My grandparents lived in Amsterdam and persuaded my father to move with the family to the big city. They had found a flat for us and there were jobs.It was 1938 and Philips had demonstrated the first television set to the public. There was talk of war and thousands of people cashed in their bank accounts and started hoarding food.German troops occupied Austria and in Germany during the so-called Crystal Night of November 10-11, many Jews were killed and their possessions destroyed. My sister Ria was born the previous year in 1937 and my brother Chris came along in 1939 soon after we moved to Amsterdam
For a while all was well, I settled in at school and met the boy next door who became my best friend during the war years. He has recently found me again via the internet after 50 years! We live in awesome times.

I remember the start of World War II clearly. Mum was washing clothes on the back verandah when lots of German planes flew over our house. During the next five days Dutch soldiers fought valiantly and many were killed. The government, with the Royal Family, fled to England.On 15 May, the Dutch Army capitulated and five years of German occupation started, and with it the persecution of Jews, the underground resistance movement and the shortages of food. Before the year was out, every adult person had to register and carry an ID card at all times. In February 1941 workers in Amsterdam organised a spontaneous strike in protest against the treatment of the Jewish people. The strike spread to most of North Holland. A month later the Germans cancelled all political parties and instituted the National Socialist Party (N.S.B.). On 22 June Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and on 7 December, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour effectively drawing America into the war.

10th of May, 1940
German planes bomb Rotterdam and drop paratroopers over Holland