1 Oorlogsdagboeken van Erfgoed van de Oorlog, www.geheugenvannederland.nl Dagboek Keimpe Sikkema, deel 3. L’HISTOIRE du FIN d’une GUERRE 1 >>1 Cette histoire commence dix octobre mille neuf cent quarantequatre et l'emplois de la langue française est nécessaire pour couvrir l'etiquette de ce cahier. L'usage d'une langue étrange est nécessaire, parce qu'il a y a des affaires à écrire, qui n'ont pas la sympathie de tout le monde pendant l'occupation allemande de la Hollande. Vous me voulez permettre de' employer ensuite la langue anglaise. After this little introduction I should like to continue my diary, with a discription of what I have heard and seen in the last few days. You know that the southern part of our country is occupied by the Allies. The intention of general Montgomery and general Dempsey to break trough the German defenselines yn in Holland on the Maas, the Waal and the Lower Rhine by an attack out of the air (land airborntroups) and from the south, succeeded so far as Maas and Waal are concerned, but stranded before the Lower- >>2 Rhine near Arnhem. Sixthousand of the eightthousand there landed airborntroups were shot, wounded or taken captive, 2000 escaped after 9 days of heavy fighting in Arnhem and Oosterbeek to the southbank of the Rhine. This failure signified for us in the still by the Germans occupied part of the country, that we had to pass trough a hell. The germans shot men, who did'nt want to work on their defenselines; destroyed their houses and furniture, when they could'nt get this away; they burned down villages, when sombody defended himself by weapons, dragged the men to Germany and the women and children to concentrationcamps; they destroyed all the harbour-installations of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the docks, shipbuildings, elevators a.s.o.; they drowned fertile fields by salt water, blew up dikes, bridges, fabrics; stole food and machines (just today I saw a flat motor-truck loaded with sides of bacon - my grandfather thought it were matrasses!- and a German soldier on the top); >>3 in fine, they did all what Landwarregulations forbid to do. When the attack on the Netherlands began, it was Sunday September 17th, the Dutch government in London proclaimed a railway-strike and this proclamation was carried out by all railway-men. It meant for the Germans an immens hindrance for forming a frontline in Holland, but it meant too, that it was impossible to bring coals and foodstuffs to the several parts of the country. (by the way: the Dutch mines are in Allied hands!) Some electric powerstations, gas- and waterworks had to stop their machines and great parts of the country are without light, gas and water (we in L'warden have still electric and water, gas only from 11 o'clock till 12½ and 5½ till 6½ p.m.) The foodsituation in the big towns as Amsterdam, Haye and Rotterdam is seriously and when the libaration stays long away, the famine will make its victims! 1 Over de transcriptie: >> : volgende pagina {tekst} : boven de regel toegevoegd [tekst] : tekst tussen rechte haken is door transcribent toegevoegd, dus niet aanwezig in het origineel [woord] : woord waarschijnlijk [woord?] : woord niet zeker cursieve tekst : tekst origineel in het dagboek, maar door Keimpe Sikkema op een (veel) later tijdstip erbij geschreven. 2 Before to write down the particulars of this -the Frisian- area, I want to give you an impression of the situation of this moment by >>4 indicating the course of the battlefront in our country. We begin in the south-east. South Limburg is liberated. The battle continues around and east of Aix-la-Chapelle, where the Americans penetrated the Siegfriedline; Sittard is liberated and from this town the front takes a turn to the west; along the river Maas towards Maeseyck in Belgium territory, nearly straighton towards Weert, along Meijel northwards to the Maas near Boxmeer, along the river to Mook, over Groesbeek and Beek to the river Waal near Erlekom east of Nijmegen. Then we get the most important part of the battlefront in Holland: the Betuwe. It is expected, that general Dempsey will undertake a new attack to try to cross the Rhine and to open the way to the Ruhr-district and Berlin. The course of the battlefront is not right clear. The germans have still a small piece of grond along the west-bank of the Lower-Rhine between Pannerden and Arnhem. The Allies have occupied, as far as I know: Haalderen near Doornenburg, Angeren and >>5 Huissen. South of Arnhem the little village of Elden is in their hands and this means, the new Rhinebridge of Arnhem is only three kilometers after the front. South of Oosterbeek the Allies reached the Rhine (here the 2000 man airborntroups came across the river!) and westward they have a saillant reaching to Opheusden, south of Wageningen. I believe, the front is then going to the south, it crosses the River Waal, follows the southbank along Wamel and Dreumel, which two villages are occupied, crosses the Maas, goes south at 6 or 7 kilometer east of 's Hertogenbosch, east of Schijndel and Boxtel, north of Best, south of Tilburg (which town is approached within two kilometers), south of Breda, south of Esschen towards the Schelde south of the Beveland-isthmus, which is now under Allied fire. The eastern part of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is liberated by the Canadian troups, which are now fighting south of the western part. They formed a bridgehead over the Leopold-canal in Belgium and landed yesterday after the german lines on the Schelde-bank west of Terneuzen. The isle >>6 of Walcheren is innundated by the Allies, who bombed and destroyed the sea-dikes of this isle near Westkappel and east and west of Flushing. This all means to open the entrance to the Antwerp-harbour, which is undamaged in allied hands. This harbour is a necessarity for the supply of men and material on the western front. -- It is, I told you already, October 10th (1944) It is just 12 days ago, when the germans here in Friesland announced their intention to call up all the male inhabitants of Leeuwarden born between 1-1- 1909 and 1-1-1927 for work in one of the three northern provinces. Today week the first part departed: about 1800 young men were brought in german trains to Drente -the Hondsrug- were they had to throw up a defenseline. The second train with the man between 27-35 years departed in the evening and they had given it the name: Bonte Dinsdagavondtrein. Wednesday 4 there came a new summons: the men, between 35 and 45 years, >>7 had to go too and early in the morning of the following day more than 1000 men went eastwards! Of course: thousands went not and dived, but the total is high in comparation with other towns, where only few men came up. For the members of post, telephone and telegraph, railways (all dived....), 3 electric-, gas- and waterworks only was made an exception, but several other persons (doctors, food supply a.s.o.) got an exemption. I had'nt to go, because I'm not an inhabitant of this town... Otherwile.... All the men were examined on their place of destination and many among them were rejected. So was my nephew Douwe, an asthma-patient, who was'nt gone, but the German green police found him in his bed, when they encircled their house-block and searched all the houses. They did so with blocks in the Franeker-, the Steyn-, the first koe- and the Camminghastreet to discouraged the other part of the population and found twenty young men, who were thrown in the prison. They were send (Thursday) to Tinaarlo, where >>8 they were boarded with farmers, members of the nazi-party (who will have earned good by this, I think!). There were several men rejected and they all had.... to walk home again! Many man came back, walking from Drente to Leeuwarden! My nephew told, the nazi-doctor came after them by bicycle, when they were rejected. The men, who smoked, laughed or walked too quickly were called back; they could worke as good as march, smoke and ...laugh! Douwe walked to Peize and caught there the tramway (manned by Dutch nazi's, the so called Jan Hagel- John Hail) to Drachten. From Drachten to Quartrebras they went by horse-waggons (for 10 guilders a person!) and from Quartrebras to Zwartewegsend again with a horse-car (for 2 guilders!). There are men, who had to pay 140 guilders to drive with a motorcar from Groningen to L'w. On the Groningerstraatweg, the eastern entrance of the town, there were as many men as at the finish of the >>9 Elfstedentocht; they all hoped to see come back their husband, father of brother. Some men had been there in Drente already for many days, but they had'nt done anything...! It is said, that the other men, the healthy ones!, have also to come back walking the whole route. Some of them are working near Exloo and Coevorden in the southeastern part of the province! ---- The increasing difficulties gave the Germans reason to publice the following "warning": Tot heden had men: Thans worden wij bedreigd met: Orde Rust Honger Voedsel voor iedereen Kolengebrek Geordend verkeer Werkloosheid Veiligheid Plundering Kultuurbevordering Rechteloosheid Godsdienstvrijheid Ziekte Eerbied voor de Arbeid Gezinsontbinding Erkenning van de rechten van de Arbeider in één woord in één woord Een goed geordende samenleving De chaos. >>10 Ieder blijve rustig aan de arbeid.