The ruins of Middelburg's City Hall after May 17, 1940

In early November 1944, I was two and a half months old, when Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland located on Walcheren Island in The Netherlands, was under artillery and bomber attack. British, Belgian, Norwegian, French, and Canadian armed forces, including Le Regiment de Maisonneuve, the Calgary Highlanders, the Black Watch (RHR) of Canada, and the 5^th Canadian Infantry Brigade, were aiming to wrest the strategically located island out of Nazi Germany’s malevolent control. 

The enemy occupiers had fortified the island with bunker, heavy artillery, tank traps. and well-armed soldiers – all part of the Atlantic wall - to prevent Allied forces from landing on the island’s beaches. But more important, the Island was strategically located enabling the occupiers to block Allied freighters laden with war materiel from sailing up the eastern Scheldt River to the newly liberated port of Antwerp.   The port was key to provisioning the Allied forces headed east for Germany.

To keep the family safe from the bombardment, our parents vacated the house where I was born and  sought safety in the neighbouring church’s coal cellar accessible by a side door from our yard.   Going underground provided a  measure of ambiguous safety for the seven of us to settle for the night.  My eldest brother tells me that I was left in the baby carriage set on top of the coal heap which fed the hungry furnace heating the building.

Mercifully, no shell or bomb fell on the church, though shrapnel did fly in the yard, and happily, no flames erupted to roast me or the rest of the family.

The munitions were aimed at the German armed forces, which had been occupying our city for four and a half years, but, collaterally, threatened residents with a “friendly fire” death.

Around the city, the agricultural lands normally protected by sea dikes had been drowned. Allied bombers had blown holes in the sea wall allowing the North Sea waters to burst through great gaps and inundate most of the Island. The aim was to make the occupation and defense operations difficult for the German forces now confronted by the spectre of being isolated by Allied forces.

In 1940, Nazi Germany’s forces on Hitler’s malignant orders had overrun Dutch defenses and begun an occupation that grew increasingly repressive and dangerous.  Our city, on May 17^th of that year had suffered tremendous damage in the battle between German and French forces for control of the city. Much of the city’s core, with its City Hall built in 1452, great churches, abbey, and the Lange Jan (Long John) tower, was left in ruins.  Dozens of citizens had been killed and wounded.   

The invaders gained control and the island was transformed into a fortress with bunkers and heavy guns facing south and west.  Occupying soldiers filled the barracks while officers were quartered in local homes – include two in our house, turning our dining room into their home away from home!

My father was one of the ministers of the local Re-reformed Church.  Although not a member of the underground resistance, he contributed to the effort.  In the roof joists of the church a radio was hidden and connected next door to our house-phone system. Turn on the right light, lift up the phone receiver, and voila! the radio would supply news from the BBC in London. More than one Dutch person had been executed for similar disobedience, but this radio was never discovered during the occupation.

The tyranny took its toll. To get a sense of the terror, the current Netflix film “The Forgotten Battle”, depicts the scene on Walcheren and its shores, leaving viewers with graphic and heart wrenching accounts of what it was like to live under armed occupation on Walcheren island. Resistance took courage and battles to rid the occupiers were costly. The attack to  control the Sloe Causeway was particularly bitter for Canadian troops.

On November 7^th, 1944, the occupiers’ defenses were crumbling.  With no relief in sight, the German command realized that further fighting was hopeless.  Lieutenant General Wilhelm Daser, the officer in command in Middelburg, was presented a demand for unconditional surrender by British Captain D W Jones of the 155^th Infantry Brigade. 

Insulted by the demand issued by an officer with only the rank of lieutenant, the General refused to surrender unless an Allied officer with a rank not less than colonel presented it!! A major arrived finally and was immediately, magically transformed into a colonel. The surrender took place and thousands of German soldiers became POWs and the Zeelanders were liberated.

Meanwhile in the northern urban part of the country, the occupation continued, and conditions worsened with as many as 20,000 Dutch citizens dying of starvation. The total liberation of The Netherlands finally took place on May 5th after much more fighting.  Canada’s Lieutenant General Charles Foulkes presented the terms of unconditional surrender to General Oberst Johannes Blaskowitz in Hotel “De Wereld” (The World) in Wageningen. The war and the occupation of The Netherlands ended.  As many as 237,000 people, including 104,000 Jews, had died during the five-year ordeal. 

The price to liberate Walcheren Island and the city of Middelburg was also extremely high. Killed were 3231 Allied soldiers of which Canadians made up a large percentage, and 2283 civilians.  The German death toll was 4250 people. 

It would take years to return to “normal” life, to restore the dikes and pump the salt water back into the North Sea, and to restore so much of the cultural heritage that had been destroyed or severely damaged. 

Our family decided to emigrate – as did many other Dutch households, to begin a new life in the “new world.”  In April 1951 we sailed past the Statue of Liberty and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey for four years. Then, in 1955, the family now of six, with the eldest son married and staying in New Jersey, travelled another 5000 km – this time by car - to settle in Vancouver as immigrants to Canada.

Here, I have been able to say – as a Dutch person, “As a baby, I was liberated from tyranny by the heroic and self-giving efforts of Canadians and other allies committed to freedom and justice for all”, and, as a Canadian, “our military service people were ready to sacrifice for The Netherlands because the power of evil must be resisted with truth, strength, courage, generosity, and love so that all humans can thrive and Creation is respected.”

Thanks be to the Spirit who gave and gives life and calls ALL to embrace generous and compassionate life in all its fullness, while resisting the ways of evil and death. 

The high level lesson of World War II for me is that when megalomaniacal narcissistic ideologically-driven bullies are given power to rule nations and brainwash their people, then the way of death and destruction is on the horizon.  Democracy is fragile and the institutions sustaining democracy are essential, but entrusting any nation’s future to evil sociopathic self-centred autocrats leads to disaster.

The 11th of November has another reason for me to remember and reflect. 

In Beamsville, Ontario at 11 p.m. on the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1968, my father, Rev. Dr. A. H. (Arie) Oussoren, breathed his last breath and left behind cancer’s pain and suffering for peace and fulfillment beyond life.  Into the loving arms of the Holy One, I continue to commend his life and work and soul. 

Holy One, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and

the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.   

Then, in your great mercy, grant us and all a safe lodging and a holy rest and peace at the last.

Through Jesus Christ your beloved one.  AMEN