THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 3, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
"-WINDSOR HOUSE
The Nazis thought we were simple but
We escaped
from Holland
DOVER BEACH Forebodings of a Hitler onslaught mean that there can be no respite,| no relief, to the armed. men who watch on Do- ver's cliffs. Each moment of calm upon the Narrow Seas, each hint of mist, drifting across the waters ed Holland. that are England's slender moat, redouble the men ace banking in the East.
to-
the
The sea is calm
night,
The tide is full,
moon lies fair
Upon the straits.
Ah, love, let us be true To one another! For the
world which seenis To lie before us like a
land of dreams, So various, so beautiful,
so new,
TH
THREE times I and my 15-year- moment I determined to try to
old comrade, X, attempted to escupe. escope from Hitler-dominat-
hope, but the determination
Many times we almost gave up to escape in order to fight against the ruthless power that has turn- ed my country into a prison urg- ed us
The third time, luck was on our side, and here we are free once again, and with only one desire to defeat Nazism.
.ܐ ܵܝ
I was a student, working pass my examination as a mech- anical engineer when the Go- man invasim threatened us.
It was
I started to hitch-hike my way to a harbour, and eventually I got a lift on a bus. When
that broke down I took it over from the driver, and soon we were on the move again.
But I had first to take sonte refugees to safety, and when I reached the harbour I had missed the last bout by one hour. It was bombed and sunk I learned later, so my luck was better than I had thought,
Now the streets were full of Germans, who, though they werk! a good life [11 those outwardly polite, certainly gave | days. People said what they themselves the airs of conquer- thought. We students led a par- | ors. ticularly care-free existence with plenty of fun and parties.
But they did not know what to make of the Dutch people, who, cover of a superficial to "pull the
used
One morning we were told that under war had begun. We didn't be-paliteness, heve
11 We thought someone Germans' leg." was having a joke at our (x- pense, but we soon learned other- wise.
They would knock against them 011 the
pavement. then apologise with exaggerated sua-
Page
Thousands of freedom-loving men and women have escaped from Nazi domination, but this story, told by a young Dutchman, will rank as one of the most heroic escapades of the War.
"The strecta were full of German soldiers."
had his fingers eut for his rude-boat.
ness.
hiding them as best could. Sure enough, as we made our way up the canal we were It was forbidden
and some of our sub- keep in searched one's
just plies found. enough
food for two days,
home
Lo
than
Soon after my first failure to
Hath really neither joy. nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace,
nor help for pain; And we are here as on
a darkling plain
I became an AR.P. worker i Swept with confused Amsterdam, something like your vity and a fleeting smile which escape, my friend and 1 tried alarms of struggle Home Guards. For five nights I left the German more than a lit-into France, where we hoped to again. We meant to get across and flight
parched the pitch-dark streets the puzzled as to whether he was of the city, challenging shadowy really being treated with respect mans,
be able to fight against the Ger- Where ignorant armies forms anet examining papers, or just made a fool of.
Life was clash by night.
Matthew
one
Anyone of them might have been full of these small incidents.
14 | the
parachutists event then invading our county.
At the end of those five days t was all over and the Germans
The German baffled by this obstinacy.
I
Soon
was going to be with
at
life all kinds.
the
last
Our
2
We were questioned. and made believe they were for Ger- mans, and got away with joking remark about good Gee- man appetites. Eventually We found ourselves within two miles of the sea.
We came close to a Naval ar port, which was of course for- bidden. Again we were stopped We made
way through and questioned, but we managed Brabant. 11
Was forbidden to to put on an air of great inno- Invaders Were cross the Mouse and there was d cence. They thought wa werc suave Dutch German officer with a guard on very simple, and laughed hear-
the bridge we reached.
tily when we told them we were going to sail to England. It was much too absurd to believe.
We were forbidden to listen to But we offered him a cigarette any radio broadcasts except Ger- and flattered him, and after man news, but in nearly every strolling along with him in con-
tuned versation
to find managed ourselves on the other side of the bridge.
house radio sets were softly and Dutch ears were close to loudspeakers listening to other programines, and in par- ticular to British broadcasts.
So
Arnold's poetry is ultimately over- taken by the fact. The were occupying our territory. armies are ignorant to-Į learned how different day only as all men are of German improvised laws and ignorant. They do
and not restrictions, know the future. They do
chance for air cover and not know whether victoryį or defeat will crown their preparation and therefore not no invasion. Just enough banners; they do
mist over the know how high those sur-
sea with cropped up. clear air over the land,{ face mists may creep or what of menace and sud-and anything might ar- rive under the chalk cliffs.
den death they may con-
All kinds of petty restrictions The penalty for their infringement was death.
We were not allowed to discuss politics, the German themselves, or any news but German. when we met our friends we re- lieved our feelings by using all Will Hitler the most descriptive adjectives risk an invasion,
for we knew. which the British profess
ceal. They do know that Or other factors may be
in this suddenly strange world there is neither cer-
introduced.
We
They told us we must return inland at
once, but we pointed out that it was forbidden for us to pass up the canal at night, and that we were forced by Ger- It was a tragic journey for we man law to anchor after dark. saw miles of country laid waste. Worst of all was the sight of After some
discussion they Rotterdam, through which we said we might anchor inside the passed by night.
harbour this once. but if we were found there again we should at once be shot.
All we could see of this once prosperous city of 400,000 in-
was But habitants
ruins, miles of blackened ruins silhouetted in the moonlight, and On them bodies piled up in funeral pyres as much as three yards high,
Our friends, who all hated the
themselves to be eager, Germans too. filled in the gap: From one side of the city you
unless he is certain of jectives to
applying
those
opprobrious ad- the invaders, their
Even here in London you have seen nothing like those ruins.
could see
right across
Soon after dark we sailed in- land, and at about midnight side the other, and made for the crossed into a canal running be-
sea.
to the Here we sighted a patrol-boat,
end, but apparently it didn't sce
titude, nor peace, nor help for pain; they have ac- quired the
hard rare, knowledge that one has no right to ask for such he would fail consequently public under the Germans' noses. of blackened rubble which once things, not even on the safe, familiar shingle of Dover Beach, where the probable? It can be argu-
success? Does the fact domineering ways, their restric-other: there were no buildings and thought this, then, was the
that Britons are certain tions, our new life. So we ex-left to obstruct the view.
changed our views even in On the heaps of brick and piles little sailing boat,
us, and, struggling with our
mean an invasion is im-
Sometimes individual Germans made friendly advances, but these were not well received.
"Do you speak German?" one of them asked a young Dutch girl who
was walking through the
"No," was the reply. "I don't German soldiers either; 1 | prefer English soldiers.”
like
were
bright and happy Dutch out seawards. homes lay the bodies, bodies of German soldiers, bodies of Dutch soldiers, bodies of women and bodies of children, a series horrible monuments in human flesh to the Nazi Moloch.
we pointed
Every time we saw a 'plane we expected to be bombed, but we did manage to signal to a British of
plane. They sent us a long mes- and sage, but it was in Morse, that we did not understand.
to crosy
ed backward and forward | children so often used to
in strictly military terms, laugh and the sun um- brellas bloomed; and they the weather.
according to the state of do know that it is only in
But Dover Beach is not being true to one another
whether the love is be-a military problem pri- park. tween a man and woman, marily. It is a problem in a man and his battalion, a what men believe in, in man and his country or how much they will stand, his convictions-that the in whether they are over- come by the essential gray face of reality is clothed with the meaning blankness of the external by which alone any men
world or whether they are resolved to overcome it, can live.
to impress upon its pain Dover Beach can be re- and horror their own con- garded to-day as a strictly viction, to wield their military problem. First Bren guns not as the in- making due allowance for struments of a shrinking puzzled and incredulous, but my This time we planned to escape the state of the Hitlerian defence but as the wea- face told him nothing. nerves, the Russian atti-pons with which they will tude, the twenty divisions shape their world to what wear the orange flower, diverted to the Balkans they believe to be worth national symbol, we substituted a navigation, were forbidden and the domestic morale while. Such matters un- in Germany, one can pro-avoidably escape the mili- duce the probable, equa-tary expert. They are the tions. No mist, no invá- larger part of what wins sion. Too much mist, no wars.
"I can't sit over there," he 'said confidingly, pointing towards a corner of the room, "because there is a Jewish girl there." slowly
"I, too, am a Jew," I answered. The, statement was not true, but was angry at the insulting way he looked at the girl,
He looked at
As we crossed one very dan- gerous spot the waves swept. higher than our little sail, and we expected We borrowed boats
our little boat to founder any minute. We were canals and broke other German, laws, penalty for infringing which,
very seasick, too, was death, but luck was with us Eventually we I was sitting in a cafe when a until we were almost within sight by a British ship, and with great were sighted German spoke to me.
of our goal, and then my friend difficulty we managed to get was taken ill.
alongside. Our rope broke and We were bitterly disappointed), was battered on the ship's side our boat with all our belongings but there was nothing for it but and lost, but we were hauled on
and painfully to retrage board. our steps. Once again we found ourselves in Amsterdam, where I continued my studies and sat thank them, just took it all. as a Our rescuers would not let us for my examinations, but always with the thought of escape food and drinks and beds to rest of course, gave us hot uppermost in my mind.
in, and brought us to Harwich. Then came
the fateful day.
up the canals to the sea by boat We knew next to nothing of get any supplies; we were not allowed to sail by night or to Some people put the stem of approach the harbour, but we the flower through the hole of a razor blade and wore the flower these difficulties somehow.
I know what my friends would were determined to overcome think. I have seen them cheer and concealed blade in their
when, British 'planes dropped bombs We took with us food and even though it was buttonhole, Then if some Fascist
on German objectives, their own tried to snatch out the flower he medical supplies. on our littiel country..
When
we
white flower.
me B little
were forbidden to
our
inatter
;
We
e were free at last.
Now I belong to Dutch unit, That is good, but it is not enough. My ambition is to join the R.A.F. and fight the Ger- mahs now-without delay.
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