MY STORY 3

1940, a misty Sunday Morning. With a stern command dad gathered his sons around himself. Breathlessly, we heard the announcement: Germany had invaded Holland. But Germans were our friends, were they not? It would take several months before the horrible truth became known.

With the stern face of a worried parent, dad announced that Germans had parachuted into Kenau Park.. But we had to cross Kenau Park on our way to church! His instructions were that, when he gave the signal we had to dive into the bush and be quiet. Well, you know how boys are. This was adventure of the real kind and as far as we brothers were concerned, we could not wait to get there!

Well, to our disappointment we never saw a single German that day. But that would soon change. We eventually saw their tanks, and assortment of army vehicles with soldiers sitting on top, waving at the public. A group of friends were kicking a soccer ball. They stopped and threw the ball towards the soldiers. Soon we were engaged in a friendly match on the hard surface of the street. When one of us fell the German soldiers picked us up and dusted us off. If you had a bruise they showed us their way of dealing with that: "Rausen". Rubbing your knuckles over the bruise and it stopped hurting in minutes, increased blood flow, I guess.

Coming home we had to account for our time away from parental control: " Where were you?? "We played soccer with our new friends, the Germans,- really, they are very nice". And I am sure that the average conscripted soldier, barely 20, bore us no ill will. Hatred did not grow until we witnessed three German officers slapping and yelling at a little Jewish woman clutching her baby. We were puzzled and angry. The Germans as a whole became more and more ruthless. How can a civilized nation behave in such a way? And that was just the beginning.