Page. 10 == Saturday, January 13, 1945

In Liberated Holland

By Set. Jack Phillips

goods or boarded up.

before they left. They even
took pedal-bikes, wheelbar-
rows and baby carriages to

carry away their loot and per-
sonal belongings. Quite a come-
down for the mechanized, blitz-
army of 1940!

By kind .permission of the
proprietor we are using this
eafe as a club room.

Although all private dwell-
ings and cafes are allowed to
burn only one 25 watt lamp be-
tween 6:00 and 10;00 p-m. we
have two in the cafe. The big:
bower plant nearby was dyna-
mited by the Germans, but a
small generating plant is now
functioning. We asked permis-
Sion to have an extra light, and
it was gladly given. Under
similar circumstances, the Ger-

- mans would have ordered an-
-other light to be used.

e

HOLLAND has had a hard

time of it during the oceu-
pation, and she is talange a ter-
rible beating now. Speak to any
Hollander whose home has been
destroyed or badly- damaged,
and there must be hundreds of
thousands of them; speak to a
Hollander whose town or city
has been ravaged by the Ger-
mans; speak to a relative of
one of the 400,000 Hollanders
forcibly taken to Germany for
slave labor; speak to any of
these and you will find no ad-
vocate for a soft, sentimental
peace with Germany.

The following notes on ra-
tions under German National
Socialism will give you- some

The people of Europe have suffered hu nger,

rule.

idea of how short the average
Hollander was of the very
necessities of life—unless he
could afford to buy on the black
-market.

1940-1942: Meat, 9 ounces
per person per week, including
bones; butter, 9 ounces per per-
son, per week (consumer had
to buy 9 ounces of one): eges,
none except for farmers and
those keeping chickens; bread,
5 pounds of ersatz, brown, per
person per week; cheese, suffi-
cient for children, but only min-
ute quantities for adults; choco-
late, none; tea and coffee, none
but ersatz: smokes, two ounces
of cigarette tobaceo a week, or
40 cigarettes, or 10 cigars for
men over 18; for women half

rations.
Clothes: In nine months a
man received 80 points. One

suit and one overcoat ate up
almost all these precious points.
As in Belgium, rationed clothes
were made of poor material.
Shoes were not rationed, but
plication had to be made to the
nearest local distribution cen-=
ter, from where, once a month,
all applications were sent to
the national distribution center.
The head teacher of the nearby
Catholic primary school told
me he was able to buy only two
pair of shoes legally during the
occupation. When he bought
on the black market he was
lucky to be able to buy for only
18 Gulden, a five Gulden pair
of shoes. Other civilians who
didn’t have a “friend,” had to
pay 35 Gulden. This same
brother’s salary was slashed

‘ [ AM writing this in a cafe (tavern) located in a sleepy Holland town of less than
10,000. There isn’t much life in this town, and nearly all the stores are empty of

The Germans stole just about everything they could get hold of

by 40 percent when the Ger-
mans took over.

Suits that had sold at 25-50
Gulden in peace time were
black marketed for as much as
306 Gulden. Women were al-
most as bad off for clothes, and
every woman and wife had to
sew and mend to keep herself
and her family from nakedness
—unless she had big money to
hand out.

To understand how fan-
tastic these black market
prices were, you must know
how much the people earned.
The average laborer in Hol-
land made about 25-35 Gui-
den a week and the average
slalled worker around 40-45.
Young workers drew from
five to fifteen Gulden a week,
and domestics, as in Canada,
earned yery little more than
their board. on

There was considerable traf-
fic in tobacco and cigars smug-=
gled into the country from Bel-
gium, and the poor classes paid
more than a good price ‘for
contraband shag. Before the
war, 50 gummed cigarette pa-
pers sold for five cents (1/20th
of a Gulden). During the oc-
cupation the legal price rose to
88 cents. The black market
price was 11% -Gulden, about
65 cents in Canadian money at
present rate of exchange.

During the 1942-44 period
rations grew slimmer and black
market prices rose to new
heights. A few examples:

Bread, 65 ounces per person,
per week; butter, fat or mar-

gerine, nine ounces per person

Starvation and oppression under Nazi
Above is pictured a group of murdered civilians uncovered by Allied forces.

for 12 days; meats, 41% ounces
per person for a week (includ-
ing bones); smokes, men’s ra-
tions cut in half and then ail
rations cut by 10 percent. 20
good cigarettes that sold on the
black market for two to six
Gulden during the first period
rose in price-to 12 Gulden.”

HEN the Germans first

came they tried to win over
the Hollanders as friends. But
they failed, except for those
few miserable traitors who be-
trayed their country in 1940,
and those few industrialists
and misguided citizens who be-
eame collaborators for selfish
gain, or because they had no
faith in Allied victory.

During the first two and a
half years of occupation there
was comparatively little ter-
rorism.

Seyss-Inquart ruled as Reich
Commissar, assisted by Dutch
and German advisers. The Ges-
tapo were little in evidence and
the enforcement of German law
rested, outwardly at least, with
the Netherlands police and- the
German garrisons.

Using the cinemas, the press,
the newspapers and the bill-
boards, the Germans carried on
an active propaganda cam-
paign.

The number of classes in pri-
mary school was inereased
from seven to eight, and in-
struction in German language
made compulsory in the last
two classes. The text book was
written by a Dutch and a Ger.
man -educationalist, and was
not Nazi propaganda. A teach-
er I spoke to told me the Hol-
land people would never have
stomached such a book, and the
Nazi knew it. Their idea was
to teach young boys and girls
German from a “harmless”
text book of the old school, and
then win them over to Nazi
ideology through the mediums
of the German controlled press,
wireless and the cinema. But
most teachers in MHolland’s
primary school carried out a
campaign of intellectual sabo-
tage; they never found Hme to
teach German.

One Catholic teacher from
this community was senten-
ced to 22 months in a con-
centration camp for declar-
ing: “You’d beter spend your
time , learning English. It
will be of more use to you in
the future.”

OON after the conquest of
Holland the Jews began to
feel the cruel weight of Nazi
persecution. They were forced
to wear the yellow star in pub-
lie, were eliminated from busi-_
ness and professional life, and
banned from all public places,
such as cafes, cinemas, thea-

tres, parks, trains, railway
stations restaurants, etc.

In 1943, the Nazis began
mass arrests. Jewish men,

women and children, of all ages
and all conditions, were ruth-
lessly snatched from their
homes and carted to Germany
in cattle cars. From Germany,

-of the

SGT. JACK PHILLIPS

those that survived were
to the mass murder factoric |
Poland. :

By 1941, there were no J
left in Holland except 7
who had been hidden away
their Christian friends.

Early in 1943, the Cat
bishops of Holland prote |
against this barbaric treat
of the Jews in a telegran
Seyss-Inquart. Almost sir’
taneously, they issued a le
of denunciation which was i
in every Gatholic Church
Holland. So great was
Spiritual power of the Cath
Church—so great the indig #
tion aroused by the inhw
persecution of the Jews— |
no disciplinary action
taken against the church
this bold protest. f

In the spring of 1948, the
cupation took on more ¢
political aspect. The Ger
S:S. and Gestapo were ey
Where, in uniform and in p
clothes.

The leaders of trade unié
and political parties w:
either arrested and held '
hostages, or driven unde
ground. The Dutch Na}
(NSB) headed by Miussi |
and numbering about 100,0 |
were taken off the she ;
dusted and placed in ?¢]
limelight. From their ran’ |
were recruited the Dut })
S.S., S.A. Gestapo arf
NSKB Ghighly paid tram
port corps workings for t 9
Germans).

Mayors, senior civil servai
army officers, police offict
station masters, works ma
gers and other important fu
tionaries were removed in fa)
“reliable traitors.”
NSB man became president |
the Netherlands National Bz
and more money poured off ‘#
printings presses and floor
the country. f

The miserable traitors ¥
sold their honor and coun’!
in 1940, and who had be
hungry for spoils ever sit
seemed to have come into th:
own. At last they were getti
a fat share of. the spoils. /
tually, most of them got 0
the crumbs from the Germs
who despised them as much
our policemen despise prof |
sional stool pigeons. 1

—Continued on Page