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 streets were full of German soldiers."
had his fingers cut for his rude- boat, hiding them as best We
ness.
to
keep
just
in
But they did not know what to make of the Dutci. people, who, It was forbidden under cover of a
superficial one's home more than politeness, used to "pull the enough food for two days. Germans' leg."
Hath really neither joy. nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace,
nor help for pain; And we are here as on
They would knock against them on the pavement, then a darkling plain
Soon after my first failure to I became an A.R.P. worker in apologise with exaggerated sua-escape, my friend and I tried Swept with confused Amsterdam, something like your vity and A fleeting smile which again. We meant to get across alarms of struggle Home Guards. For five nights I left the German more than a lit- into France, where we hoped try patrolled the pitch-dark streets the puzzled as to whether he was be able to fight against the Ger- and flight
of the city, challenging shadowy really being treated with respect mans, Where ignorant armies forms and examining papers. or just made a fool of. Life was
Anyone of them might have been full of these small incidents. clash by night.
one of the parachutists even i then invading our country.
learned how different life
and at the last
were
The German invaders baЛlled by this suave Dutch
and some of our
Sud-
could. Sure enough, as we made our way up the canal we were searched plies found.
We were questioned. and made believe they were for Ger- mans, and got away with a joking remark about good Ger- man appetites. Eventually found ourselves within two miles of the sen.
we
We came close to a Naval air poft, which was of course for- bidden. Again we were stopped and questioned, but we managed to Fit on an air of great inno- cence. They thought"
werc very simple, and laughed hear- tily when we told them we were going to sail to England. It was much too absurd to beljevo.
We made our
way through Brabant. It was
forbidden to cross the Mause and there was a So Matthew Arnold's
German officer with a guard on At the end of those five days! obstinacy.
the bridge we reached, poetry is ultimately over- it was all over and the Germans taken by the fact. The were occupying our territory. I We were forbidden to listen to But we offered him a cigarette
flattered any radio broadcasts except Ger- and
him. and after armies are ignorant to-Soon
was going to be with fill kinds
They told us but in nearly every strolling along with him in con- man news, day only as all men are of German improvised laws and
house radio sets
we tuned versation were
managed to find ignorant. They do not resti ictions,
softly and Dutch ears were close ourselves on the other side of the to loudspeakers
to bridge. listening know the future. They do
chance for air cover and other programmes, and in par- not know whether victory
ticular to British broadcasts. or defeat will crown their preparation and therefore
no invasion. Just enough All kinds of petty restrictions banners; they do not
cropped up. The penalty for mist over the sea with their infringement was death. know how high those sur-
clear air over the land, face mists may creep or what of menace and sud- den death they may con- ceal. They do know that in this suddenly strange world there is neither cer-i
was
we
we must return - inland at once, but we pointed out that it was forbidden for us
at to pass up the canal
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.
After some the sight of
discussion Worst of all
thuy Rotterdam, through which we said we might anchor inside the
harbour this passed by night.
опсе, but we were found there again We were not allowed to discuss All we could see of this once should at once be shot. and anything might ar- politics, the German
themselves, prosperous city of 400,000 in- rive under the chalk cliffs. or any news but German.
But habitants
ruins, miles of wlien we met our friends we re- blackened ruins silhouetted in Or other factors may believed our feelings by using all the moonlight, and on them introduced. Will Hitler the most descriptive adjectives bodies piled up in funeral pyres
Soon after dark we sailed In- as much as three yards high. risk
about land, and at an invasion,
midnight for we knew. which the British profess
crossed into a canal running be- Even here in London you have side the other, and made for the
Our friends, who all hated the
was
themselves to be eager, Germans too. Alled in the gap: From one side of the city you seen nothing like those ruins.
titude, nor peace, nor help for pain; they have ac- quired the rare, hard knowledge that one has no right to ask for such things, not even on the safe, familiar shingle of Dover Beach, where the probable? It can be argu-
sea.
we
our
applying those opprobrious ad- unless he is certain of jectives" to the invaders,
right their could see
across to the Here we sighted a patrol-boat, there were no buildings and thought this, then, was the success? Does the fact domineering ways, their restric- other:
Lions, our new life. So we ex-left to obstruct the view.
end, but apparently it didn't see that Britons are certain changed our views even in
US,
with and, struggling On the heaps of brick and piles little sailing boat, he would fail consequently public under the Germans' noses.
pointed of blackened rubble which once mean an invasion is im-
were bright and happy Dutch out seawards, homes lay the bodies, bodies of
Every time we saw a 'plane we German soldiers, bodies of Dutch expected to be bombed, but we soldiers, bodies of
did manage to signal to a British of plane. They sent us a long mes-
sage, but it was in Morse, that we did not understand.
ed backward and forward
"No," was the reply. "I don't like German soldiers either; I prefer English soldiers."
women and
horrible monuments in human flesh to the Nazi Moloch.
and
As we crossed one very dan- gerous spot the waves swept higher than our little sail, and we expected our little boat to cross founder any minute. We were
very seasick, too.
We borrowed boats to canals and broke other German laws, penalty for infringing which was death, but luck was with us I was sitting in a cafe when a until we were almost within sight of our goal, and then my friend German spoke to me.
was taken ill.
We were bitterly disappointed,
slowly and painfully to retrace our steps. Once again we found
Eventually we were sighted by a British ship, and with great- difficulty we managed to get alongside. Our rope broke and our boat with all our belongings was battered on the ship's side
board.
Sometimes individual Germans children so often used to in strictly military terms, made friendly advances, but these bodies of children, a series laugh and the sun um- brellas bloomed; and they the weather.
according to the state of were not well received.
"Do you speak German?" one do know that it is only in
of them asked a young Dutch girl But Dover Beach is not who was walking through the being true to one another
whether the love is be- a military problem pri- park.
marily. It is a problem in! tween a man and woman,
what men believe in, in a man and his battalion, a man and his country or how much they will stand. in whether they are over- his convictions- that the gray face of reality is come by the essential
"I can't sit over there," he clothed with the meaning blankness of the external
sald confidingly, pointing towards by which alone any men world or whether they are a corner of the room, "because but there was nothing for it but and lost, but we were hauled on
resolved to overcome it, there is a Jewish girl there." can live.
to impress upon its pain "I, too, am a Jew," I answered, ourselves in Amsterdam, where Dover Beach can be re- and horror their own con- The statement was not true, but I continued my studies and sat thank them, just took it all as a hot gave us the thought of escape food and drinks and beds to rest military problem. First Bren guns not as the in-
uppermost in my mind.
in, and brought us to Harwich. making due allowance for struments of a shrinking puzzled and incredulous, but my This time we planned to escape
He looked at me a little
Then came the futeful day.
We were free at last. the state of the Hitlerian defence but as the wea- face told him nothing.
up the canals to the sea by boat nerves, the Russian atti-pons with which they will
Now I belong to a Dutch unit. When we were forbidden to
That is good,' but it is not tude, the twenty divisions shape their world to what wear the orange flower,
We knew noxt to nothing enough. My ambition is to Join diverted to the Balkans they believe to be worth national symbol, we substituted a navigation, were forbidden to the RAF and fight the Ger 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 inva- larger part of what wins sion. Too much mist, no wars.
Our rescuers would not let us
garded to-day as a strictly viction, to wield then he looked at the girl.
I was angry at the insulting way for my examinations, but always matter of course,
white flower.
our
with
get any supplies; We were not mans now-without delay, allowed to sail by night or to
the mower through the hole of a were determined to overcome think. Ive seen them cheer Some people put the stem of approach The harbour, but wo I know what my, friends would razor blade and wore the flower these difficulties somehow, when British "planes. dropped bombs on German objectives, even though it was their own. country.
buttonhole. Then if some Fascist and concealed blađe in their
We took with LIB food and tried to snatch out the flower he medical sup les on our
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