The Dutch Girl
Some stories are so poignant they need to be told
“18,000 Dutch citizens Die of Starvation”
That was a British newspaper headline in 1945.
The Nazi killing machine overran Europe in World War Two. The Dutch were being methodically starved by the German Army.
One member of our senior home was intimately familiar with that piece of history. She was our Dutch girl.
She always came on time to Happy Hour with her non-alcohol drink. Her name was Julia. She was from Amsterdam Holland. She was a child during the German occupation of her country.
Her older brother went to school with Anne Frank before she went into hiding.
I asked Julia about the winter of 1944–45 when 18,000 Dutch died of starvation.
She said, “I remember stepping over dead bodies. They called it the Hunger Winter”.
I asked her if she remembered the Allied planes dropping food to the starving Dutch. She replied, “Yes, I remember it. I remember too the Germans shooting the Dutch and taking the food. Some of our people got food by grabbing it and running from the German soldiers”.
During Operation Manna/Chowhound, the American and British bombers dropped 11,000 tons of food down to the Dutch. Her…
