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Spanning the generations

Hennie Mast considers herself one of the lucky ones. Why because she survived the German occupation of Holland during the Second World War. “Not everyone was as fortunate,” she said.
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Lyle Saummers, who served two tours in Cyprus as part of Canada’s peacekeeping contingent, tells students at his table the meaning of his medals.

Hennie Mast considers herself one of the lucky ones.

Why because she survived the German occupation of Holland during the Second World War.

“Not everyone was as fortunate,” she said.

Hennie was one of five people the Barrhead Public Library invited to take part in the veterans Tea as part of its Living Books program.

The event gives Barrhead Elementary School Grade 5 students the chance to ask Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veterans questions, many of which they have prepared in advance, about what it is like to serve their county in times of war or conflict to a group of veterans over tea and pastries.

The library also invites people who have been impacted by war to tell their stories. This year it was Amy Kraft’s class who had the honour of attending the tea.

Students then use the information from the interview to write several reports. These reports are then included in one of the library’s living books.

This year’s panel included Mast, a woman who lived in Holland while it was occupied by the German army in the Second World War, Lyle Saumer, who served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), including two peacekeeping tours in Cyprus; Chuck Mortimer who spent 15 years in the reserves with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps; and the Barkemeyer twins John and Herman. John spent 39 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) while Herman 10 years in the military, five in the army with the PPCLI (including a tour in Korea) and five years in the RCAF.

Mast said the German army invaded Holland when she was a young girl in the spring of 1940, and at first, she didn’t know what was happening.

“We first thought they were balloons,” she said of the German paratroopers jumping out of their planes.

Mast said the airdrop lasted for some time, as the German army soldiers kept coming, followed by vehicles and other equipment.

Mast and her brother (she was in Grade 1, her brother was in Grade 3) watched the whole scene unfold from their living room window.

Eventually, the air raid siren sounded, which she described as being louder than any school fire alarm, and her parents dragged them away from the window and told them to hide underneath their beds.

“That’s when it got scary. The soldiers, they were our enemies, and we could hear and feel the vibrations from the falling bombs.”

One of the reasons why the Masts heard so many bombs, at least initially, was because they lived near the airport, noting the bombardment of the airport lasted mere minutes.

After a lot of time had passed, her parents allowed the children to come out and told them they were at war.

They then helped their parents paper the windows in an attempt to keep the windows from shattering, from the continued bombing, as well as the sound of gunfire from the fighting in the streets.

Eventually, the fighting subsided and life under Nazi-occupied Netherlands began.

A curfew was imposed, with no one being allowed outside from dusk to dawn. Lights also had to be extinguished at night.

Children returned to school, albeit a different one than they had attended before.

Mast said they were not allowed to sing their national anthem. The Dutch flag was forbidden and was replaced with a Nazi flag. at the school.

Residents were also forbidden to wear orange, because the Dutch royal family, who had fled to England, had the surname was Orange.

Food was scarce. What there was became rationed and was of poor quality.

“Bread that used to be white was this yucky grey colour,” she said. “Mom was given food stamps, but that was a joke because you couldn’t buy food.”

To survive residents sold their belongings to buy food on the black market. Mast remembers her mother selling a large portion of her jewelry to buy six eggs.

“And my dad’s beautiful flower garden became a vegetable garden,” she said, noting her father also butchered all the rabbits they kept in their shed.

However, that wasn’t enough, and to keep his family from starving, Mast’s father would trap neighbourhood dogs and cats.

“He would cut the legs and heads off so mom wouldn’t know what they were,” she said.

Years later, after the Mast family immigrated to Canada, her mother was talking to a group of her friends about how dogs and cats in some cultures are considered a delicacy, but she would never be able to eat one.

It was then when her father finally let them know the truth.

“Did you think when we were eating all those rabbits, that all of them were rabbits?”

As the war dragged on, Mast said German soldiers would storm into people’s homes collecting radios as well as anything made out of brass or copper.

They took the radios so people couldn’t hear outside news, she said. As for the metals, they were melted down for bullets or used to manufacture machinery parts to aid in the German war effort.

Mast noted her father, who was part of the underground movement, managed to hide their radio in the base of an electric organ.

She also added that they were fortunate that her father wasn’t taken away as the Nazis started rounding up males from 18 to 45 to work as forced labour in German factories.

As part of the underground, the Masts did what they could to help hide as many Jewish people as they could.

Mostly these were children, noting at any given time six Jewish children would be hiding in the Mast family home. If there was a raid, Mast said her entire family, including the children, had a job to do to conceal their boarders.

“My brother’s job was to take as long as possible to answer the door. I would hide any evidence that no more than four people were living in our home and my sister, who was three, was to dump all the toys on the floor,” she said, adding her father also broke into German-controlled buildings and stole ID cards, to give to people of Jewish descent.

However, Mast noted not all German soldiers were bad.

She recounted a story when her mother took her sister and a young Jewish girl Rika, who was in a stroller, for a walk.

They were stopped by an older German soldier who suggested that they go home because ‘Rika’ didn’t belong.

Mast also remembers the day they were liberated.

“The first army trucks and tanks were a wonderful sight. The streets were lined with hundreds of people waving orange, or red, white and blue flags. Freedom had finally come.”

She also remembers the food that came with the soldiers.

“There was white bread from Sweden, peanut butter from the United States and corn beef from Canada,” Mast said. “We ate it all and got sick. It was wonderful.”

Mast concluded her talk by saying many teenagers today believe war is one big adventure.

“Don’t believe it. War is one long nightmare,” she said. “Everyone has to do what they can to ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes.”

Herman Barkemeyer

The Barrhead Leader also stopped by Barkemeyer’s table when he was telling students about the living conditions during his 18-month tour during the Korean War.

“We lived in underground bunkers,” he said. “Shells and gas would come down through the roof.”

Barkemeyer added even though they lived in deplorable conditions, as a soldier they were still expected to shave. 

He said his sisters would send him care packages, with large cans of noodle soup in them which they would heat using empty shell casings.

However, because the water was at such a premium, it was carried into the trenches by jerrycan, they reused the water used to cook their noodles to shave.

“So you ended up having these bits of noodles stuck to your face,” Barkemeyer said.

One student asked who Barkemeyer’s bunker mate was.

“I was very fortunate,” he said. “My bunker mate was a sergeant from the Second World War. These gentlemen, who had already lived in the trenches and taught us, and it is because of them that many of us made it home alive.”

Barkemeyer said one of the things he is most proud of is when he sees people from Korea who were able to immigrate to Canada.

“To be able to see what kind of life they have been able to build for themselves ... They are just wonderful, hardworking people,” he said.

Barkemeyer said although he was relieved to be able to come back home when his tour was over, he had difficulty adjusting.

He would later find out he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

One of the things that helped him eventually subdue some of the PTSD symptoms was going back to Korea.

However, he admitted when a friend and fellow Korean War veteran suggested it, he thought he was “nuts.”

“Ever since the war ended, the [South] Korean government has been paying for United Nations veterans, there are 27,000 from Canada alone, see what their efforts have meant for their country. To be able to see their smiling faces and see what they have done with the help of our efforts. It is amazing,” Barkemeyer said.

“And I don’t think there is a country where people are more appreciative of what Canadian soldiers and the other UN countries did for them. It is just like the people of Holland and the Netherlands. They will never forget what we have done for them.” 


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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