Als ik contact krijg met de dochter van Anna, noemt zij de naam van mijn moeders broer. Niet mijn vader was verloofd met Anna maar mijn moeders broer Joop.
De verloofden worden uiteen gerukt door de oorlog. Anna vlucht in de begindagen van mei 1940 met haar ouders, broers en zusjes op een bootje naar Engeland.
Dit schrijft Femma, Anna’s dochter daarover:
My mother escaped Holland along with her whole family apart from her eldest brother Max who was in the army. It was a very dramatic escape. There were three fishing boats with nearly a hundred people in each (they were supposed to hold about 12). The harbour was mined and the boat my mother was in, was machine gunned – she had very vivid memories of this as you can imagine. It took three days to get across . Only one of the three boats made it as far as we know. On one of the other boats two sisters were found drowned. It was believed it was my mother and her sister Klaara and they were buried with their names. So people in Holland would have assumed they had died. My mother also received news from her brother Max that her fiancé had found someone else and not to wait for him.
I’m happy to tell you that my mother and father had a good marriage though my mother was scarred emotionally from all she went through. I’m sure there were many who suffered the scars of war and separation. She went through the blitz in London but met my father when the family tried to find her sister Klaara and brother Maup (they had been sent away from London). My father’s English family was Dutch speaking and overheard my mothers family speaking and befriended them. My father fell for my Mum the moment he met her so he told me. She took a while to warm to him, he was only 16 and she was 21. She said he was too young for her but my father did not give up. They married in 1945. My brother was born in 1949 and I in 1954. They emigrated back to Holland after the war and we stayed till 1963 then we moved back to England and have remained since. My mother died in 2003 after losing my father in 1999.
All the people on her boat survived. When the machine gunning started everyone hit the deck (I believe in the hold) she said you could see the bulletin holes appearing. They were constantly afraid of mines and bombs. When they had been at sea for two days they saw an aircraft and thought it was the end. Thank goodness it was a British plane and it showed them the way. They landed in Poole Harbour and were quarantined on an island for some time – a few weeks I think.
Anna’s verloofde Joop trouwt in 1941. Hij vertrekt in 1957 met zijn hele gezin naar Australië.
het is onbekend of de twee geliefden elkaar ooit weer hebben gezien.
Anna kort na haar huwelijk.