every newspaper has a German couldn't stand the strain of wait- economic system which aimed at the exports a third in value of into unoccupied territory by the chief editor in its office.

ing in Amsterdam, went to the hutarchy or being, independent of her total and from, whom she im-smple process of walking fast out Jewish journalists were dismiss- Gestapo mnd reported, but were foreign supplies from overseas ports one quarter of her total. If on to the bridge across the Loire ed by telephone after the Germans told that the Germans were not altogether. That is why her Japan came to terms with Russia while a sentry looked the other came in. The "Handelsblad" gave interested in them. chemists were set the task of find- she might drawsome supplies from way. He called us back, but while them two months pay. I don't

ng substitutes for all such Vladivostok, but they would not, wo were retracing our steps a know what the rest did.

As an artilleryman in the Dutch materials.

even if Russia was most accom-motor-lorry came along which the Curiously enough there are still Army in the Amersfoort sector The self-contained or nearly modating, compensate for the loss sentry-lind to halt.

two Jewish, radio speakers. Just near the Zuyder Zee, I saw many elf-contained units in the world of trade elsewhere. A war with So we turned again and' raced before the invasion the Dutch, to parachutists come down." I took de the United States, the British the United States would practical to the other side, reaching safely avoid confusion from outside part in the capture of eighteen. Empire, Russia and to a lesser ly isolate Japan economically and After that,, going casy, I reached radio transmitters pretending to They were quite helpless as we legrec Germany which at the mo- throw her back on her accumu- Lisbon.

bel Dutch, picked three speakers trained a machine-gun on them: nent controls the economic related supplies and on what she

and made their voices thoroughly as they flopted down, and could ources of Europe.

can extract from, Manchuria and My last recollection of Amster familiar to Dutchlisteners. The only surrender. If they: come Japan is not in that category, China, but the fact that she is so dhm, as I walked down the Kul-Germans kept them on.

down where there were no troops She is not dependent on foreign anxious to get into the Dutch East verstraat on the way to the sta- It is forbidden to listen to for they dug themselves in, and it was

rade for her food. supplies that is Indies, and is Very perturbed tion to begin my six weeks' trek eign radios, though many do. But hard to find them.

.... rue, but for her manufacturing about rubber, oil, cotton, and to liberty, is of meeting an Amerl the few B.B.C, broadcasts in Dutch lants she must secure the raw scrap metal proves that her econo- can negro drummer from a jazz I listened to didn't seem quilo, to naterial from foreign countries mic position is precarious: On band at Hècks Cafe.”

meet the situation.

There are still a few British in

o produce the essential weapons the face of if a war with the He was rather the worse for * war. She must trade in order United States would spell disaster drink and weaving his way along Amsterdam. I was able to help o live. No doubt;, lilte Germany, for the Japanese Empire,

the street murmuring softly, but lone member of a family, who was

The German statement that lower than seven hundred civi- lians were killed in Rotterdam is nonsenss. Tens of thousands were killed. The centre of the town was destroyed.