This is a lifestory that I wrote about my grandfather 3 years ago. At this time I was not in the highest level of english, so there may be some mistakes in this text. There are some dutch quotes in there, but they are explained in english afterwards.
When Arris was 1 year old, the war in the Netherlands started between the Netherlands and Germany. Arris lived in Katwijk which is near the sea, which is where the Germans built their bunkers to keep the English or the Americans out of the country. He ended up having to move to different houses 2 times because the Germans would destroy their houses. There was also a rule that people would have to be inside by 8pm and if they wouldn’t, they would get killed, just got left on the flour and had to be helped afterwards in the morning.
When the war started he was only 1 year old, and the war ended when he was 6. He said the thing he best remembered is “De hongerwinter, door al die mensen die grouw naar buiten liepen, op 1944 en 1945”. This means the most memorable experience for him was the famine. All the people that would walk outside seeking for food. He also said “en dat ik neef had zien doodgeschoten geworden. Ik heb in ieder geval een soldaat die met een fiets naar je huis gingen en die moest om 8 uur naar binnen, en hij ging naar ze poort en werd gewoon doodgeschoten”. This means that his cousin was shot because he went outside his gate after 8 pm. He saw the soldiers bike towards his house and he could see them shout him. But he didn’t see him lying down because he was 8 blocks away from his house, he could see it because he lived in the corner of the street so he had a good view of the rest of the houses so he could see it happen from far away. He also said that nothing happened to his cousin because everyone was scared. And if people would go out to get him they would also get shot so they abandoned him till the morning. The main problem during the war is that everyone is scared and that you could feel it, even at Arris’s age.
After the war they ended up living at the sea again. The place was all out broken, nothing was still fine, he said “Na de oorlog was het, dat iedereen heel hard moesten werken, alles was kapot, wij moesten verhuizen”. This means that after the war everyone had to work hard, the whole country was broken, as a result, we had to move to a comparable house at the same location. “Wij woonden toen nog aan de voet van een duinen gebied met veel bunkers en daar gingen wij spelen en de bunker brak en hij is gestorven onder het zand, een vriend van mij was binnen en, kruidvaten zoeken en uitsteken, en nog in dezelfde straat en die had ze onderarm eraf gebeurd”. This means that they lived at the sea where there had a lot of bunkers where him and his friends would play, one of Arris’s friends went in the bunker next to the one Arris and his other friends were in, but that bunker broke and he died under the stone. He and his friends would also go and search for firework esc weapons that would explode if you turn them on fire, one of friends lost his underarm because of them.
Within his family and friends, a lot of things happened. His cousin got shot and killed just because he left the gate after it was 8 pm. He got shot and only got helped after they were allowed to get out of their houses again, Arris couldn’t see what happened perfectly because it was 8 blocks away from his house, but he could see it happen and Arris did see his cousin fall down on the flour. Also, his friend died after he got stuck, and as a result he crushed underneath a broken down bunker which broke while his friend was in it, him together with his friends were in another bunker. His other friends lost his arm because of the explosive sticks which they played with. During the war one of the biggest problems is trust. Even within family there is almost no trust between each other, for instance, Arris’s dad had a radio but nobody in their house knew about it because he was scared the nsb’ers were going to know and take it away, and they had a secret escape route in case something happened but Arris and his family didn’t know about it until after the war. But his dad hid it because he didn’t want anybody to let the nsb’ers know. So there was always a low trust.
Arris said: “ondanks alles wat je meemaakt in je jeugd meemaakt, dat zul je niet vergeten, maar je zal er door wel meer aan andere dingen, je wordt er ook dankbaarder door, het leven is niet zomaar. Ik wil gewoon als een aardig mens aan wie je alles kan vragen, en die er was als ik nog was is hoe ik onthouden zou willen zijn”. This means despite there being lots of terrible events in your youth, of which non will be forgotten, you will learn from those struggles, you will become thankful for everything that happens to you, life is not just something, you have to appreciate your life and everything within it. He also said that when other people remember him he wants to be seen as a kind-hearted person, who you can always go to when you are sad or when you don’t feel happy. And who you can ask anything that you’d like to ask them. That is how he wants to be remembered.
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