15 Provinciehuis

15 Provinciehuis The Provinciehuis building’s (County Hall) caretaker Van der Lee later recorded his memories of the first days of the Battle of Arnhem. The building at Markt 6, between Hofstraat and Marktstraat, was badly da- maged towards the end of those September days in 1944. German soldiers had settled into various buildings around the Markt. The Paleis van Justitie (Palace of Justice) at Markt 3 and the Joods Ouden- liedenhuis Beth-Miklot Lekiznoh (Jewish Elderly Folks Home) at Markt 5 were set on fire by the Germans on 19 September. Both buildings burned to the ground and formed a burning barrier to the British parachutists at the bridge, who tried to breakout on the evening of 20 September. That evening it was obvious that the situation for the British was untenable. Many wounded were evacuated during a two-hour ceasefire. Later that night it was deci- ded to withdraw from the Rijkswaterstaat building to the large buildings at the corner of the Markt and Marktstraat: the Rijksarchief (State Archive), caretaker Van der Lee’s house and the Provincie- huis. These buildings were still virtually undamaged, ideal for awaiting the arrival of the British XXX Corps from Nijmegen. The buildings were fired on by the Germans. Early in the morning of Thursday 20 September the last British were taken prisoner in the Provinciehuis. Recollections of caretaker Van der Lee Evacuation of the wounded The final actions Capture Destruction Commemorations Recollections of caretaker Van der Lee The caretaker of the Provinciehuis building, Mr A.C.C. van der Lee, lived in the house next door, at Markt 7 (towards the Sabelspoort, an old city gate), and after the war he wrote about the first three days of the battle [1]: Sunday 17 September 1944 “After a jumpy Sunday morning during which air-raid sirens sounded on several occasions, the first bombs fell on Arnhem at about 1.30 pm. Besides the members of my family, Messrs Feite and De Groot were present in the Provinciehuis at that time as members of the air defence ser- vice. A few minutes after the bombing we were joined by the Queen’s Commissioner Mr S. Ba- ron van Heemstra and Mr Ripperda Wiertsma.” [Mr. J.V. Rijpperda Wierdsma] “On assignment from Mr Heemstra I went by bicycle to the most heavily hit areas in the city to report on the consequences of the bombing. On the Markt and in Koningstraat many Germans were wandering about like orphans, their hair and clothing covered in dust and rubbish: they must have been in the Willemskazerne (barracks) when it was hit. German soldiers were already manning slit trenches at the Dam and the bridge ramp. Not long after I had arrived back at the Provinciehuis we were joined by Mr and Mrs De Graaf and Mr Van de Wollenberg. Messrs Feite and De Groot left the building at about 5 pm, and since everything had remained quiet in the late afternoon we had tea together in the garden. There was a feeling of anxiety and at the same time delighted tension in the air at what might be about to happen. At about six o’ clock Mr Schade van Westrum from Oosterbeek rang us and gave an enthusiastic eyewitness account of the arrival of the parachutists. We could hear the cheers of the population over the telephone. 1 The tension increased and by now dusk was falling, so we had to think of lighting. The ground floor of the building was protected against random shrapnel splinters by doors and shutters, as were the windows of my house. This made a good blackout but it also excluded daylight. The electricity was cut off so we had to resort to candle lanterns, of which we had plenty. No one expected a lengthy isolation so we made excessive use of the candles which gave the living room a festive appearance. Luckily we had enough provisions in stock to care for our family and its five extra ‘members’ with ease. And so evening and night arrived. During the evening we received a ‘phone call from Mr Fels BSc. from Nijmegen I believe. As a joke I asked him if he would like to be connected to the light network. Nobody thought of sleep that night and we repeatedly scanned the Markt through the spy-hole in the front door. It would be about midnight when we saw strange shadows walking across the Markt, and small cars (jeeps). Some men tried the garden gate, but it was locked and they carried on. We dared not call out because we didn’t know if they were friend or foe. At approximately 2 am we heard heavy gunfire nearby, and in order to see what was going on the men followed me up onto the roof by the flagpole. What we saw was both frightening and fan- tastic. A battle had begun around the bridge and the tracer bullets from either side put on a spectacular show. All housing and site huts on the recently re-opened bridge were on fire. Pro- jectiles whistled past and over our heads, making us scurry back downstairs. The night passed in anxious tension.” The second day “On Monday morning 18 September 1944 we saw groups of captured Germans being led away by the Tommies across the Markt, jeered by the inhabitants of the Markt. Commissioner Van Heemstra went to his office on the first floor in expectation that the commander of the British troops would wish to report to the Provinciehuis as soon as he could. For some months now four horses from the German supply department had been stabled in wholesaler J. Stam’s warehouse in Hofstraat. Mr Van Heemstra asked me to go there via the back gate in Hofstraat and, taking great care, see if it was possible to get the animals back to safety in the courtyard. When I cau- tiously opened the warehouse door it looked as if all the captured Germans had been brought there and were being guarded by the British. Of course I had to explain what I was doing there after which I was given British chocolate and cigarettes: I handed these out to the ladies and gentlemen on my return to the building. In return I took them some crates of tomatoes from the seven tons which the united greengrocers had stored in the courtyard. They had been stored outside so that they would keep longer. The Monday morning went by in relative peace. At about 2 pm Mr Van Heemstra left the Provin- ciehuis at our insistence to return to his family; later this turned out to have been a good decisi- on. There was heavy fighting in the afternoon; we repeatedly saw small groups of British edging warily along the houses, then run past the Sabelspoort towards Eusebiusplein, only to come back shortly afterwards followed by the Germans. They had positioned machineguns at the cor- ners of Markt-Turfstraat and Markt-Walburgstraat, from where they could cover the entire Markt; some dead remained in the Markt. The Dutch tricolour fluttered from the houses of the Ingenhousz and Speiksma families. Towards evening the Germans broke a way through the walls of the tax office and the home for Israëlitische Ouden van Dagen [Joods Oudenliedenhuis; Jewish Elderly Folks Home] was already partially burnt down. Because various windows on the Hofstraat side of the [Provinciehuis] building had been shot out and it was not unthinkable that sparks could blow in, we tried to take down the curtains or twist them behind the central heating pipes to prevent fire in the building. In this attempt I received a volley through the windows from British soldiers in Dr. Niekerk’s garden: they probably took me for a German because of the fireman’s helmet I was wearing. Later, together with Mr Ripperda Wiertsma, I managed to get the curtains down. 2 And so we passed our last night in the Provinciehuis. Mr Kuntze rang to give us some encoura- gement and asked where the glow of fires came from that could be seen hanging over the city. Due to our blackout we knew nothing about a glow of fires, but when we went to the front of the building we were horrified to see that a large part of the Markt was in flames. Firstly, the section from Holland’s grocery shop to Kappers’ paint company was burning. It was a dreadful sea of fire. The front wall of the tall Caderius van Veen premises, at the time a storage place for household articles belonging to the Willemsen company, toppled forward with a tremendous crash, causing all the floors on the Markt side to tilt. The stock stored there - pots, pans, pails etc, - slid with a thunderous roar on to the Markt. The Germans were bringing up an artillery piece in the direction of Marktstraat, close to the front of the Commissioner’s house; it was being manhandled by eight men or so when all at once the front of that house collapsed too, right on top of the gun crew. The last we heard were cries of: “Hilfe, hilfe Sanitäter” [Help, help; Medic]. Later the rest of the Markt caught fire; it was a magnificent but terrible sight. We were still in the building, although some people were becoming extremely nervous. No one dared rest and the rifle and shell fire was heavy. It sounded so close that at first we thought there was also fighting in the courtyard.” Tuesday “Finally, Tuesday 19 September dawned. Messrs Van de Wollenberg, De Graaf and Mrs De Graaf wanted to try leaving the building.

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