War News and Views

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 9, 24 September 1943, Page 3

War News and Views

ESCAPE FROM NAZIS

DUTCH YOUTHS JOIN ARMED FORCES

ADVENTURES OF FOUR YOUTHS

Because their families still reside in occupied Holland, the names of the four youths whose escape is described here must remain secret. But one of the boys recently arrived in New York, where he was interviewed Jny the writer, a well-known Netherlands newspaperman, now on the staff of the Netherlands Information Bureau. By Joseph Stoppelman. NEW YORIv

Four young Dutchmen between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two recently escaped from their occupied, homeland and made their way through the Nazi military forces in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to join the Dutch armed services in the British Isles.

Recently they left their homes, ostensibly to return to a technical college at which they were preparing for their final examinations. They wore their usual clothes and on the back of their bicycles they carried suitcases filled with text books and wearing apparel. For some time they cycled in the direction of the school, but twenty miles from their "destination" they changed their route, turning sharply towards the south. The trip was uneventful till .the}' arrived at a bridge of strategic importance, ■which was heavily guarded by the Germans. The boj T s got off their bikes and started, a friendly chat with the Nazi soldiers, telling them they were on their way back to school, but had decided to have "a little, spin" through the countryside before settling down again to serious study. As a matter of fact, they said, they were planning to pay a visit to the brother of one of them who live|J in a town south of the bridge, and so they would have to cross that bridge somehow.

Strangely enough,, the Germans permitted them to pass- But once the men approached the Belgian frontier something happened which made them realise the impossibility of continuing their fight in the same unconcerned, free-and-easy manner. They had already discarded their cycles, but were still carrying their bags, when a salvo of shots whistled suddenly . through the air and 'an imperative command rang out to stop. The young Hollanders did exactly the reverse.; they jumped over a ditch and ran for their lives across the fields. Running the Gauntlet This was the start of an exhausting game of hide and seek with Nazi patrols. Hiding by day in barns or under bridges, they slowly proceeded at night. Every time they knocked 011 a farmer's door for help they ran the risk, as one of them

later expressed, it, or "rapping our lives away." Would the farmer have confidence in this dishevelled group of foreigners, hardly able to express themselves in his language? Were any Germans quartered with him ? Was he, by any chance, a friend of the Nazis ?

Hunger did. not allow them to give careful consideration to doubts of this kind. There Avas no choice; the risks had to be taken. But never once, during all those days and nights of slow progress towards freedom did the boys meet a civilian who did not take particular pleasure in obstructing the Nazis by extending help to refugees. In one instance their host left them for a while, to go and warn the mayor of his community. Soon he returned with that dignitary—not accompanied, by the

German police, but. carrying two tremendous loaves of bread and sufficient money to help them through the next few days.

Bread, cheese and other foodstuffs in much too generous quantities were gladly sacrificed from the scanty rations of oppressed Belgians and Frenchmen. And a very practical farmer's wife provided them, besides, with an up-to-date map of the surrounding country.

When they reached, the confines of Occupied France, the refugees were in tatters and nearing exhaustion; but once again a good Samaritan crossed their path. This time he took the shape of a seve rebooking French gendarme, who stopped them on a country road, ostensibly arrested them,, loaded them in his ramshackle service car • • • and transported them to a small country railroad station. There his attitude underwent a remarkable change; he bought them tickets to a town not far from the demarcation line between Occupied and Unoccupied France, shook hands with them and wished them luck. Hazardous Journey The crossing, of that demarcation line was one of the. most dangerous incidents of the trip. On foot the men made a detour of more than twenty miles to evade all points which had been reported to them as too well guarded. At last, in accord-* ance with directions given them by French patriots, they found the entrance to a sewer system which ran below the narrow river indicated by the Nazis to serve as demarcation line. Working their way through these dark, slime-covered. tubes where the air was stifling, was their most terrifying experience. They seemed to be crawling endlessly through mud and. ice-cold water, not knowing where they would finally land. It was impossible to turn back: all they could do was to inch along and 'keei> closely together.

At last the pipe widened a little and, in the far distance, a vague light could be seen. Now the fugitives halted and with every muscle straining, they stayed in their cramped positions till the light had faded and everything became, dark. Tiie.v moved on painfully, and once out of the sewer lay down in the wet grass of a meadow in Unoccupied France—too happy to give much thought to their bruised bodies.

After such adventures., which onlv people as young and resilient as these Hollanders can hope to take in their stride, the rest of their

journey was .easy sailing. To live in a work camp with all its discomforts, to fell trees in exchange for indifferent food, given in hopelessly insufficient quantities, was a King's ransom by comparison. After a long delay they completed the wearj 7 task of gathering their exit papers and passed through neutral territory on their way to join the Dutch armed forces in Great Britain. But on that uneventful journey there was one man less. For the strangest part of this escape story is that one of those four Dutchmen had returned to the .occupied motherland. Risking his life anew, he had taken it upon himself to deliver messages to relatives of Netherlander who had, managed to get out before him, but. had lost all contact with their homes. Fortunately, there was a happy ending to his adventures, too. Not only did he succeed in re-entering Holland,, delivering his messages and gathering important information—but he also escaped again, this time along an entirely different and very much easier route on which he found ready help and advise at pre-arranged points.—Copyright, "Star-Sun" and N.A.N.A.