The WW2 Dutch Canadian Connection
The WW2 Dutch Canadian Connection…
And why we should remember. Struck by these images, they reminded me of the great sacrifice our soldiers and their families paid for our freedom.
How I Learned to be Grateful for Freedom.
My parents left the Netherlands post WW2 and immigrated to Canada with three children. Not long after, I was born. As a Canadian born citizen, I grew up with little insight into those terrible years. It was only later, when in my forties, that I’d found out what freedom meant more personally.
I had never experienced tyrannical rule. My parents had. And not for a short time, either. For five years they lived in this hostile environment. Tightlipped about this period in history, Dad finally spoke about the war years. By this time he was in his late seventies. And I listened. Hard. A gazillion interviews later, I’d learned they had drafted Dad. He was a teenager when he’d entered the Dutch Army. He’d fought for five days, but lost to Germany. So much more came out of those interviews. I wondered what it would even be like to fight for freedom as a young man only to lose? And then walk those same streets with your countryman, but now you were under Nazi rule. One thing we know from our history books is that those times were horrendous.
My perspective on freedom had drastically changed.
So, it’s difficult to grasp how hard those years must have been for dad, mom, and the Dutch people. I’m reminded again of how grateful I am for freedom, for the efforts of all the Allies who fought for this cause. But as a Canadian, this remembrance day, I’m reflecting on the Dutch Canadian connection, grateful for the shared bond of friendship.
I’d like to extend my gratitude to the Canadian Armed Forces. I have to wonder, had it not been for those brave men, of which 7,500 Canadian soldiers had died and were buried in Dutch graves, would I even be here to write this article.
May we never forget!
November 11th celebrations.
Thank you, Canada. Join me this November 11th in celebrating our freedoms by showing our gratitude to those families who have lost loved ones in this heroic fight.
When Dad was still with us, he made reference to the above photo and said, as a forced laborer digging trenches for the Germans in Arnhem, he saw the Canadians cross the river on buffaloes after the Allied attack on the area, April 1945.