Marijke and Toon Hermsen were both evacuated

'All together on the run, welcomed with open arms'

Marijke Jansen and Toon Hermsen have been married for 57 years. When they met, they did not know they shared a history. Both were part of a family that had to evacuate during the period around Market Garden in September 1944. Marijke ended up in Friesland, Toon in East Flanders. "We were very well received," says Toon.

Marijke was only a few months old when her family had to leave Arnhem on Sept. 18. "I know nothing about that myself, but later heard all kinds of anecdotes about it," she said. Her father was a company manager at the brickworks on Meinerswijk, south of the Rhine River. North of the river, the Allies had landed in Wolfheze (Sept. 17) and on Ginkel Heath (Sept. 19). They moved toward the river.

At the same time, the Allied armies were moving from North Brabant toward the Rhine River. But their advance was delayed. "Because of that my parents were in the middle of the Germans, it was very dangerous. My mother told me that one time she was walking with me in the baby carriage and she was accosted by a German soldier. He looked into the baby carriage and my mother was terribly afraid that something would happen to me. What happened? He had to cry. After all, he himself had just had a baby with his wife and he had never seen his baby before because he was at the front. "

Her parents fled with their family and her uncle's family; there were ten of them in all. "The whole gang set out by horse and cart, accompanied by the Red Cross. On the way, adults slept on beds made of straw; I was in the baby carriage. Of course, no one had many things with them. My mother apparently had a big bar of soap with her, and she traded small pieces of soap for a few diapers along the way."

After brief stays in Huissen, 's-Heerenberg and Doetinchem, they finally arrived in Friesland, in the village of Raard (near Dokkum). Here many evacuees were received. "There were more refugees than people living there. The reception was not always by choice, but we were received with love. We had enough food despite the Hunger Winter, and most importantly, it was safe there. The elderly man who lived there gave us the whole house and took a room in his own house himself. My mother kept the place clean and the older children went to school. We didn't notice much of the war there. Although my parents never spoke much about that period, they looked back on it well."
Toon, then five years old, lived with his family in Nijmegen's Willemskwartier. "A family with seven young children in a city where the bombs and shells were falling. On Feb. 22, 1944, we had seen the downtown burning in the distance from our house after the bombing. In September 1944, Nijmegen was liberated, but the city was still on the front lines for months."

Toon's parents thought it was far too dangerous in the city and decided to flee Nijmegen. "First we went to Wijchen, but that was overrun by evacuees. So we moved on to Berghem. For a while there was talk of leaving for the south of France. But how then? We couldn't walk that whole distance, of course. The evacuation committee then decided that we would go with a group to Geraardsbergen in East Flanders. Our family ended up in a farmhouse with a nice couple. My parents were very accommodating people, so it soon clicked. My youngest brother was born after the war and is named after the people who took us in there."

There were many people from the vicinity of Nijmegen and the Betuwe in the Geraardsbergen area. "I believe my parents were kept informed of developments in the Netherlands through a newspaper," says Toon. "I have never seen such a newspaper myself, I am curious to know what it said."
Toon and Marijke's families had a good time where they ended up. Still, fleeing from home and hearth was a violent event. Still whenever Toon and Marijke see images of war passing by, they think back to it. Toon: "It is very bad to have to leave and leave everything behind, but you want a safe place. When we had to evacuate, the end of the war was in sight. But for many refugees, as for example from Ukraine, that is far from certain."

Marijke returned to Arnhem with her family in June 1945. "When we came home our whole house had been ransacked. However, there were things that had never been ours. Those may have been exchanged for other things in the house. My parents had to rebuild everything, but I never heard anything about that. It was just the way it was."

Toon's parents and their children also returned home after the liberation. Except the youngest brother Kees. Toon: "The couple we were billeted with had no children of their own. They wanted to keep our Kees. A few weeks later my father picked him up anyway."
In their house in Nijmegen, nothing had been taken away. "The sugar bowl was still on the table, exactly as we had left it in a hurry. But there was a lot of sadness. My mother's brother was killed by a splinter bomb while we were in Belgium," Toon recounted.

His parents never told much about the war or their stay in Geraardsbergen. Years later, he himself went back. "It looked very different than in my memories. Apparently you create your own reality in your head. In retrospect, it's a shame I didn't talk more about it with my parents." Marijke recognizes that. "It's important to keep remembering those stories. So that our children and grandchildren also know what it was like to flee and be well taken care of."

Arnhem/Nijmegen region heavily affected

With Operation Market Garden in September 1944, the Arnhem/Nijmegen region found itself in the front lines. Thousands were killed and wounded. In Arnhem and the surrounding area, more than 100,000 people had to evacuate, in Groesbeek and surrounding towns almost 30,000, in the Betuwe also about 30,000 people. Cities such as Arnhem, Nijmegen and Tiel were heavily damaged, as well as the surrounding villages. Tens of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed.

The area remained under fire until liberation in April/May 1945. Many evacuees were not able to return home until the summer of 1945.
After the war, the Dutch Red Cross calculated that out of a population of 9 million, the Netherlands had 900,000 war victims. In Gelderland, this was 300,000 out of 950,000 inhabitants. The definition the Red Cross used for "war victims": persons who had lost most of their possessions and were in very needy circumstances.