15.
The Dutch Connection
Parental values are always
The key elements of an inheritance.
John Wareham
William John van der Linden (Wim) was born in
the Netherlands on 15th April 1925 in Delft, a city not
only internationally known for its picturesque canals,
the weekly flower market and the hand-painted Delft Blue
porcelain, but also for 1t'~ Engineering University. He
was the eldest son and the second child In a family of 11
children. Soon after Wim's birth the family moved to The
Hague, where most of Wim's childhood and youth was spent.
Wim's parents were originally from Utrecht. His father,
Johannes Franciscus van der Linden, was a bookbinder by
trade. He was one of five children of a working-class
family. He was forced to leave school at an early age,
but his considerable native intelligence stood him in
good stead in his struggle for survival. Dutch society of
that time contained sharp socio-economic class divisions
and stringent church controls. Wim's father felt the
social injustices of his day acutely, seeing how the rich
minority of the upper class exploited the poor workers,
who often lived below the poverty line. After leaving
school, Wim's father worked 12 hours daily in primitive
conditions, six days per week, for a meagre weekly wage.
He was an idealist, who fought to improve the poor
working conditions so prevalent in Holland In those days.
He took up this challenge in his youth and persisted in
this endeavour throughout his working life. He was a
strong advocate of an organised union movement as a means
of obtaining Just treatment for all workers, irrespective
of their creed or ethnic origins.
Wim's mother, Lucia Sophia Kragten, like her husband,
also came from a working-class family and completed only
elementary school. She was the second eldest of five
children.
When her mother died of cancer when she was only 17 years
old, it became Sophia's task to care for her widowed
father, three sisters and a younger brother. These family
responsibilities at an early age gave her the inner
strength and endurance to succeed in her many subsequent
duties in life, as a wife and the mother of 11 children.
Wim's parents initially made their home in Delft, then in
The Hague, where their young family increased rapidly. In
spite of the family's low income, both parents instilled
in their children the love of books and the desire for
learning at an early age. They were a happy family with
strong loyalties towards each other. They were very
determined people and succeeded in creating a home
environment that encouraged its members to improve
themselves by study for professions in preparation for
their later lives. Daily food in the family was simple,
but sufficient and wholesome. Most clothes were
home-made. There were no luxuries and no family holidays
abroad. It was a home where everyone felt safe in the
warmth generated within. Every child felt loved, wanted,
and secure in the daily routine of their allotted home
tasks. They worked, played, prayed and enjoyed singing
together. Their home pulsated with life and activity. It
was not an oasis or an island. The family was integrated
into the rigid world of the Roman Catholic regular,
religious observances and dogma, also into the sharp
divisions of the socio-economic structure of that period
in Holland. Tradesmen and workers' families were
unfortunately at the bottom of the social ladder, so life
for them was tough.
During World War II the van der Linden family, like many
others, was exposed to the sound of sirens announcing
Imminent bombardments, the roar of German and later
Allied planes overhead, which did not always hit their
desired enemy targets, with the consequent bomb
explosions over urban, residential areas.
During the war, human suffering and privation was
intensified by food and fuel shortages. In the last year
of the war, the so-called 'hunger winter', the van der
Linden family survived by eating sugar beet and tulip
bulbs. Bare cupboards and floor boards were cut up for
firewood. Wim's family was grateful for an occasional
windfall from heaven. Once a local baker realising the
large family's plight, offered them ration cards for 10
loaves of bread, which he withheld from the occupying
German forces. On other occasions, Aunt Ans sent parcels
of dried bread, saved from her German patients, in the
hospital where she was a nurse. The family relished this
sometimes partly mouldy bread with the intensity of a
child's delight in candy. To them, at that time, it was a
luxury to savour. In March 1944 the family's youngest
child was born. During the hunger winter of 1944-1945
which followed, milk was most difficult to obtain in The
Hague, so any available milk was reserved exclusively for
Guus.
During these difficult, uncertain times, Wim studied
mechanical engineering at the Rotterdam Polytechnic. The
money for this tertiary education was lent to him by Aunt
Ans. Wim often wore threadbare, patched clothes to
lectures, unable to afford more suitable attire. He often
studied in an icy cold room wearing an overcoat and a
scarf to keep reasonably warm.
The two-storeyed house which the family rented was part
of a block of terrace houses. It was small and totally
inadequate for a family of 13. The children slept
together, often two to a bed, to conserve space. Towards
the end of the war the whole family spent their days
together in the living room. Wim and his father could not
venture outside that relatively safe haven, fearing
arrest by the Germans. who deported all able-bodied men
to work in ammunition factories in Germany. In many cases
the Gestapo arrested Dutchmen in their own homes breaking
up families.
As food supplies continued to diminish, the two elder
sisters Ria and Lucy left home to work on farms, where
real food shortages were almost unknown. They both worked
very hard, receiving meagre food allowances, but were
unable to purchase any food for their undernourished
family in the city. Occasionally, on their days off, they
smuggled some dry beans and peas in their stockings and
underclothes. Even these meagre pickings meant an
unexpected family feast at that difficult time. As
starvation became widespread in urban areas In Holland,
Wim decided to leave home. Bep had already been evacuated
to Friesland to work there, while some of the younger
children had been placed with people in the country. Now
the family was scattered all over Holland.
Wim set off on his bicycle without tyres at 6.00 a.m. on
a cold, icy morning in February, bound for the eastern
part of Holland. The previous year he had spent a few
weeks on a farm there during a working holiday. As the
distance was In excess of 180 km. it took him a few days
and he had some hair-raising experiences, once escaping a
German road block by a mere few metres. He found a Dutch
farmer brave enough to conceal him from the ever-vigilant
German authorities, who regarded this action as a serious
offense. The farmer, a father of eight children, was
amazed at Wim's insatiable appetite, the result of
serious malnutrition. While the farmer worked hard on a
breakfast consisting of half a large pancake with a
square of speck, Wim eagerly consumed two large pancakes
with large pieces of speck and still had room for more.
The Germans had by this time destroyed many Dutch
Industries, bringing the production of essential consumer
goods to a standstill. Furthermore, in their endeavour to
completely break the Dutch spirit, the German forces blew
up several dykes, flooding the polders, and this
decreased the available food supplies even further. At
this time, the Allied armies were continuing their steady
advance into Western Europe. The southern part of Holland
had been liberated in September 1944, while the thrust
into the northern part of Holland had been halted by the
unsuccessful battle of Arnhem, where the Allied troops
suffered a severe setback. Thus, in the spring of 1945
the eastern part of Holland was being liberated and the
concentration of German troops became very noticeable,
especially in the area where Wim was. Wim could not
escape the German dragnet, and on the 15th of March 1945
he was arrested. As Wim understood German he was told by
his captors to inform the farmer's wife of the standard
punishment for concealing him on their property, namely,
that the farmer's homestead would be razed to the ground
by fire. Wim was transferred to the local prison, where
he spent the night. The following morning he was
interviewed and sentenced to a transit concentration camp
where hundreds of captured men were held and had to work
long hours with minimal food rations on German defense
works. Within the next fortnight he shifted camp twice.
The last camp consisted of rows of army-type barracks.
The area was fenced off with barbed wire, while lookout
towers at various strategic points ensured that any
escape attempts by the inmates would have a minimum
chance of succeeding. During the last few days the
distant cannon fire had become louder and It was clear
that the Allied forces were advancing rapidly. The German
guards became very agitated and the atmosphere in the
camp became extremely tense. A further shift, this time
into Germany, was being planned. On the 30th of March
1945 at 6.30 a.m., all inmates were assembled in the
central courtyard in three rows in front of each barrack.
The roll call took place and numbers were checked by the
German guards. Wim, standing In the front row, suddenly
made up his mind to try and avoid deportation to Germany.
He repeatedly changed places with men behind him until he
was standing In the last line close to the barrack. As
the first groups of men were being marched away, he ran
quickly Into the empty barrack, where he hid in an empty
cupboard. As the last sound of marching boots died away
he decided to explore the situation and through the
partly open door he watched one of the guards stationed
at the nearest camp exit gate, walk over to the far gate
to have a chat with his colleague. In a split-second
decision, Wim ran from the barrack through the gate and
across the road Into a stand of pine trees. Fortunately
he was unnoticed, because he could have been shot
instantly.
After regaining his breath Wim crawled away some distance
before starting to walk through the woods towards the
nearing gun fire. Later that day he met soldiers from the
advancing Canadian liberating army, who, following a
short interrogation were satisfied that he was not a spy
and allowed him to proceed as a free man in that
newly-liberated part of Holland. On approaching the
homestead of the farm down its long driveway, Wim saw the
farmer come out of the large stable door. The farmer
thought that he was seeing a ghost and dropped both the
buckets of water which he was carrying. It was a joyous
reunion, especially as the German soldiers had not
carried out their threat of burning the homestead.
Another eight weeks passed before Wim traveled back to
his home in The Hague to be reunited with his family. By
that time the rest of the family had already returned
home. Against all the odds, the entire van der Linden
family had survived the deprivations and dangers of the
war years.
Life in post-war Holland was difficult, with industries
and agriculture ruined and the economy in tatters. Large
areas of the polders were flooded and dykes destroyed.
These dykes needed urgent reconstruction before the
flooded polders could be reclaimed for farming. Food was
still carefully rationed for the first few months after
the liberation, which was completed in May 1945. On the
psychological level, there were the personal tragedies in
many households of lost loved ones, also the various
traumatic war experiences to absorb and to work through.
Many were permanently affected by these experiences and
emotional disturbances continued to surface in later
years as a consequence of the trauma suffered during the
war years. Poverty in Holland and in much of the rest of
Europe was widespread. Many buildings had been ruined or
destroyed, so accommodation was difficult to procure.
Often several large families shared a house in
substandard conditions and young married couples had to
remain with their parents and other relatives.
Just as Holland was readjusting to its freedom, its
colony, the Dutch East Indies, was liberated from the
Japanese. The Indonesians now wanted self-determination
and complete independence from The Netherlands. As this
independence movement gathered momentum, the Dutch
Government was anxious to protect the extensive Dutch
investments in their colony. Finally, it was decided to
dispatch Dutch troops to Indonesia to safeguard the
Interests of Dutch citizens and the substantial financial
involvement of large Dutch companies operating there.
Although the Dutch colonists were increasingly unwelcome,
The Netherlands Government regarded military force as the
means of reasserting colonial control in Indonesia. Dutch
investments and political authority were to be retained
at all costs.
In Holland there was much opposition to this idea of
resorting to military force in the colony. People were
tired of war and the violence associated with it. They
remembered the suffering inflicted upon them by the
occupying Nazi Germans. Wim, like many other Dutchmen,
was at heart a pacifist, and totally opposed to Dutch
military involvement In Indonesia. However, he was
drafted into the army In October 1946. at the age of 21,
just after he had qualified as a mechanical engineer at
the Rotterdam Polytechnic. He was unable to avoid this
compulsory military service, so by April 1947 he was
bound for Indonesia with the second division of young
Dutch recruits. Having completed his studies in very
adverse circumstances, he was now denied the chance to
remain in his country to recuperate from the war trauma
of his adolescence and to commence work as an engineer.
The long sea voyage to Indonesia was arduous in the
spartan conditions aboard. On arrival, Wim's platoon was
stationed in Western Java in the Bogor area. Here, as a
Dutch soldier he was expected to protect his country's
interests by force. He was given the rank of corporal.
Wim saw the 'police action' in Indonesia as morally wrong
and refused to shoot people. He made his strong views
known to his commanding officers and discussed them with
a Catholic army chaplain attached to his platoon. The
priest simply advised Wim to disregard his own conflicts
of conscience In this matter, because he was required to
obey the Dutch military authorities. However, Wim could
not reconcile killing Indonesians with his Christian
principles. He refused to be in a position of some
authority and asked to be relieved of his corporal's
responsibilities. Accordingly, the commanding officer
demoted him to serve as an ordinary soldier.
The three years In the Dutch army in Indonesia were the
most unhappy part of Wim's life. The memories connected
with experiences of that period were deeply repressed and
disturbed him many years later when he was an older man.
He witnessed much human misery, saw friends killed and
innocent Indonesians slaughtered. Mutilated bodies were a
common sight. He suffered mental anguish when some of his
colleagues broke down under continual strain; some
reacted by indiscriminate killing to avenge their
friends' deaths. One particular episode remained vividly
etched in Wim's mind. He recalled how he was powerless,
too shocked, to prevent a massacre of Innocent
Indonesians returning from a weekly market, by a young
Dutch soldier, who went berserk. That soldier, deprived
of all reason, gunned down entire families,
Indiscriminately killing children, women and men walking
homewards. Wim stood beside him petrified in utter
disbelief and in deep shock, unable to respond to this
horrific slaughter.
The living conditions of the Dutch soldiers in Indonesia
were extremely primitive in many instances. In Surabaya
the soldiers were accommodated in storage sheds on the
wharf. There were no showers or sanitation, and in the
tropical climate malaria and amoebic dysentery were very
prevalent among the Dutch troops. Their natural
resistance to tropical diseases was lowered by exhaustion
and inadequate hygiene. They were required to undertake
guard duties for up to 24 hours at a stretch, with a
break of eight hours in between. They were also subjected
to prolonged exercises In full military uniform during
Intense heat. Wim was severely affected by both malaria
and amoebic dysentery. In spite of physical and mental
exhaustion, he was required to do guard duties. He
presented himself for treatment, but received none until
finally he was unable to leave his camp stretcher. Only
at that point was he admitted into the sick bay by a male
nurse, who realised how ill he was. There Wim was
examined by a newly-arrived, conscientious young Dutch
doctor, who sent him to the military hospital at Surabaya
immediately. Running a very high temperature, Wim
remained critically ill, while a consortium of doctors at
his bedside deliberated on the possible course of
treatment for him. They discovered that amoebic dysentery
had destroyed his intestinal lining and that his blood
count was extremely low. His body was ravaged by the
combined effects of malaria and persistent dysentery. He
was informed that he was near death.
In Holland, Wim's brother Ab, a teacher, heard his
brother's name mentioned in a radio announcement. Wim was
included on the critically ill list of Dutch military
personnel in Indonesia. The van der Linden family at
home, friends and Ab's pupils began to pray for Wim's
recovery. I believe that this strong faith combined with
effective treatment in the Surabaya hospital brought
astonishing results. Wim was successfully cured of
malaria. The emetine injections prescribed for amoebic
dysentery gradually brought the disease under control.
After several weeks of intensive medication, his health
continued to improve until he regained sufficient
strength to be discharged from hospital as a convalescing
outpatient. When his illness subsided, he was sent to
Bandung. There, as he recovered his health, he was given
light duties. After a few months Wim was admitted into
the Dutch military hospital in Western Java for a second
course of emetine injections. In April 1950, still a
convalescent, he returned to The Netherlands with other
troops from Jakarta in Indonesia. During Wim's time in
the army, Indonesia gained independence, on the 27th of
December 1949.
On Wim's arrival in Holland he was medically examined and
pronounced fit and well enough to be discharged from the
Dutch army. The very next day he became severely
jaundiced. This necessitated his admission into the
military hospital in The Hague, where he remained for
three months' treatment, followed by another three months
in Arnhem. The amoebae organisms had settled In Wim's
liver, affecting its normal functions. As his liver was
badly damaged, Wim's recovery was very slow. Following
his final discharge from hospital towards the end of
1950, he remained on a very strict diet, high in protein
content and low in fat. Regular medical check-ups
continued for some time.
Now at 25 years of age, Wim had had no opportunity to
work professionally as an engineer. Returned servicemen
in Holland had no special privileges of rehabilitation as
they did in post-war New Zealand. In fact, Dutch returned
servicemen were at a disadvantage, while their
compatriots who had missed army recruitment abroad, were
well established in their professions in Holland, earning
good salaries. Furthermore. after Indonesia's declaration
of independence In 1949, many Dutch Indonesians were
resettled in Holland and had to be absorbed into the
workforce. Employment was hard to obtain for someone with
no practical experience and the wages offered were very
low. Initially, Wim worked as a design draftsman in The
Hague for seven months while continuing to live with his
parents. His small salary precluded an independent life
away from home.
Wim felt very restless and enjoyed cycling for hours
alone in solitude. He was attracted by advertisements for
immigration to Canada, South Africa, Australia and New
Zealand. Disillusioned with life in Holland, he decided
to enquire about the possibilities of emigrating from The
Netherlands to a far off land where he could start a new
life.
At that time New Zealand encouraged young, healthy,
single, unskilled Immigrants from The Netherlands. Wim
chose New Zealand, but the Dutch authorities tried to
discourage him from leaving because his engineering
skills were needed In his homeland, which was gradually
recovering from war devastation. Likewise, his parents
and his Dutch girlfriend, Thërêse, tried to persuade
him to remain in his native land. However, Wim's mind was
made up. His health was now good and he possessed enough
money to pay for his own sea passage. Without hesitation
he applied for immigration to New Zealand, a fascinating
country, the farthest away from troubled postwar Europe.
In August 1951, on his own insistence, Wim left his
family behind without a special farewell. He traveled by
train to Amsterdam from The Hague alone, after a surprise
visit from his father at the railway station. Wim's
parents keenly felt his departure to far-off New Zealand,
which seemed so inaccessible then. They wondered if they
would ever see their eldest son again.
The Dutch ship De Groote Beer, which means The Great
Bear. left Amsterdam for New Zealand with some two
thousand Dutch immigrants on board, all looking forward
to a new life in that distant land, which had been first
sighted by their compatriot Abel Janszoon Tasman on 13th
December 1642.
***
|
