My Story 18

In 1954, later, in the year I saw an ad promoting a meeting on emigration to Canada.

In high school we learned German, French and English. German, due to the occupation of the Germans in the war, put a bad taste in my mouth. French seemed uninteresting to me at the time. But English! I loved it. I had pen pals those days in England, South Africa and Canada. I loved the American movies, which, with subtitles in Dutch helped me a great deal in learning the language. And I read English language pocket books.

I attended the emigration workshop, (emigration is leaving a country, immigration is getting into a country), and I left my name and address. That is all I did. They kept on contacting me and instructing me step by step. Medical test, interviews, visas and passports. I did everything faithfully and I did not tell anybody what I was up to.

Nobody knew. I did not want anybody to force their opinion on me. I did not want to discuss it until all papers were in order, and I could tell positively what was going to happen. This is MY project.

Finally, I was directed to go to The Hague, to the Canadian embassy, to have my passport stamped. They told me to be on a plane, or boat within 30 days. And I could choose any City in Canada for destination. My pen pal was in Winnipeg, so that was a no-brainer. It had taken over a year. I was delayed because of a souvenir from Hitler, a little spot on my lung. After many tests is appeared there was no danger, so I was "good to go". And now it is time to tell everybody.

So I told everybody. Suddenly I had all these friends , and family, that loved me so much, they did not want me to go away! Not much support for what I had planned and organized. A few weeks before I left I received a notice from the army to report for "Repeat exercises" (Herhalings oefeningen). I sent them a telegram that I was going to be in Canada by then. They promptly sent me a telegram back that I was excused. I left that telegram with mother, because I suspected that, knowing the army, they would send the MP's looking for me. And that is exactly what happened. The MP's came to the door, and my mom showed the telegram, and that is the last I heard from the army. I still feel they owe me big for the two years loss of freedom, and lost earnings they cheated me out of!

In August 1956 I landed in Canada to start my new life. From rainy, depressing Holland to sunny Canada. In Holland I was often painfully reminded of the "lost Love" with my first girlfriend, and Canada seemed so open and promising. Within a couple of weeks I had a suntan. In those days we thought: "Suntan is Good!!" Come to think of it, cigarettes were good too, they turned BAD in 1964.