Description
Object description
Dutch private served with Royal Netherlands Army in Netherlands, 5/1940; civilian member of Dutch Resistance in Netherlands, 5/1940-9/1941; escaped from Netherlands to GB via Switzerland and Spain, 9/1941-5/1943; officer trained as pilot with Netherlands Naval Air Service in GB and Canada, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Voorburg, Netherlands, 1914-1939: family circumstances; education; life in inter-war period; military service; belief that Netherlands could keep out of Second World War, 1939. Recollections private served with Royal Netherlands Army in Netherlands, 5/1940: hearing news of German invasion, 10/5/1940; under German Air Force attack, 10/5/1940; pro-German elements in Royal Netherlands Army; crossing onto islands by ferry; lack of sleep in role as dispatch rider; news of Dutch capitulation, 15/5/1940; return home to Voorburg after 15/5/1940. Recollections of membership of Dutch Resistance in Netherlands, 1940-1942: start of collection of weapons.
REEL 2 Continues: capture of German Army automatic pistol, 10/1940; retrieving ammunition from dyke; clash with members of National Socialist Movement members in Voorburg, 1941; resistance organisation he belonged to in Voorburg; distribution of newssheets; capture of resistance member and his fate; refuge in countryside in eastern Netherlands, 1941. Aspects of escape from Netherlands to Switzerland, 9/1941-1/1942: plans to escape using false papers; route of escape through Belgium and France, 1/1942.
REEL 3 Continues: arrival in Switzerland, 1/1942. Aspects of period as internee in Switzerland, 1942: interrogation; move to internment camp; skiing accident; plans to escape to Spain. Recollections of escape from Switzerland to Spain via France, 1942-1943: problems with identity papers in France; interrogation at Annecy, France; aid he received from cleric at Annecy, France; hiding in monastery in Lyons area, France; aid from Jesuit priest to buy rail tickets.
REEL 4 Continues: arrival at Narbonne then Perpignan, France; problems crossing into Spain from Perpignan, France; question of Jewish civilians in Switzerland not believing Holocaust stories; injury to brother's foot; narrow escape from German search; problems getting his injured brother into Spain.
REEL 5 Continues: crossing into Spain; reporting to police and imprisonment at Figueras, Spain; story of obtaining flea infestation in French farm before crossing into Spain. Aspects of period as refugee in Spain and Portugal, 3/1943-4/1943: conditions in Figueras Prison, Spain, 3/1943; visit by Dutch consul and move to Pamplona, Spain; nature of problem with brother's leg; life in Madrid, Spain, 3/1943; move to Portugal, 4/1943; flight from Lisbon, Portugal to GB, 5/5/1943; interrogation on arrival in GB, 5/5/1943.
REEL 6 Continues: Aspects of training as pilot with Netherlands Naval Air Service in GB and Canada, 1943-1945: wish to join Royal Netherlands Air Force; reasons for joining Netherlands Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force for flying training; obtaining wings in Canada, 1944; story of how he became a pilot instructor with Netherlands Naval Air Service at Bergen-op-Zoom in Netherlands, 1946.