Soon as the fighting was over, the real plunder began, first all the gold from the banks, then food, iron ores, coal, oil, and other bulk from storage in Rotterdam and other ports. The Germans wanted everything! With the gold reserves gone, printed money became practically worthless and everybody went back to the “barter trade”. You had to have something real that other people needed in order to get the things you wanted.
During the first summer of the war we went all out and bought drapery materials and other textiles from wholesalers and retailers alike who were still wil1ing to accept our money. This helped us survive during five long war years also the fact that we were living in Schiedam which produced the bulk of all the gin made in Holland and put us in a position to stock up on the stuff, which came in real handy.
The only people who got rich out of this kind of trade were
the farmers who traded food stuffs such as milk, eggs, flour and potatoes for gold and silver jewelry, antiques, paintings and other real valuables like fine pieces of furniture etc. Smart farmers!!
In the summer of 1945, he volunteered for service in the Expeditionary Forces and was quickly promoted to Company Sergeant-Majors.
Devastation in Rotterdam after the bombing of May 14, 1940.
Devastation in Rotterdam after the bombing of May 14, 1940.
Film of the rubble after the bombing of Rotterdam.
Collection: Image bank WW2
Aerial photo of the Rotterdam city center (June 1, 1946).
Of course food shortages and a lack of almost all other commodities was not the only problem we had to deal with during these years. The first months of the war were so successful for the Germans, they must have figured the war would be over and done with in no more than one year so they did not take any drastic measures for a while.
But when the “battle of Britain” turned out to be a failure. The Nazi’s got tougher and there were rumors that all demobilized ex-soldiers were going to be rounded up and send to German camps. Via the resistance movement we were helped to get to safe addresses all over the country. I went to a farm in Drenthe, the Eastern and poorest province. Together with two or three other boys we were sleeping in the forest and during the day-time helping out on the farm, which was still quite primitive and almost everything was still done “by hand”. Besides us “city stickers” were more conspicuous out there than we would have been in Rotterdam so before the winter we took off and went home. By that time we were supplied with falsified “Ausweisen” , a sort of passport to show that you were entitled to stay in Holland.
During these dark years the three boys (George was in Venray and safe in a cloister) were in our teens and early twenties and out for some fun. We started with buying a little sailboat and got a lot of good times out of that on the neighboring canals and lakes especially the Kralingse plas was a big favorite with us.
The mainsail is hoisted by Hans.
The only trouble was we had to go straight through the whole city of Rotterdam to get there by either bike or street car and as long as Thé did not have his papers (Ausweis) it was not safe as we found out one day.We were stopped by the “black-shirts” Dutch traitors who had joined the Nazi party and were a lot worse and more danger to us than the Germans. Luckily Thé did have his ausweis, he had received it that same morning but forgot to tell us.!
In the evening we had the whole family together and played a lot of bridge and other games. And now and then we had all-night parties which started at nine in the evening and lasted till six in the morning. The hours of the so-called curfew, which were strictly enforced, be sides in winter it was pitch dark at night with all the street lights out and completely darkened houses and
offices. All this to confuse Allied bombers, who dropped their explosives anyway . When sneaking through these dark street at that time you had a better chance to land in a rain of Flak fire, dropping back to earth, than by allied bombs. And besides that you always ran the chance of running into a German night patrol.
So, no wonder, we preferred to be at our destination by nine. l
One particular time I was invited to what sounded like an exciting party and I was late, it was
totally pitch dark, so I decided to take my shoes off so that nobody could hear me coming, and I went real fast through the few blocks to where the party was to be held. On one corner I bumped into somebody, I had not heard coming and in the confusion dropped the shoes I was carrying.
I did not say anything and the other person did neither, so I picked up my shoes and went on my way. Arriving at my destination, I discovered that I had two different shoes, one my own and the other an old worn-out shoe that was even a bit too small. However I did not miss any fun, just danced and partied the night away in my socks. While discussing this tragedy, someone in the crowd suggested I go back tomorrow night at the same time to the same spot, because the other guy would have no use for two different shoes either. Sounded sensible enough so next night, same darkness, same spot, he was there. Nobody said a word, we exchanged shoes and ran home only to discover that I now was the proud owner of two old worn-out shoes that were too small!
P.S. An all too true and very sad story……………
However things started to look up again when I met somebody the next day who was desperate for shag tobacco and had some shoes to spare. I made one honey of a deal.!
In February 1941 Mies Lammerts passed away after a long and extremely painful sickness……….
For at least ten years she had suffered from rheumatism, mostly in her hands and wrists . This was followed by cancer, first in the breast and later spreading. The medical profession could not do much for these patients in those days. Just painkillers in ever increasing strength, she ended up with morphine based pills, which finally caused her to die quietly in her sleep.
Even though we all realized she was close to death, it still came too suddenly and of course father was devastated. This had been such a perfect marriage based on respect and a most caring type of love. Even in her last years, when the pains were often unbearable, she was never complaining but always worried when there was something wrong with any of us, even a little cold or the flu!.
We lost a wonderful mother, a lady of great character strength, very wise, very loving, deeply religious, frugal but never cheap, a superior cook and housekeeper, classy and always looking well-dressed…. in one word the ideal example for any kid to grow up with.!
In those days Thé and I were very active buying anything that could be traded for food, cigarettes or what have you, we specialized in baby carriages, play pens and cribs, most people beyond child hearing years were willing to get rid of it and others were most anxious to get their hands on those articles.. Barter trade was king and we were lucky to be healthy and young and able to get involved in this and thus keep the family supplied with some of the necessities and pleasures of life. .
Shortly after mother’s death, tragedy struck again, in August ’41 Frans’ wife Mies died most unexpectedly and very young, 2 days before her 29th birthday. Her mother who was with her at the time had a feeling something serious was wrong with her pregnant daughter but the attending family Doctor did not see it that way. Rietje was only two years old and Loek still a baby.
Luckily for Frans and the kids, Marie was able to step right in and look after the kids and the household.
But life and the war went on and even though these were dark days (and nights.!) We still tried to make the best of it and keeping up our hope of a victorious end to the war, listening to English radio (which was illegal and clandestine) Played a lot of bridge and organized all-night parties for “the young and restless”!
In ’43 Frans was lucky enough to find Rie van de Kamp, they got married by the end of that year.
During the winter of ’42 we held a most succesfull all-night party (ball masque) Herman being the tailor in the family made up a lot of the cloths (we three were dressed as naval-officers in white flashy uniforms). Herman met his future bride Jeannette Beyning there, they waited till shortly after the war to tie the knot and live happily ever after.
Early in 43 we got seriously involved in the resistance movement. The store on the Broersvest was sitting empty for lack of merchandise, so we used the basement as a training area for new recruits We had 12 sten guns, lots of ammo and about 40 hand grenades. We used nick-names to keep our identities secret (overlooking the fact that these guys but knew we were “Schrijvers” !)
One day a chap came to the store, gave me the right password and told me he was sent to pick up a dozen hand grenades. So I went downstairs where the stuff was bidden in an innocent looking sewing box, with layers of fabric hiding the grenades. l my haste I pulled up the fabric too fast and the firing pin of one of the grenades caught in the fabric and almost out of its safety position, I grabbed the handle just in the nick of time, shook like a leaf, realizing I could have blown the whole city block to “Kingdom Come”. Yeah, those were the days alright. l
My mom would have said: “”you guys have got real good guardian angels.
All five of us got through this turmoil with flying colours. The last winter was the worst, severely cold and no fuel or food for most people, luckily we had lots of beans, potatoes and enough lumber to keep the old pot stove going in the living room for a few hours per day. And with some bike dynamos and the stand of an old sewing machine we even made some electric light.
One morning my dad came back from church quite excited and told us boys to get up and out of
the house as soon as possible, he had seen German army patrols going from house-to-house rounding up all men under 50 years of age. So Herman, Thé and me took off in a hurry for the store and in to the basement. By that time we had the doors and windows “boarded up” so the building looked vacant. We could hear the Germans coming down the Broersvest from the Koemarkt to our place. So we opened the hole in the wall on that side and had a cabinet ready to pull in front once we were inside that neighbor’s place.
We could see through some tiny windows the enormous mass of people already rounded up and
waiting to be moved to either the railroad station or the harbor for shipment East..
When the soldiers finally came to the door they went upstairs and asked the old lady living there who was living in the store. She told them :Nobody at all ever lived there or is there now.! And with that they left and went to the following house !
For a while after that we kept hiding there and were supplied with food and drinks by the girls, it was a bit boring but better than in a workcamp. Frans was also warned by father but did not think it was necessary to bide He was promptly picked up and on his way.
However leave it to Frans, he could talk his way out of any situation and this was no exception. In Deventer, the group stayed overnight in a school building, and when everybody was sleeping Frans went to see the guy on guard duty and told him he had a wrist watch waiting for him at a friend’s address in that city. If he took him there (and let him go afterwards) the watch was his.! The guy fell for it. Luckily for him, his friend DID have a wrist watch and was willing to part with it.
Frans told us later that he was not sure at all if the man was willing to do this for him and if he had a watch to spare.! Anyway he walked back home and we were all very happy.
Our Marie had a boyfriend who was not that lucky, he was taken to a workcamp somewhere in Germany, did not get half enough to eat there and when he was finally liberated by the Allied forces and given good food to eat, he overdid it and died !
After a couple of weeks we were back in our regular routine, going out at night and trying hard to have fun. On New Years’ day, The and me went to a dance at Sitton in the afternoon and that is where we met….. Annie Swartjes and we danced together for the first time. !
Then in early spring came the big day of the liberation and everybody was dancing and jumping in the streets, it was at one of these occasions that Ann and me met again, I was then in “uniform” of the resistance troops, and stationed in the old school building on the Lange Nieuwstraat, where a lot of Dutch nazi’s were held prisoner. From that day on we met a lot of times and did a lot of partying and even though there was not much to eat or drink we still had a good time and felt happy that this drama was over and we belonged to the survivors.
In our enthusiasm to finish off the war and help liberate the Dutch East Indies from the Japanese, many of us volunteered for duty in the “Expeditionary Forces” and around June or July we were shipped out to England for training.
Bootcamp in the neighborhood of Glasgow was pretty tough but all in all we had a whale of a time in England, saw a good part of the country from Brighton on the South coast to Wales, the Midlands and to Inverness and Loch Ness in Scotland. (We did not see the monster!)
We wrote stacks of love letters to each other and sent duty-free cigarettes which were in great demand in Holland and helped set up our first savings account.
Compilation of three military service photos of Hans in England and Scotland.
“VENUS” and lucky me on top of the world.
Also known as the Eifel tower, 1948.
On one of the training exercises in Wales, learning how to operate an armed personnel carrier, the driver lost control on a steep hill, I was lifted out of my seat in the rear of the vehicle and came down hurting my back severely. At first it looked innocent enough but this has caused me serious back pains ever since.
A short time later my friends Jaap v.d. Bos and Harry v.d. Sluis and me were promoted, Jaap became regimental- and Harry and me Company Sergeant-Majors.
In ’46 Marie married Johan van Steenderen, a widower from Gorkum with 4 children. With his brother he operated a wholesale food business, he was nine years older than Marie and not in very good health. The couple did get 5 more children. At the end of that year I returned with my company back to Holland and was stationed in Venlo, while there I met Michael Schryver, who got me started on genealogy, his father and grandfather died quite young and he wondered if this was an hereditary problem, so he started to research his family tree and found us in the process.!
In that same year Herman married Jeanne Beining, the two families had known each other for years, Jeanne used to work at the store. Herman and Jeanne met at one of those wartime all-night parties. In that same year I got my discharge from the army as the doctors in the military hospital in Nijmegen decided that my back had become too serious a problem.
One year later George married Jo Heynsbroek:, the youngest of and old Schiedam family who very successfully ran a shoe store on the Hoogstraat, here again the two families had known each other for a long time. The young couple lived for 5 years with the “Bruineman Ladies” (two old maids) in a house on the St Luduinastraat, where in ’49 Trees was born, followed in ’51 by Ineke, George worked at the time as a tailor, just as Herman.
In the mean-time Annie and me were “verloofd”, or what is generally known as seriously engaged to get married, but we did not want “live-in” quarters we wanted a place of our own and those were extremely hard to come by in those years. Finally we did find this romantic big house on the Groote Markt, overlooking the picturesque City Hall and the old St Jan Church. It was occupied and owned by a real eccentric lady Mrs. Stooks, who ran a tailoring shop from her 4 story house. We managed to rent the best part of it, the entire beautiful 2nd floor on condition that we were not going to apply for a permit, which suited us fine of course. For the last couple of years I had been buying all kinds of neat stuff at the local auction houses a.o. fine antique furniture which we now could use in our new little “palace” my main regret is that we never took any pictures of the place. A real big brass chandelier hung over the solid oak dining room table, complete with two buffets, one with china cabinet. Add to that a rococo style bedroom suite that must have come from some palace, and you get an idea of our fine living quarters.
Too bad, after all the trouble we had gone through, we only stayed there for one year after we were married in February 1950 in the Singelkerk. !
Hans and Ans found their first romantic home on the Grote Markt in Schiedam.
Hans and Anny's' view of the beautiful town hall of Schiedam.
But early in 1951 we had made up our minds, we were going to Canada and start a new life in the “New World” We sold all our beautiful furniture, nick-knacks and other belongings and with that money we paid for our trip to Edmonton. The family on both sides were none too happy about our decision, especially father Swartjes called me an adventurer and suggested that if l had to move, go to Maastricht or Groningen which was still within reach and easier to travel to.
But you know how it goes in life……”eigenwijze mensen” allways know it all and know it better!
Father Schryver did not say very much about it, he did not like it at all but felt that if it would make us happier than go ahead…… He was still feeling quite good, did his work in the business administration and enjoyed life whith his favorite cigar, good food and the loving care of his two daughters Jo and Dien.
A year earlier Frans had made a business trip to the States where he learned a lot about retail selling methods and the advantages of selling on credit. He came back with enthusiastic stories about this great country and the many possibilities there which made me even more determined to emigrate and start my own business there eventually.!
So on Easter Sunday 1951 I said farewell to everyone and boarded a KLM plane to Montreal, via Scotland (Glasgow) and Gander New Foundland. As a concession to Mr. Swartjes I went all alone and go find a job and accommodations before Ann could join me later, after all I did not know anyone there and had no idea what kind of work I would be able to get in Edmonton and on top of that we were allowed to take only 100 Dollars Canadian (due to a lack of hard currency in Holland in those early years after the war.)
However before leaving the old country, we should delve a bit deeper into the Ann’s fine and great family “the Swartjes” and see who they were, where they came from and how fortunate I was to find such a wonderful “partner-for-life”………
Finally, the image with the birthplace of Hans's father, Herman Schrijver.
H.J.M. (Herman) Schrijver.
Was born in the Torenstraat (later the Sint Laurensstraat) behind the Grote Kerk)
On the corner of the Grotekerkplein, the building of the Rumford soup cookery.
Later this was taken over by the municipal poor relief.