The guys were well looked after

Heroes Remember

The guys were well looked after

Transcript

We were by a big highway, close by. We sat there for three days, for three days. Morning to night. And finally we saw, about four Bren carriers coming down the road. Zoom! They were gone again in the city. That's all we saw in the beginning. Well we have seen it, and we waited and after a couple of hours around they came again you know, and off they went again and then later on you saw more coming in, you know, but that was the first thing we saw, the Bren carriers coming by the full speed you know. Everybody was screaming and hollering. There was oh maybe a couple hundred people standing there waiting. We waited there for three days! Morning, we went up to the tunnel again to see if they're coming and finally we saw them coming. And then we knew it was over.( Inaudible ) she saw a lot more Canadians than I did. She was up in the north part of Holland and she says, she can still remember where she was, by the school, that the guys were so tired and they just fell down in the schoolyard and went to sleep, the Canadians. She knew all that stuff. Well we, the troops were going that direction, see they never liberated us you know. They cut the Germans right off at, when they went straight up north and let the Germans sit there. So, and they didn't have not, no fuel anymore, they have nothing to eat anymore, they start stealing everything. But she could remember that it was, the whole schoolyard was full of Canadians. She says "We worked our ass off to help them." Then they want this or if they want that, and everybody pitched in and made sure the guys were well looked after. And that's the way it went up north. That part, see we didn't see that on the, in The Hague, you know, we were on the coast, yeah. See, the once, inland farther, that's what . . . she can remember that, I don't know how many, a couple of hundred were there, you know. She said "We had a party." But the guys are so tired from moving and moving and moving they just layed on the cement steps and fell asleep. Yeah, that's what she told me lots of times, she said "I still can remember that." That was just marvellous. And everybody did something for them.

Description

Mr. Beukema describes aspects of Holland's liberation through his and his wife's eyes

Laurens Beukema

Mr. Beukema was born in Forbruk, Holland, in 1927. He and his family lived through the hardships caused by the German occupation and the subsequent joy of liberation by the Canadian army. After serving overseas for three years in the Dutch Army, Mr. Beukema and his wife moved to Canada. Although he visits Holland often, Mr. Beukema is proud to claim Canada as his home.

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