Lakeshore Advance, 2012-10-17, Page 25www trio. rr,.M'SS
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 • Lakeshore Manes 5
4: Leo De Bruyn
Lakeshore Advance
•
Each November 1 lth we honour the thou-
sands of soldiers who risked their lives to help
restore peace throughout the world. We are
proud of them and will always remember them,
however, there are also thousands of untold
stories of ordinary people who suffered through
the wat lost family members and today still live
with the memories of the pain and atrocities
which happened during the war. Here is a true
story of such a family, my own family. My story
covers the period of 1944 to 1945.
War is not just, bombing, shooting, killing,
destruction of property and individuals, it is
more, it's a time of great suffering, of hunger
and starvation. It's a time of feat of unbelieva-
ble bravery by some. It's a time we cannot and
should not ever forget. We just hope that we
and especially the younger generation may
never have to experience it again.
During the second- world war, when the
German army occupied my country, I was then
just 7 years old. The war ended when 1 was
nearly 12. As I remember it, it was pure misery.
Most of the time during the first couple of years,
we lived in fear and with veru little food to
sustain us. We often had to stand in line to
obtain rations of bread and some vegetables.
The bread was available sometimes only two or
three tinges a week and was often stale. It was
tough to cut and even tougher to chew. We had
no butter or margarine, no jam and we had
never even heard of peanut butter.
On many occasions, while standing in line
to get bread, we would separate. My mother
would be behind me and my sister would be a
couple of rows ahead of me. In doing so we
hoped to receive 3 loafs of bread. Sometimes
this worked, sometimes it didn't but when we
managed to get three loaves, we would keep
one and trade the other two for onions or beets
and sometimes a few potatoes.
My father was in Germany as a forced
labourer In a camp near a sub marine shipyard.
We seldom heard from him. If lucky we
received a letter handed to a worker who was
sent home because of a sickness and thus we
were able to find out about our father's
situation.
While mywatr , my sister
ami l \ ;�;, Who was born in
of this, we were
by the Gestapo
were corrununi-
or Americans..
the truth. We
by, to find toad
telt get us a
for adoppie
or,
tune, until the war was
over.
I recall that some
schools, including our
own, were closed since the
German soldiers occupied
them.
My sister and I would go to our school
with a container trying to obtain some food.
We would ask the guard if he would let us
inside the school so we could sing for the
officers and soldiers and hope to receive
something to eat.
Depending on the guard, we would be
allowed to walk through the classrooms, sing
for the soldiers and walk away with some rye
bread, a bit of left -over stew, one or two
sausages and a couple of candles.
We had a good repertoire since my
grandmother had taught us long before, some
German folk songs. She was born in Munich
and remembered many of these tunes. We did
not realize that these songs would, sometime in
the future, keep us from starvation.
My sister and I trust have been really good
because at least twice a week we were singing
and came home with our container filled with
food. This lasted about 3 months until the army
vacated the school.
One year before the end of the war, as the
German army was forced to leave our town, in
reprisal, they started to shell our City every 15
minutes from an area just beyond a river
bordering the town.
It became too dangerous to stay in an
apartment and some of us, moved in with
friends or relatives who owned a house.
My father's older brother lived in a small
townhouse and offered shelter.
Together with two aunts and two uncles as
well as our grandmother, my sister, my mom,
and myself we all settled in the basement of my
uncle's house. There were 9 of us plus a dog.
All of us lived in this basement for several
months, sharing whatever food was available. I
still can't imagine where the rations came from.
We huddled together in that basement with just
an oil lamp for light but more often candles. We
exchanged stories, we tried to read a bit, and we
prayed often and sometimes visited with our
n
The adults in the family, especially the men,
would occasionally sneak out of the cellar
especially when the safe siren sound was heard.
I believe that they were checking the
neighbourhood to establish the damages
caused by the attacks. My mother also told me
that bartering for food to keep our.
ambled.
Al time went on, the Germans left their
Position and moved back towards thee�n
. wee The idled forces would*
AO* Owe oktitto4m. the German
volt to cthM�idlledcrafliaravy
end
1
the basement or
bunkers. We cuddled
up in fear, prayed and
waited, hoping that we
would survive the
shelling and the
bombing.
It was awful. It was
scary. I still remember the
sound of the air fights, the
sound of bombs falling
nearby and the artillery shells
whistling across from our shelter. We
could hear the fire engines travelling while
sounding their alarm bells as well as the bells of
ambulances travelling to assist to wounded.
When the siren finally came on indicating that
the attack was over, we hugged everyone and
thanked God that He spared our lives.
Some adults would leave the shelter to
examine any damage done by the attacks and
also to find out if any neighbours, who did not
make it to the shelters in time, were still alive.
Just three months before the war ended and
all the occupying Germans were replaced by
the Allies, the British, the Americans and many
Canadians, in a last desperate effort to perhaps
punish many citizens as well as some of the
Allied forces, the Germans launched a V lxnnb
and rocket attack.
The V bomb flew without a pilot till the
engine ran out of fuel. When the alarm
sounded, indicating one or more of these
bombs %vere approaching, we all rushed to our
basements if they were still intact or we ran to
the bunkers, which the City had made
available.
After -seeking shelter, we waited in silence
until the roar of the V bomb stopped. We all
knew that it would take about 20 seconds for
the bomb to bit a target. Nobody knew where
the bomb would drop and our fear was that an
area nearby would be the target, leaving
homes destroyed and many civilians wounded
and perhaps even dead.
We usually counted to 20, the equivalent of
the time before the bomb would hit a target
and explode. If, after we counted to 20, we
could hear an explosion, it meant that the
destruction was a kilometer or so away from
our shelter and we were safe till the next bomb
approached. This went on for nearly five weeks
until the Germans ran out of these weapons.
No sooner did we all feel a great relief when
the Germans launched a final attack with a
newtydeveloped rocket. These killingweapons
had no sound at all. They were launched near
the Black Forest in Germany, went up straight
in the air nearly twenty kilometers high, then
they slowed down and turned around and
came down at full speed and when they
,exploded, they caused massive destruction and
These rockets hit various targets throughout
pur City. 'here were no warning signs and we
lived by chances, trying to stay inside a
r ato kerhoping that/w� a would
l by any of rockets.i . F �..
I rernetaber� 1944, sometime near the eta
of Antal, A two *e *bad one by
attacks and we
eats we a
.� 4
One day, my sister and I left our living
accommodations, which by now %vete► in a
converted garage. We were ctr>ssittg the Street
to visit some friends when alt of sudden one of
the very last rockets ever launched from
Germany landed one block away %loin where
we lived. 'she explosion was tulite'ievahle and I
cannot explain how severe it was. Within
seconds of the explosion a noise of tumbling
bricks filled the air. A giant dust cloud sista six
to seven stories high appeared and coveted the
street and the few houses that were still
standing. I could not set' a thing,
For what seemed to be a long time, the aurae
was totally dark. 1 had lost sight of my sister
even though 1 knew that she held my hand just
before the explosion. When the e1ust Anti
finally cleared, I started to call my sister's
name.
The street was covered with people, some
severely wounded, some motionless, Voices
carne from some of the people who cried tilt'
help or just cried because ot the sustained tips
and injuries. I could not find my sister and as 1
was trying to cross the street, stepping over
bodies, l finally found her under what seemed
to be the body of a woman, My sister was in
shock and pointed to her tight foot. which was
almost severed, from her ankle.1 took to jacket
off and wrapped it around her toot hoping to
keep it all together.'lhen i thawed nw sister to
what appeared to be an iron doorway of a
house we knew. 1 Intended to pull her Inside
only to find out that the iron loot was the only
thing lett standing, the rest of the house was
gone.
I started to yell for help. 1 could hear bells of
tire engines and ambulances and yelleot even
louder, Two soldiers (Canadi;uls 1 round out
later) had driven by our a n'a shot ttv hetow the
explosion took place and now wen, looking tits
survivors. When they heard my seteams, they
cattle towards us. 1 showed them my sister's
foot and within seconds, they gently picked her
up and took her to their Jeeep. Once she was in
the Jeep, one of the soldiers turned sound and
motioned to me to join then!, 1 walked over to
the vehicle and as 1 stepped inside and tried to
sit down, 1 could not and then 1 rtalited that a
piece of shrapnel, about the size of a fountain
pen had penetrated my buttesks,
With my sister 111 the bark 00 one of the
soldier's lap and myself trying to hang on to the
roof of the Jeep, we were driven to the neatest
school where emergency utilities were set up
In the meantime, while all of this was
happening, we did not know where aur mother
was. We found out several hours later that she
too received shrapnel fragments eept►ctlly to
the head She had been blown out of a wine
onto the street beioie the hoot the was in
collapsed and she rvsati'ut lytto%lobe.This in
itself was son pot 10 tenmher
because then
out of anes ► a ,' wombat ni n
surgery by givgive
„„ ...
injections, The 'ave rnY
titer's foot. I a memory
ofthe war injuria+. �► moth ►1osthe, Meiling
Leo
the to her htMd.
luso Ire Bruyn
was born in Antwerp Belgium
1933. Hely t1,04 Grind Cove