Dutch retribution

Heroes Remember

Dutch retribution

Transcript

While we were in Barnavelt, this is sort of a haunting thing, there had been the Dutch collaborators and now and again we'd hear dogs barking and shouting and they'd be marching these fellows down the road with their arms straight up over their heads and they would take them down, I think to a quarry, I don't know, but we suspected. Interviewer: So as far as you know they were probably executed.. We think so, yes Do you recall seeing women, Dutch women with their heads shaved. Yes, oh yes we had those working in our unit. A nice lot of girls really but they'd become friendly with a German just the same as a lot of the Dutch girls became friendly with our men.

Description

Ms. Drean describes seeing, while in Barneveld, Dutch collaborators being marched off to what she felt was to be their execution. She also talks about having female collaborators, whose heads had been shaved, as assistants, and expresses some empathy for these young women.

Jean Drean

Jean Drean was born in 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was the second of three children, all of whom were home-schooled. Ms. Drean studied nursing at St. Joseph's Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, graduating in 1940. She enlisted in January, 1941 with #16 Canadian General Hospital and went overseas in June, 1942. In England, Ms. Drean served at #15 and #16 Canadian Field Hospitals. In France, she worked in a field surgical unit at a former German hospital in Saint-Omer, treating friend and foe with equal empathy. Lastly, as part of the Army of Occupation, Ms. Drean treated Russian and Polish POWs at a field hospital in Sogol, Germany.

Meta Data