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Mr and Mrs De Jong's visit
On Wednesday 5 May we, the students of room 1 & 2, were most fortunate to have Geena Whiteford's grandparents visit us to talk about their experiences during WWII. At the time they were around our age, in fact Mrs de Jong was 10 at the start of the war, and Mr de Jong was 13.
We learnt how people helped one another during this awful time, some examples of what people did:
· Took in Jewish families to protect them from being arrested by the Germans.
· Children, like Mrs de Jong took parcels to families who were hiding Jews, without knowing, this was because her father was part of the Resistance.
· People shared food with one another, so if you had a supply of eggs for example and your neighbours didn't, you'd share with them
· Families took in others who had their homes bombed or destroyed in some way.
Memories of Mr and Mrs de Jong
· People had to hide in bunkers (shelters) if there were air raids, sometimes there could be as many as 500 fighter planes flying overhead, this was a terrifying sound to hear because you were never sure if you were going to be bombed or not.
· Jewish children weren't allowed to go to school, visit libraries, cinemas, or be a member of a sports club etc.
· Jewish adults weren't allowed to own businesses, practise as teachers, doctors or lawyers etc.
· There was a great shortage of day to day supplies, particularly foods such as oil, sugar, meat and fresh fruit like oranges and bananas.
· Most people decided to grow vegetables to ensure they had some food available.
· Because of the shortage of food and general items rationing was introduced, which meant your purchases were limited, each person had a booklet that had to be shown when they bought something as proof they had not had extra.
· Mrs de Jong's parents' family business was bombed twice by the Germans.
· It was hard to know who you could trust.
· Mrs de Jong's father supplied many families in hiding with fresh food.
· You were forbidden to listen to BBC radio broadcasts.
· Curfew began at 6pm each day, during which time no-one was allowed out of their homes and blackouts had to be put up, this went on for four years.
Some cities suffered so badly when the Germans came and 'threw' them out of their homes, they had nowhere to go, no food to eat and just had to walk about with nowhere to go, one city had 300,000 people on the move. These people had to resort to eating tulip bulbs and whatever they came across that they thought was edible.
· People weren't allowed to leave Holland, and it was almost impossible to do so as it borders Belgium and France, were occupied by the Germans as well as Germany. The only route out was by sea, and not many people had the means to use this route and it would have been extremely dangerous to do so.
· People prayed and prayed each day to be liberated and for peace, the rosary was one of the most important prayers prayed.
· One day after a German officer had been killed, the German army wanted revenge so they went searching for someone to blame, they came to Mr de Jong's home and searched for his father. While they were there they slashed mattresses open, stole food, and terrified them all, particularly his little sister who was having a birthday gathering with her friends when the German soldiers burst into the living room.
· In one village all boys over 10years old and men were shot and no-one was allowed to bury them, this was payback for a German officer being killed.
· The Germans took whatever they could.
· In an effort to pretend that the Germans did not exist, we'd turn our backs on them as they were marching through the streets, but they'd make you turn around and watch the march...we were forced to watch.
VE day (Victory Europe)
· At last good news, it's over!
· Mrs de Jong remembers shouting and jumping for joy and putting red, white, blue and orange ribbons in her hair and dancing in the streets with everyone.
Message to us:
"Greed leads to war, always treat each other nicely, even if you don't agree with someone, treat them as a fellow human being. Remember we are all here to serve in some way. Some good things about the war, was that people really wanted to help each other and take care of one another, people shared what they had, supported those who needed support. People looked out for their neighbours."
