Columbus discovered America; we are glad he did—Presentation by Pieter J.C. Vedder for Monday Night Club

Pieter J.C. Vedder presented this on March 26, 2007 to the Monday Night Club. One member hosted a 3–course dinner and another member made a presentation...

Next month I will celebrate my 14th anniversary as an American Citizen. Born and raised in the Kingdom of The Netherlands  it is quite understandable that we have a perhaps more than normal interest in the history of our new homeland, and also because of the long–lasting relationship between The Netherlands and the United States.

As you perhaps already knew; the Dutch were actually the very first to recognize the new American Republic in 1776 when they saluted to the flag of the US warship the Andrew Doria from the Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean.

We are proud to be an American, with an accent, but we are also proud of our Dutch ancestry. Although The Netherlands is a small country, actually ⅕ of the size of the State of Georgia, with some 16.5 million inhabitants, it has had a big influence in this nation. The Netherlands has the longest, un–interrupted friendly relationship with the United States and Mariette and I like to keep it that way. The bond between the US and The Netherlands is deep and strong and centuries long. As our Minister of Foreign Affairs once said: 'We are old friends, the kind of relationship that works well. We have a lot in common and also just enough differences to keep things interesting. Those are usually the best kind of relationships there are.''

I can assure you that in their heart most Dutch people, especially those from our generation, are very grateful to the US, not having forgotten the sacrifices Americans have made to give us our freedom back, the most important thing in life. At the same time however, I must admit that a number of Europeans, especially in the media and from the young generation, seem to have a short memory. 

You must understand that most Europeans have a completely wrong picture of the US. Every time we had visitors over from that part of the world, we experienced that. Also that part of the reason that Europe is often criticizing the US, based on envy and rivalry. Some European countries, especially France and Germany, also like to be the world power. If the European countries would come together as the United States of Europe, it could perhaps be the world power but in my opinion, there is too much nationalism and animosity between the biggest players—that I don't see that happen anytime soon. Besides that, experts claim that the shrinking population, mainly caused by a very low birthrate, will set Europe even more back against the United States.

In my opinion, nowadays too many people from both sides are opinionated without knowing the facts and taking the time and effort to study history. Here is a task for un–biased historians and responsible teachers.

Although for sure not always easy, they should write and teach about the facts only and it is not their task to pass judgement on the past. This however seems to be almost impossible for people of our time, who have lived through periods when such great moral conflicts have determined history.

A striking example of an interesting discussion about what happened in the past, concerning the US, was the 1992 commemoration of the arrival of Columbus in America; a good example of the bias with which we often look at the past. The big question: was Columbus a hero, did he do the world a great favor or is he responsible for a dark page in human history?

Let me give you a few examples of the many extreme opinions that activists vented on the occasion of the aforementioned commemoration The battle cry of the American Indian leader Russell Means, who asserted that Columbus makes Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent, was quoted in European newspapers everywhere. The conclusion of Hans Koning, a writer (of Dutch descent) of popular history, became almost equally well known: 'It is almost obscene to celebrate Columbus because it's an un–mitigated history of horror We don't have to celebrate a man who was really—from an Indian point of view—worse than Attila,'

Also, the Churches, keepers of God's moral message, of course did not hod back. The National council of the Churches of Christ in the US issued a solemn resolution, protesting against such a celebration of 1492. 'For the descendents of the survivors of the subsequent invasion, genocide, slavery, ecocide and exploitation of the wealth of the land, a celebration is for sure not appropriate.'

All these protests were accompanied by the idealization of the victims of the European expansion. History has been re–written and popularized accordingly. Movies like Roots and Dancing with Wolves are good examples of that tendency; glorifying innocent blacks and Indians who lived a good life in complete harmony with each other and with nature. What a distortion of history!

The myth of the Noble Savage is one of the first and most cherished inventions of the time where the New World was discovered. 

In the 18th century Jean Jacques Rousseau would carry on the myth of the Noble Savage who still seemed to live in a golden age. Their state of happiness was 'the least subject to revolutions and the best condition for man, but it was unfortunately destroyed by man's desire for progress, which manifested itself in e.g. agriculture and mining. These were the two arts whose invention produced that great revolution that led to private property and hence, in a process of inevitable degeneration, to division, envy, ambition, government and tyranny.'

Another French scholar of natural history; Count de Buffon, proclaimed that the New World would never be able to develop a real civilization because 'It had a wrong proportion of temperature and humidity' He stated that natives were not at all innocent inhabitants of a kind of paradise but instead 'the most primitive and backward people that had ever existed.' 

Adriaen Van der Donck, a Dutch historian, wrote in 1655 about the Indians; 'Although nature has not given them abundant wisdom, still they exercise their talents with discretion. No lunatics or fools are found amongst them; nor any mad or raving person of either sex.'

It is refreshing to notice that Father Leonid Kishkovsky of hte American Orthodox Church, who chaired the 1991 meeting of the National Council of Churches at which the highly controversial revolution on the quincentennial commemoration of Columbus was debated, made precisely this point. Kishkovsky had the courage to question the notion that evil was something imported from Europe. 'In a certain sense he said this is patronizing; it is as if native indigenous people don't have a history which includes civilization, warfare, empires and cruelties, long before white people ever arrived.'

Of course, the first years, and even decennia, of colonization were a time of chaos and sometimes cruel exploitations and it would make no sense to condone the crimes committed by the conquistadores. It took more than half a century before a somewhat orderly regime in the endless wilderness of the New World could be established. At that time much had been destroyed—in lives, culture and traditions—that could never be restored again. However, the enormous mortality's rate in the isles and on the continent itself was for the greatest part not caused by murder and oppression but by the terrible diseases which the white people brought with them from Europe and against which the inhabitants of the New World proved to have no immunity.

Moral ideas have determined the view of the European discovery of America from the beginning. That special approach had its roots in European wonders and disbelief about the miracle of a new continent, which remained a misunderstanding even nowadays and an obstacle long after its overwhelming reality had become clear. But when, despite the gloomy predictions, in that New World new states and new cultures began to flourish, the American response transformed the negative perceptions into highly positive ones. Especially in the proud nation of the US a new consciousness gave the tragic past a mythical glamour. A new nations needs new myths!

I fully agree with what the famous German philosopher Heinrich Heine once had said about Columbus: 'Many people gave us great gifts, but this hero gave the word another complete new world, which is called: America.'

Right or wrong, Columbus discovered America in 1492. As the European powers of that time, the Spanish, the Dutch and the British, sent off their navies and adventure–businessmen to roam the seas, the new discovered world would become a factor in the international power struggle. Kings and generals plotted for control of this piece of property.

'It was for the biggest parts a band of explorers, entrepreneurs, pirates, prostitutes and assorted scalawags from different parts of Europe who sought riches in this wilderness', wrote a Dutch scholar, a wilderness that was a hunting ground for Indians 'and populated mainly by wolves and bears.'

In school we're taught that America begins with 13 English colonies but that is not true, and I like to tell you tonight why I can make that statement.

A description of the New Netherlands, written by Adriaen Van der Donck, first published in 1655, is actually one of America's oldest literary treasures. It has been translated into English and French.

In the late 1960's an archivist in the New York State Library, made an astounding discovery; 12,000 pages of centuries old correspondence, court cases, legal contracts and reports from a forgotten society; the Dutch colony, centered on Manhattan which pre–dated the thirteen original American colonies. Over the past 30 years, scholar Charles T. Gehring has been translating this trove. The Dutch colony was founded only 3 years after the Pilgrims landed. They arrived in 1609 with the lowland ship 'The Half Moon' under Hudson, a British captian, hired by the Dutch West Indian Company. History however was forgotten, mainly because the English and the Dutch,  the two European superpowers of the 17th century, were bitter enemies. Once the English took over the Dutch territory and changed New Amsterdam into New York, they decided that was when the real history of the region began. We also must realize that ⅞ of our historical writings about this new republic has come from authors that have been Englishmen or descendants from Englishmen, living in New England. Naturally, those men have written wholly or largely from an English standpoint and in the English language. England, and the rest of the world, has merely accepted what those historians have chosen to lay at their doorstep. These historians have also told us that the settlement that predated New York was not really worth mention but those 12,000 charred, mold riddled documents, which recently were declared a national treasure, paint a very different picture that I like to share with you tonight. These documents show that the Dutch build a vital North American territory, and that the port of Manhattan was plugged into the global Dutch trading empire, for a big part by the West Indian Trading Company. It is known that within 20 years of the first landing, the Governor of what was then called New Netherlands, would make the ultimate business deal; the legendary purchase of Manhattan Island for 24 dollars. New Amsterdam, now New York City, was founded.

As a matter of fact, the reading world of America has yet to learn the real extend of the strong Dutch influence which underlies the American institutions and have shaped American life.

For years we have written in our history books and taught in our schools that this nation is a transplanted England; that the institution which ahs made this country distinctively great were derived either from England itself or brought to us from England by the Puritans when they settled in New England. Douglas Campbell was perhaps among the first of the American writers to point out that the men who founded New York however were not English men but largely Hollanders; that the Puritans who settled Plymouth had lived 12 years in Holland; that the Puritans who settled elsewhere in Massachusetts had all their lives been exposed to a Dutch influence; that New Jersey as well as New York, was settled by the Dutch West Indian Trading Company; that Connecticut was given life by Thomas Hooker, who came from a long residence in Holland; that Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island, was a Dutch scholar and that William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, came from a Dutch mother.

Also, take what may be truly designated as the four vital institutions upon which America not only rests but which have caused it to be regarded as one of the most distinctive nations in the world. I'm talking about the freedom of religious worship; our freedom of the press; our freedom of suffrage as represented by the secret ballot and our public school system of free education. Not one of these came from England, since not one of them existed there when they were established in America; in fact, only one of them existed in England earlier than 50 years after they existed in America and the other three did not exit in England until nearly 100 years after they existed in America. Each and all of these four institutions came to America directly from The Low Countries. Further and even more important, take the two documents upon which the whole fabric of the establishment and maintenance of America rests; the Declaration of Independence and the most important document at all; the Federal Constitution of the United States.

The Declaration is based almost entirely upon the Declaration of Independence of the United Republic of The Netherlands; while all through the Constitution its salient points are based upon, and some of them literally copied, from the Dutch Constitution. This document in the Dutch language named The Plakaat van Verlatinge, was published in 1658. Similarity of wording is not the only clue to the lineage of texts. Although Jefferson appears not to have drawn upon the Dutch Plakaat for phraseology, there is a good reason to believe that he may well have drawn upon it as a paradigm for the argumentative structure of the Declaration. Of the different models available to Jefferson and the Continental Congress none provided as precise a template for the Declaration of Independence as did the aforementioned Plakaat. None were anti colonial justifications of independence; none were cast in syllogistic form and none of them contained a section comparable to the preamble of the Declaration in which the right of the people to replace a tyrannical monarch was explicitly warranted. No doubt that Jefferson and his colleagues were familiar with the parallels between their struggle against England and the Low Countries' battle against Spain. The Dutch Revolution provided and inspiring example of successful resistance to colonial domination and Whig leaders often pointed to it as evidence that America could maintain its freedom, even in the face of the British military superiority. In his 1774 Essay on the Constitutional power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America, John Dickinson observed that the British measures against the Colonies correspond exactly with the measures pursued by Philip II of Spain against the Low Countries. Even though England was a mighty power, Dickinson warned, it should be remembered that the Dutch Provinces, inspired by one generous resolution to die free rather than to live slaves, not only baffled but brought down into dust that enormous power that had contended for universal empire and was the terror of the world for half a century.

William Henry Drayton sounded the same theme in October 1776 when he noted that Americans could force George III to treat with them as a free and independent people, just as the Dutch had compelled Philip II, the most powerful prince in the Old World to give up his dominion over the Low Countries.

Although the seven Dutch Provinces constituted 'but a speck upon the globe' and faced the best troops and the most formidable navy in the universe, they resolved to oppose the tyrants' whole force and at least deserved to be free. Americans, Drayton exulted, were no less in love with liberty than the Hollanders were. Shall we not in this, in a similar cause, dare those perils that they successfully combated?

When John Adams wrote the Dutch government in April 1781, requesting that he be received as a Minister, he reported that the history of Holland, and the great characters it exhibits, have been studied, admired and imitated in every American State. Not only had America long regarded The Netherlands as its friend in Europe, said Adams, but the originals of the two Republics are so much alike that the history of the one seems but a transcript from that of the other.

So strong is the Dutch influence upon our American form of government tha the Senate of the US, as a body, derives most of the peculiarities of its organization from The Netherlands, Staten Generaal, a similar body, and its predecessor by nearly a century. Even in the American flag we find the colors from the Dutch 'driekleur'.

I like to present you with a few more facts. The common modern practice of the State allowing a prisoner the free services of a lawyer for his defense and the office of a district attorney for each County, are so familiar for us that we regard them as American inventions. Both institutions have been credited to England, whereas, as a matter of fact it is impossible to find in England, even today, any official corresponding to our district attorney. Both of these institutions existed in Holland three centuries before they were brought to America.

The equal distribution of property among the children of a person dying intestate, that is, without a will, was brought to America direct from Holland by the Puritans. It never existed in England. 

The record of all deeds and mortgages in a public office, a custom which affects every man and woman who owns or buys property, came to America direct from The Netherlands. It could not have come from England, since it did not exist there even 200 years later.

The township system, by which each town has local self government, with its natural sequence of local self government in County and State, came from Holland. The practice of making prisoners work and in fac our whole modern American management of free prisons, was brought from Holland by William Penn.

The Dutch taught the world commerce and merchandise when it ranked at that time as the only great commercial nation on the globe. It taught the broadest lines of finance to the world by the establishment, in 1609, of its great Bank of Amsterdam, with 180,000,000 of dollars deposits, preceding the establishment of the Bank of England by nearly 100 years. When the fledgling British Colonies sought its independence, it should be no surprise that the Dutch were more than happy to help the colonial government with financing. Ultimately, the Dutch seem to be better businessmen than soldiers. The Dutch provided the Continental Congress with its first loan; the then whopping amount of 30,000,000 guilders and continued to provide a significant source of funding to the young nation for many more years. Amazingly for such a small country today The Netherland is the second or third largest foreign investor in the US.

If you are still not convinced that the Dutch have had a tremendous impact on America, let me group these astonishing facts together, if you will.

The Federal Constitution; the Declaration of Independence; the whole organization of the Senate, our State Constitutions, our freedom of religion, our free public schools, our free press, our written ballot, our town, county and state systems of self government, the system of recording deeds and mortgages, the giving of every criminal just a chance for his life, a public prosecutor of crime in every county, our prison system, we could go on and on.

The foregoing has nothing to do with glorification or arrogance from the Dutch part but is meant as a justification of written history, based on facts. I think it must be apparent to anyone who knows these facts in the newer and more enlightened history of America that most of our previous historical knowledge of our country must be adjusted. Just as Washington Irving, in his later life, was compelled to admit himself wrong in burlesquing the Dutch founders of New York City, and class his own writing as a course coarse caricature.

So, I hope and believe that some more enlightened historians will set aside much that has been written about the influence that shaped America and substitute facts for theories.

References: 

● A Description of The New Netherlands by Adriaen Van der Donck – Syracuse Univesity Press

● The Island of the Center of the World by Russell Shorto – ISBN 0-385-50349-0

● Connecting Cultures — The Netherlands in Five Centuries of Transatlantic Exchange by VU University Press Amsterdam by several aouthors – ISBN 90-5383-344-7

● The Americanization of Edward Bok – by Edward Bok – Lakeside Press

● Article by Edward Bok in The Ladies Home Journal, October 1903

Related links;

LEGAL IMMIGRANTS | previous post by me

PIETER'S OATH OF ALLEGIANCE | previous post by me

{1903 Ladies Home Journal by Edward Bok - The Mother of America & Dutch American Heritage Day} | previous post by me

Hoisting of the Marshall Bell - Embassy of the Netherlands in the United States | previous post by me

{The Dutch 1st to Salute to the Flag of The United States in 1776} | previous post by me

{4th of July Speech given by my husband Pieter} | previous post by me

{Dutch - American Heritage Day: November 16 since 1991} | previous post by me

Husband Pieter's 1994, 4th of July Speech | previous post by me with VIDEO

{Cooking Dinner for Twelve at Our Home} | Monday Night Club 3–course dinner hosted

Table Setting With Picture Frame Vases and Place Cards | 3–course dinner hosted once again

Husband Pieter Talks About His Experiences during WWII in TV Interview

 

Memorial Day is on May 29 so it is again important for the young(er) generations to hear first hand stories from people that were deprived from ANY FREEDOM:

If you view this on YouTube you will find clickable links below video from the segments where Pieter is mentioned with photos and where he speaks. Also don't forget to click on 'CC' for seeing English caption...
Related link:By Husband Pieter: MY LIFE AS A TEEN DURING THE WWII ERA | previous post by husband Pieter

By Husband Pieter: MY LIFE AS A TEEN DURING THE WWII ERA

 May 5 is Dutch Liberation Day, as it is 77 years ago today. 

May 30 is Memorial Day here in the USA, so it is appropriate for sharing Pieter's story.

First presented, without any images, to the Monday Night Club in Dublin on February 23 of 2009, where Pieter has been a long–time member through March of 2017.

Pieter made this presentation with slides for the Rotary Club of Dublin, Georgia USA on December 3, 2010.

Dublin Rotary Club

Pieter gave a very heartfelt and moving presentation to the club about his experiences growing up in The Netherlands during World War II.

Map of Western Europe

Now I like to take you back to the period of the mid–1930s and 1940s in the 20th century, now some 90+ years ago.

What you see here is part of the map of Europe and in the center top you can see The Netherlands; a small but densely populated country; one fifth of the size of Georgia/USA.

I am born in 1929 in a small village near the city of Arnhem, in the Eastern part of the country; close to the German border.

Liemers

The soil in that area is rather fertile, because of the sediments of the numerous flooding of combined rivers in the past; the Rhine, the Neder Rhine; the Ijssel and their branches. Therefore, a number of people in that small village were Market Gardeners, as my hard working parents were too.

Vedder Family (Pieter center) during the Depression years 1930s

We for sure were not rich, but at least not as poor as most other families, especially those with more children; six or seven was quite normal then and ten or eleven no exception.

As you can see, I am the youngest of only three boys.

Greenhouse with Boston lettuce at my Dad's with my late husband

My Dad's produce business was somewhat ahead of most of his colleagues, we had greenhouses and some of them even heated by a big coal boiler.

As you perhaps all know, the economical situation in Europe, and likewise in the U.S., at that time, was really bad; there was a lot of poverty.

I remember that my Dad once came back from the vegetable auction with a full load of Boston lettuce, grown in our greenhouses, almost in tears because nobody was interested in buying the product. There was however a government program that in such a situation one got one cent per had and a box with 12 cans of corned beef. The product then had to be destroyed.

There also was quite a bit of tension in Europe. The instability of Europe was for the biggest part the result of the political deals, made after WWI in Versailles in 1918–19, a Treaty very unfavorable for Germany.

Ijsselstein – German war cemetery

You know that after four years of fierce fighting from 1914 till 1918; resulting in ten million casualties and twenty million wounded, after many flattened cities and industries completely destroyed, finally, with the help of the U.S. the Germans had been brought to their knees. For almost one hundred years, The Netherlands had been able to be neutral, mainly as the result of the fragile balance of power in Europe, after WWI. However, that balance was crumbling; big powers like Germany, Austria, Hungary and Turkey had lost their influence in Eastern Europe; the Balkan.

There were new, strong nationalistic movements rising up which were creating political tensions. Also, for the problems in the Middle East, there were solutions created which were sure guarantees for new conflicts which still exist till present day.

I remember that my Dad and his friends often were discussing the situation in Germany.

Based on the limited information they obtained about the situation in Germany, it didn't sound too alarming because almost everybody was hoping for some change and some foreign leaders were just promising that.

Hitler

There was an upcoming leader in Germany, named Adolph Hitler, who gave thunderous speeches and he was telling the people exactly what they liked to hear. He was gaining a lot of power and surrounded himself by a group of loyal but also very fanatic men. He also built up a very efficient propaganda machine. There were however also some people, who had their doubts about his intentions; they did not trust that guy. What he did in e.g. Poland was for sure not right. And what he did to the Jewish people was also not correct. Still, my Dad and his friends, and most of the people however were not so much concerned. Again, at that time they did not have all the info we have nowadays and Czechoslovakia and Poland were far from our bed anyway. Okay, there was a problem with the Jews, but they for sure were not so popular in our area anyway.

The Dutch government was watching what was going on with our big neighbor with suspicious eyes, especially when Hitler was building up such a strong army and why he was constantly talking about the need for more, Lebensraum (living space) for the German race. In Hitler's eyes, Germans, that means the pure race with blond hair and blue eyes, were a superior race and therefore Jews, Gypsies, the handicapped and homosexuals were disturbing elements. On the other hand, Hitler indicated that The Netherlands had nothing to worry about; we, the Dutch were also of the Germanic race. We would be part of a peaceful, prosperous bigger Europe. Besides that, the British prime minister, Chamberlain, went to Germany and came back with the assurance from Hitler himself that nobody had anything to fear. Also, most politicians were naïve, asleep, or just too focused on their own career. I clearly see some similarities here between our politicians, the upcoming Nazi movement at that time and the fast growing influence of the (extreme) Islam nowadays. Despite all the nice propaganda, the tension within Europe was growing. One thing I have to mention here, that a number of Dutch businesses, including my Dad's and his friends', were profiting from the situation because Germany was buying more and more of our products. At that time, I suppose, people did not realize that Germany was preparing for something and stocking up on materials and food for their growing army.

Anyway, the economy in the Low Country was doing well. But, like on a clear blue sky, suddenly dark clouds can show up; in October 1929, Black Thursday was the first indication that the party was over; that we were at the beginning of a deep, worldwide depression.

Soldiers Dutch mobilization

The Dutch government kept watching what was going on at the other side of the border and our intelligence warned that it would be better to mobilize our troops and prepare for a German invasion. So I remember, soldiers everywhere around and also that heavy, concrete barriers were being built over the dikes; that pieces of railway rails, so called asparagus, were put in little holes into the main roads so that not any vehicle could pass, that bridges were wired with explosives etc. Also the so–called water line was prepared. I have to explain this perhaps a little bit more.

You might know that a big part of The Netherlands is below sea level. The philosophy therefore was that we could easily prevent an intruder from the east by inundation, which means flooding, certain parts of the country by closing sluices in the river and canals.

It was in the early morning of May 10, of 1940, shortly after my eleventh birthday, that we woke up by the noise of low flying airplanes and some thunder in the distance. The German army invaded our country and simultaneously Belgium and France. We were at war.

Although there was some fierce fighting, our relatively poor equipped army was not a match for the well trained and equally well equipped German forces. Besides that, there has been quite a bit of corruption on the Dutch side. Members of the National Socialistic Party collaborated with the Germans wherever they could. To give you a few examples, the anti–tank guns in the fortress, where the bridge was crossing the River IJssel, were all at once taken off their base for maintenance. The wired explosives to destroy that particular bridge failed, for whatever reason etc. The Dutch army held their positions in the heart of the country for a mere five days and then capitulated. One of the main reasons was the German superiority in the air. Also the Fallschirmjäger/paratroopers which they dropped behind the water line, but even more so because they bombed the city of Rotterdam and almost erased it from the map.

Rotterdam bombardment 1940

Immediately after that, they threatened to do the very same with the city of Utrecht. Belgium also had to give up soon after the Dutch and even the French, despite their famous Maginot fortifications, had to capitulate after only 18 days. The Dutch government including the Queen, fled to England. In the first couple of weeks after the invasion there was quite a bit of bitterness because our queen and big part of the government had abandoned its people. There also was bitterness because people were convinced that the early capitulation was for a part the result of the treachery through the members of the Dutch National Socialistic Movement.

Did the German occupation change our personal lives? Really not that much during its first year. The Netherlands was not under military control but under civil management, under a special appointed Reich's Kommissar (National Commissioner); Seys Inquart. He tried very hard to win the sympathy of the Dutch people; mainly for two reasons. The first one being materialistic; the Germans needed a strong industrial economy in The Netherlands as well as our food production and also our harbors to support their war machine. The second reason was more ideological. The Germans were looking to the Dutch as their neighbor–brethren, part of the Germanic race and should therefore be a part of the new, big Europe. Part of that ideology, in Hitler's vision, was also that the population had to be cleansed from foreign elements like Jews etc. Hitler mus have been very disappointed because the Dutch in general did not cooperate at all. So the tension was growing and Hitler then decided that from now on the brutal Waffen SS would be in charge. That drastically changed the situation. It worsened even more after June of 1941 when Hitler started the war against the Soviet Union; a war that didn't go very favorable for the Germans. Hitler seemingly did not study the lesson from Napoleon; who made the same mistake before. On top of that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with the result that from then on also the US was involved in the war. From that moment on, the Germans started a complete exploitation of the occupied countries, under the brutal leadership of Albert Speer. Coal, steel and all kind of products and even complete industries were transported into Germany and, as the result of that; there was a shortage on almost everything.

Jews Boarding Trains for Chelmno

In May of 1942, the Germans decided that all Dutch Jews were losing their citizenship and should be deported. Their possessions should be used to finance that operation. Over 100,000 Dutch Jewish men, women and children have been transported to destruction camps in Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald etc. Only a few survived. Also more than 250,000 Dutch men over 18 years of age were forced to labor in the German war industry. As the result of that approx. 300,000 men including some Jewish, were hiding (you perhaps know the Anne Frank story) often in rural areas on farms, living in barns and places where the Germans hopefully couldn't find them. If they got caught, it meant execution for them and also for the enablers of those hiding places. In 1943 the German exploitation changed into complete straight robbery. For example; all the copper wiring from the above ground electricity network was taken down and likewise all Church bells; some of them with great historical value. We literally lived in the cold and the dark since there was no electricity anymore and everybody had to darken the windows completely, to make sure that the navigators from the allied bombers could not use them as beacons on their way to bomb the German industrial areas.

Armada of planes – Market Garden lineup planes

As young boys you can imagine that we liked those armadas of big bombers flying over. Laying on our backs in the grass, we for sure enjoyed the often fierce dog fighting between the escorting Mustangs, the Spitfires and the German Messerschmitt. I have seen many of those bombers being shot down or crippled. We even had a Bristol bomber crashing into our back yard. My elder brother Toon and his friend Willy knew the marsh area between the dikes and the rivers, covered with reed and willow bushes, as their pockets. They helped several shot down pilots to hide and smuggled them on Dutch river barks that were on their way from Germany to harbors in Rotterdam or Antwerp to escape from there, to England. Very dangerous business. 

My Dad and one of his neighbor friends, did the very same, hiding some crew members between two locks in a river branch, where they built a small wooden platform under the overpass for that purpose. They got caught (somebody more than likely talked too much) and my Dad ended up in jail and his younger friend got deported into Germany and never came back.

Map of EISENHOWER'S 'WIDE' PLAN

Some hope came about when an immense number of allied troops and equipment landed on the coast of Normandy in June of 1944. Everybody started enthusiastically talking about the war being over very soon now. 

Were we ever wrong!

The troops from General Eisenhower and Patton fought their way through France, Italy and Belgium and then got stuck in the Ardennes and later at the big rivers in the southeastern part of The Netherlands and that is exactly where we lived as I have mentioned earlier. To cross those rivers, the allied forces needed bridges and therefore the British General Montgomery came up with the idea to drop paratroopers behind the front line to save the important and crucial bridges near Arnhem; the famous operation Market Garden. 

It was September 1944. If they could save these bridges, the main force advancing from the south, could join them and then the road into Germany would be open. General Eisenhower was not in favor of Montgomery's plant but gave in. It for sure as a spectacular happening.

Arnhem 1944 Paratroops

September 17, 1944

We were lying in the ditch and watched the armada of airplanes and clouds of paratroopers and gliders come down. What a disaster. Perhaps you have seen the movie 'A Bridge Too Far'?

The paratroopers were dropped too far from those bridges first of all; did not have transport material or heavy weapons. As the result of talking to the German soldiers (by the way we were forced to speak German at school!) we knew that there was a concentration of German troops and heavy equipment just in that particular area. Another problem was that the big force from the south was not able to advance because of underestimated heavy German resistance. After days of heroic and fierce fighting, and heavy losses, the operation ended in disaster. No bridge and no river crossing. It was a very bad situation; for us as well. We lived already for the biggest part of the day, and each and every night, in self built bunkers but from that moment on we got the full load of air raids and artillery attacks from you guys 🇺🇸, from the opposite side of the river. We had in our home a family, actually friends, who lived closer to the river and they therefore had to be evacuated. Part of that family were two sons, the age of my eldest and middle brother. On one afternoon they left with my middle brother for their daily chore to pick up fresh milk at a nearby farm. This was absolute forbidden (as the Germans claimed all produce!); therefore they walked with their blue milk jug through the fields.

Plane wreck – crashed German plane

Halfway a heavy dog fight started, all hell broke loose and the one after the other came down, actually three on a two–acre lot, two German ones and one allied, not that far from the farm the boys had yet to reach. Being nosy young boys, they went to the spot to see the burning wrecks and they were not the only onlookers. The half drunken SS Germans were furious and shouted that everyone had to leave the scene. The three boys made a wrong decision; and went the opposite direction because they still had to reach that farm. Therefore they were sneaking through the ditches. At the end of the ditch the brothers were detected by the drunken SS soldiers. They were forced on their knees, and both got executed; the one after the other. My brother escaped. The Germans stated that the boys were partisans and had stolen weapons from the wrecked planes; my brother however said that they only had put some instruments into their pockets. Unnecessary to mention that everybody in our home was devastated, especially of course the parents of the two boys. A couple of days after that incident we again had a heavy artillery bombardment from the opposite side of the river. We had quite a number of casualties in our village and also dead cattle and farm animals everywhere. The Germans had their artillery pieces and anti aircraft guns hidden inside the orchards surrounding us and that attracted all that fire from the allied forces. On a certain evening I was inside our family–bunker with my parents; my two brothers decided to sleep that night in the house, very much against the will of my parents but they couldn't stand the most and narrow, musty smelling bunker. After that heavy attack they came to the bunker to show my Mom a skillet and a blanket with holes in. I have told you that we had greenhouses. My eldest brother told me that our greenhouses also had been severely hit because he had heard the shattering of glass. He insisted that we together assess the situation. It was a moonlit evening and, as normal after such a heavy attack, it was very quiet. My parents were pleading with us to stay inside the bunker but we went anyway, insisting that for now the bombardment was over. Our greenhouses were approximately one hundred yards away from the bunker. At the very same moment that we were near them we heard a whistling sound of incoming shells and having experience, we of course dodged into a shallow ditch. For me too late; I got struck by a piece of shrapnel, passed out and was bleeding heavily. My brother dragged me inside the bunker in that condition. Can you imagine how my Mom was feeling?! They had of course heard the impact of the exploding shells.

Exodus – evacuation

This was the drop in the bucket; the next day we got ordered by the Red Cross to evacuate to safer grounds away from the dangerous river area. 

We could grab only a few limited items and clothes and stashed it onto the little horse wagon we had. Covered by a white bed–sheet so that we didn't get shot from the air.

It looked almost like the Exodus from the land of Egypt. 

After two days of walking, we arrived at our new destination, some 25 miles or 40 km away!

My parents and eldest brother got separated to stay at another farm location and my middle brother and me at a neighboring farm. 

The war went on, but at least we felt safer.

It became Christmas Eve and we longed to go to Midnight Mass at a Catholic Church in a neighboring village. We had to walk through the fields because nobody was permitted to be on the road after 20:00 o'clock. My brother and I celebrated Christmas, singing out loud; Peace on Earth.

On our way back after Mass, again walking through the fields, we saw something burning and of course we wanted to further investigate. It seemed to be an airplane shot down during Mass. Walking up to the burning wreck, we got halted by a barb wire fence. We then were deeply shocked when our eyes met a head and other human parts hanging on that barb wire. That scene remains forever engraved onto my retina for the rest of my life; Peace on Earth.

Living on a farm meant that we at least never got hungry but not everybody in The Netherlands could say that. Especially in the bigger cities of the western part, The Provinces North and South Holland, people suffered a lot because of famine. That period for most of the Dutch has been tagged the Hunger Winter. No food, no soap, no gas or electricity, no coal, no fire wood, just hungry, cold, sick and even dying people.

We didn't have much information about how the war was going; nobody had a radio anymore, they all got confiscated. From the underground however we knew that the Germans were losing this war and they paid a high price!

In April of 1945 we saw the demoralized, surviving German soldiers destroying their vehicles and equipment and for the very first time we saw American and British tanks and soldiers.

Hitler committed suicide and we could not believe that the war was finally over. 

But FREEDOM IS NOT FOR FREE!

Margraten – American war cemetery in Limburg, Mariette's Province

It really came as a shock. After a couple of days we were allowed to return home, to find out what would be left of it. My Dad, middle brother and I made the trip back to our village. What we encountered there was devastating; most houses destroyed or heavily damaged, including ours, greenhouses shattered, trees uprooted and so on. That very night we all three slept inside an old carpet, we of course didn't have a bed. When we woke up in the morning, a couple of days before my sixteenth Birthday, the sun was already shining and as we stood there, overlooking the ruins what once we called home, my Dad put his arms around our shoulders and hugging us tightly said: 'We are the happiest, luckiest people on earth–we are free and all alive!'

THANK YOU AMERICA

The war in Europe was over but not for our family, because the Dutch were still at war in Indonesia.

My oldest brother served there for three years.

My second brother, a marine, for two and a half year.

And I served in The Netherlands for two years as a commander with the 155 Howitzer battalion.

I did not have time to go into all the detail but believe me; this period had a big impact on my life.

One very important lesson I have learned is that FREEDOM IS NOT FOR FREE but is ONE OF THE BIGGEST GOODS IN LIFE.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! 🇺🇸

Pieter J.C. Vedder

Comment below this post from WWII Veteran, Physician and Congressman J Roy Rowland from Wrightsville, GA who lived and died in Dublin, GA.

{December 30, 1993 U.S. flag flown over U.S. Capitol for both of us!} | Congressman J Roy Rowland arranged this...

{MEMORIAL DAY - FREEDOM HAS ITS PRICE} | written by Pieter

Husband Pieter Talks About His Experiences during WWII in TV Interview | later post

Five out of Six Swinson Brothers died while serving during Civil War

 Yes, at times history can be very cruel...

This happened also to one family, here in Laurens County, Georgia; the Swinson family where FIVE out of six brothers that served, died during the Civil War.

Yes, they all SIX served in the military... Imagine the pain it caused for the Parents! 

Here are Mom & Dad, visiting this historical site on April 10, 1996.

Swinson Family Cemetery Memorials ←click on link and on each name

Only brother Starkey Warren Swinson did come back home alive, after his service during the Civil War.

Gabriel G served in the Georgia Infantry and died in Vicksburg, Mississippi

John A served also in the Georgia Infantry and died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Starkey W served also in the Georgia Infantry but was the ONLY brother that survived, and he died in 1914 in Broxton, Georgia

Thomas Elliott served as Volunteer in the Georgia Infantry and died in Raleigh, North Carolina

William Pinkney served in the Georgia Infantry and died in Laurens County, Georgia

Young Woodward served in the Georgia Infantry and died in Richmond, Virginia

FREEDOM has its price...

Written by my husband Pieter: MEMORIAL DAY - FREEDOM HAS ITS PRICE

This post is written by my husband Pieter J.C. Vedder.

A very personal story, that highlights Memorial Day.

May the younger generation come to appreciate the true meaning of FREEDOM...

Over the years, the two most asked questions we have had to answer have been: where are you from (because of our accent) and also; do you like it here.

The answer to the first question is quite simple; we came to this country from The Netherlands almost 35 years ago and in 1993, we both became American citizen. 

Then the second question; Do we like it here? You bet! We both really LOVE this great country, especially the South and not the least, Laurens County.

Perhaps you like to hear a few reasons for our love affair with this country and especially with Georgia.
First of all, there is the ample living space for everybody. Compare this: the state of Georgia is 4.7 times bigger than The Netherlands, but has only about half the population. 

We once bought a lot in the Venice area of Italy, where we lived and we had to pay over 40,000 US dollars for approx 8,500 sq. ft.(0.195133 acre). We paid less here for a couple of acres. 

Taxes in the US are also lower then in most European countries (although the Democrats in this country are trying hard to match them). We also found it relatively easy to integrate in this community; the people in general are friendly and perhaps less nosy and envious then in Europe.

Then there is the climate. Okay, we might have some hot days and we have gnats and fire ants. But if you think that you are better off shoveling your car out of a pile of snow (we lived in Pennsylvania too) you may have it.

But what we appreciate most, and what many Americans, especially the young generation, take for granted, is the personal freedom. 

As a teenage boy, I have experienced what it means to loose your freedom. Especially the last year from the five years under German occupation has had a big impact on my life.
For months we have been under heavy artillery fire. (We lived close to the German border and the river Rhine). Shrapnel wounded me; we had to leave our home and village and had to evacuate to another part of the country etc. Many families lost loved ones as the result of bombardments. The Germans executed two sons 17 and 23 from a befriended family staying with us, my middle brother just escaping that ordeal. 

We were lucky that we lived in the countryside (my dad was in the greenhouse business) therefore we always could find something to eat but the people in the big cities were really starving. When, on September 17, 1944 the Operation Market Garden started in our area (near Arnhem) dropping thousands of paratroopers to secure the bridges over the rivers we thought that the war would soon be over for us. We were wrong; we still had to wait almost half a year. 

Can you imagine the feelings we experienced when, in April of 1945 the American troops and their allies finally liberated us. I will never forget that day in April when we came back to our small village from our half-year evacuation, finding the greenhouses flattened and most of the houses ruined, including ours. We slept that night, rolled in an old carpet (we didn’t have a bed yet) and when we woke up, the sun was already shining. My dad put his arms around us and said; we are the richest family on earth; we are all free and alive.

Thank you America, we will never forget what you and your Allies did for us and we will never forget that so many young and brave Americans, among others, have given their lives for our freedom.

Margraten overview of American Cemetery in Limburg, The Netherlands

The pictures show the American Cemetery: Fallen But Not Forgotten in Margraten of the Province Limburg where Mariette is born and where we both lived. This is the final resting place for 8,301 young American soldiers. Freedom has its price!
The Dutch observe their Remembrance Day May 4 and Liberation Day May 5, but they've made it a tradition on the Sunday before the U.S. Memorial Day to pay tribute to the American service members who fought for freedom and are now buried at the cemetery in Margraten.
Today is the 73th time that they observed this.

Seen on one of the photos is: William A Mc Kenna Jr Capt 121 INF 8 Div Georgia Dec 25 1944…

Photos taken by my brother: Martin Van den Munckhof except overview cemetery.

Related links:

{Margraten - Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in my Province of Limburg}
12½ jaar L1 - Amerikaanse president in Limburg | President George W. Bush visits Margraten on May, 8 in 2005. He did stay at the Château Hotel, St. Gerlach and was very complimentary towards the Staff. Proud of my Province of birth Limburg!

President Honors and Commemorates Veterans in the Netherlands - Margraten, The Netherlands | From White House Archives May 8, 2005
Dutch Queen and Bush lead VE Day memorial | YouTube video