Five Brothers and a War

Billeting of German Soldiers

One of the orders given to the Dutch population was to utilize unoccupied rooms to billet German soldiers. The German commander in Rotterdam, immediately upon the Dutch capitulation, wrote the following order (in Dutch and German):

While this order was for the city of Rotterdam, the same thing happened throughout the nation—albeit at different times. In Den Haag, the Tadema house on the Speenkruidstraat was visited by two German soldiers in 1942 and was deemed to be able to house one German soldier. The young man was named Willy Södmelk, and he confided that he wanted to be home with his family, including his newborn infant whom he had not yet met. The relationship between the Tademas and Willy was very cordial, to the point that from time to time he brought dinner from the German military mess facility to the Tademas. In fact, Immie Tadema recalls that her mother felt sorry for Willy when Sinterklaas came along in early December, and bought a handkerchief for him as a gift. Immie was tasked with embroidering the letter “W” on it before it was gifted. The Tademas were happy to have a reasonable soldier, as a family down the street was forced to have a fanatic Nazi soldier. But in the latter half of 1943, Willy was given orders to go to Germany’s Eastern Front. He had lived with the Tademas for about 18 months. The family received one letter from Willy while he was on the Eastern Front saying that he was not doing well. There was no further communication, so it was assumed that he was killed (or died), like two million of his countrymen, fighting in Russia or in other parts of Eastern Europe. Had Willy, or another replacement soldier, still been living with the family after the razzias started, a series of problems would have developed, not least was the hiding of Immie’s brother, Kees Tadema. Hiding a young Dutch man under the German’s nose would have been impossible. The Bender family, living on the Riënzistraat just a couple hundred meters from the van Pelts, also had to take in a German soldier, as did each of their three neighbors. The soldier they billeted was an officer who worked with the host family to create as pleasant an atmosphere as was possible under the circumstances. And he was also not happy to be fighting for the Nazis. As time went on, he became somewhat neurotic when Allied bombers flew overhead as he hid under a table each time.

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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