9. September 1944: Crazy Tuesday

September 5 became to be known as "Crazy Tuesday". It was a day when the wildest rumours spread. They became stronger and stronger: “The Allies have arrived in Brabant!”; “No: they're in Rotterdam!”  Others claimed English troops had been seen in Leiden. 

The rumours were so convincing that many members of the NSB fled. 

Even German soldiers started to become nervous and departed for the East. 

Later we realised the rumours were completely unfounded. But I do remember how excited the whole family became with the idea that we were to be liberated in a matter of hours.

On September 17, the day of the landing of the British near Arnhem, Queen Wilhelmina was on Radio Orange calling for the railways to go on strike. This had serious consequences. The Dutch railway system was paralyzed and caused the Germans a number of logistical problems. 

It also caused great hardship for the Dutch railway workers who were left without pay as they had to go into hiding from then on until the end of the war. 

Many of them were replaced with German railway workers in order to get the military transportation system working again. Of course by then, passenger transportation had ground to a halt.

There was a railway bridge across the Karnemelksloot in Naarden, which the Resistance sabotaged one night, causing a train to derail. The steam engine could be seen hanging precariously from the bridge, just short of falling in the water. 

All rail transportation from the province of North Holland to Germany was held up. 

The Germans were quick to retaliate. A house close to the damaged bridge was set alight. It belonged to the Jewish parents of one of my classmates. The Germans forbade the fire brigade to do anything until the house was fully engulfed in fire. I found it very tragic to see a beautiful house being purposely destroyed.

Source: http://naarden-bezetting.blogspot.ca/

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Footnote:

The story about this period is described more fully (in Dutch) in a typewritten 1989 account on http://stichtingvijverberg.nl/Downloads/Omroeper_198902_LR.pdf

Because of the rumours about imminent liberation on September 5, NSB members and Nazi sympathizers were in such a panic that as many as 65,000 people fled.

From September 17 to 27, the Allies tried to capture the bridges over the Rhine around Arnhem, but the Germans were well organized. On the 26th, the British were forced to retreat.

The Resistance stepped up its activities during this time. The Germans didn't take any half measures with their reprisals. Many completely innocent people were shot on the spot or and tens of thousands of men were sent to labour camps.

The house in this story was in fact a large duplex described as a villa on the Juliana van Stolberglaan. #116 was occupied by a Mrs. Goldstein-Van Zelm, who wasn't Jewish herself but married to a German Jew. The Germans ordered her to leave the house immediately, though after she showed her German passport to the Germans, they moved on to the next door house (#114), where the family Hamers lived. 

This family had two sons, aged 17 and 21. Mr. Hamers was terrified the Germans would shoot or arrest the two sons. After searching the house, they gave the family ten minutes to leave.

In their panic, all the family brought with them were some coats, religious books and a chair. Mr. Hamers had previously received a large insurance payout and had hidden it somewhere in the house.They completely forgot to bring this money and their jewellery, and ended up losing almost all that they had in the fire. 

After the war, it was discovered that Mrs Goldstein-van Zelm had hidden many Jews in her house, including two living there at the time of the reprisal. I wasn't able to find out whether they escaped the fire. 

It appears the Hamers were renters. Their house belonged to a national socialist, who had bought it from a Jewish family, Gerrardus and Esther Vita-Israel, who were deported to Sobibor, where they died in 1943:

The Hamers were not Jewish, and there is a claim in a post-war publication that they were national socialists themselves. This claim was vehemently denied by the family's two sons.

Mr. and Mrs Goldstein-Van Zelm had two children, Edgar Ernst and Jenneke Ruth. It's unclear where they, or Mr. Goldstein, were at the time of the fire. The couple divorced in September 1945. 

Putting the two accounts together, it's not clear whether the "Jewish parents of one of my classmates" refers to the family Vita-Israel or Mrs. Goldstein-van Zelm. However, there is no mention of the Vita-Israels having any children.

In the days after the fire, hundreds of residents came out to look at the burned shell of the house, which was rebuilt in 1948.