Kevin Bazkur introduced our speaker Rudy Heijdens. Rudy was born in the Netherlands and he and his two sisters and parents emigrated to Canada in 1951. He received his elementary and secondary education in the Netherlands and his Bachelor’s degree in Music from Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfred Laurier University) when he was in his thirties and his Master of Education from Queen’s University when he was in his fifties. He retired from education in 1993 as a Curriculum Coordinator with the Hastings County Board of Education. Rudy continued his organ studies in Canada with Adelmo Mellici and Dr. Charles Peaker and held organist positions in various churches, retiring in 2005 after 32 years as organist at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Belleville. In 1986 Rudy formed the Hastings County Board of Education Concert Choir (now the Hastings and Prince Edward Regional Chorus) and toured Europe giving concerts during 13 concert tours with the 14th coming up in July of 2018.
Rudy was married twice and has 9 children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who unfortunately live long distances away from Belleville. Living alone these past 23 years his premier hobby (besides the choir) has been sailing solo in his 28 foot long Ruhaven sailboat all over the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River. Ruhaven, after 42 years, is now being looked after by a new owner. Rudy is a long time Rotary member and he keeps the music going here! We welcome Rudy to share his personal experiences from the Netherlands with us.
Rudy says, ”When I was asked to speak to you for Remembrance Day. I grabbed it. I was enthusiastic but once I started to prepare I found it was difficult. I was five years old when the war broke out. Now I’m 83. I come from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Holland is the current name of the western provinces of the Netherlands but it was once the name of the original country years ago and is still used informally to refer to the Netherlands. In 1940 there were 8.7 million people in the Netherlands and now there are 17.1 million, mostly as a result of immigration. Migrants have arrived from nearly every country. Netherlands was known as a trading nation and had wars with many other countries. There are many Dutch names wherever you go in the world.
I was born in a suburb of Rotterdam and moved to in Rotterdam at the age of 5. My sister was born Dec 31, 1939. My father was a seaman on the Orange Line and left on a ship just before the war and my family didn't see him for more than six years. I know the ship he was on was torpedoed. We did get a couple of letters – only 25 words. I can’t find any information about what my Dad did during the war.
Today, Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands and is Europe’s largest port. The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. The King is Willem-Alexander and he is married to Queen Máxima. Our royal colour is orange. You will always see Dutch sports teams wearing orange. The Netherlands was neutral in WWI and proclaimed neutrality again when war broke out in 1939 for WWII. Hitler promised neutrality but then invaded on May 10, 1940. The Dutch were not really prepared. There was so much bombing for four days. In Rotterdam on May 14, 1,305 bombs were dropped and 900 people killed. 85,000 people lost their homes, 2,300 stores, 62 schools and hospitals, 24 churches, and the entire city center were destroyed. Today, there is a commemorative statue in the city center remembering this bombing. Paratroopers landed and tried to capture the royal family. The Germans met stiff resistance in Den Haag and in Rotterdam. 1,350 German prisoners were captured and were shipped from Den Haag to England and then to Canada. The Dutch lost all of their planes. My grandparents lost their home and their business. After the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch government and royal family escaped and went into exile in England.
For a while most citizens just kept going with their regular life for a number of days but then were told to stay inside. At the beginning of the occupation the Germans were not too bad toward the Dutch. It was the intention of Hitler to annex the Netherlands, but the Dutch are stubborn. We were compliant with the Germans to begin with because the Dutch are law abiding but then after some time we became much more resistant. Dutch were sneaky in their ways of resistance. They wore white carnations on the Prince’s birthday and then the next year the carnations were dyed orange. The Communist party was resistant from the beginning. We were a very religious country. Children attended religious schools related to the religion of their parent and there was very little interaction among the religions. The Germans tried to enforce conformity and this started various groups to talk to one another and develop more resistance.
At the beginning of the occupation I didn’t understand what was happening but as the war went on I saw things and at the age of 7 or 8 saw and remember more things. One of my teachers was part of a resistance group. I had a classmate who was the son of a Nazi sympathizer. We were supposed to learn German at school but didn’t really learn that much. A German SS headquarters was near my school and they came to check that we were learning. Children pulled pranks on the SS vehicles. In 1943 executions became the norm. There were also assassinations. Many people were sent to concentration camps. There were many strikes. Holland and Luxembourg called strikes on behalf of Jewish people. From exile in England, Queen Wilhelmina called a railway strike and all men on the street disappeared. School was stopped in 1944 and started again later in 1945.
In the winter of 1944-45 the Germans refused to bring food and there was no food. It was the worst time in Holland’s history. Church members and some underground groups would sometimes bring food to our door. It’s what kept us alive. About 30,000 people died of famine, cold and disease. Towards the end of the war the Allies and the Germans met and then food came. Thank God for the Allies. One day at church a resistance soldier came to announce that food drops would occur. We went to my grandparent’s home to the roof to watch the planes flying over and to see the food drops. Freighters also came into the harbor from Sweden. I can can still taste the bread and butter! This is my memory of the end of the war.
Remembrance Day is observed in the Netherlands on the evening of May 4 at 8:00 p.m. Everything stops to 8:00 p.m. for two minutes of silence. All traffic lights turn red and trains stop. If you are drinking a coffee in a café, you put it down. It is commemoration before celebration. We were liberated on May 5. It is now celebrated as Liberation Day and it is a wonderful day.”
Shannon Neely thanked Rudy for sharing his childhood experience of WWII, a vivid picture of what it was like to live during the war.