OCCUPATION! The experiences of a Dutch youth in the Second World War

摘要

The war between England and Germany broke out in September 1939, but the invasion of Holland, Belgium and France only started on 10 May 1940. Holland had hoped to be able to stay out of the war (as she had managed to do in the First World War, 1914-1918), but the German dictator, Adolf Hitler, had other plans. I was 12 years old at the time and remember that tenth day of May 1940 very well. It was a beautiful Spring morning and I stood on the balcony of our house in Rijswijk, a municipality adjoining The Hague, and watched German paratroopers descending from the sky.