Five Brothers and a War

Five Brothers and a War

Richard P. van Pelt, Ph.D. .

Foreword

The cover art is meant to convey several concepts, some very obvious, and some perhaps not. The billowing Dutch flag is obvious, as the entire story centers around Holland. The five-star cluster is meant to show two things: firstly, the stars of the book are the five van Pelt brothers, Leendert (“Leen”), Pieter (“Piet”), Jan Gijsbertus, Cornelis (“Kees”) and Gijsbertus (“Bertus)” . Secondly, the war is represented by the American insignia for the five-star general/admiral (General of the Army/Admiral of the Fleet) ranks. The rank was first awarded in December 1944, and only five generals and four admirals, all of whom served in World War II, received the distinction. But the use of the insignia is not intended to infer an Americanism, rather a basis of an Allied effort. The star was also used as the symbol of the Allies, as opposed to the swastika for the Nazis or the Rising Sun for the Japanese.

This book is not written in a customary way, where one page naturally follows the previous. Instead, it is written by weaving six threads together: [about] Holland; the van Pelts; Nazi Germany; the War; History; and Commentary. Each one of these should be self-explanatory, and each is denoted with its own colors. The book is mostly written in chronological order, which necessitates the intermingling of different threads throughout the book. Essentially, it is several books with interwoven chapters. This does cause a certain amount of “jolt” where one page about Hitler might lead to the next page describing an anecdote about the van Pelts. Pages tend to stand on their own, with the connective links being chronology. This work is not intended to be political, though it is self-evident that discussing politics is inevitable. This is so for at least two reasons. The war, as is true of all wars, was political. World War II was clearly caused by the Nazis in Germany, and the Nazi Party was political. But to understand the context within which the Nazi Party flourished, and frankly the context within which so many otherwise intelligent people ignored the problems created by the Nazis, one can perhaps best relate through a near-repetition of history — or at the least, through an examination of the geo-political forces extant in recent times. This is in no way intended to excuse the Nazis, or more particularly, the German people, who may not have been Nazis, but were to some degree or another complicit in the acts committed by Germany. The hope is that understanding can be gained by recognizing the parallels of somewhat similar circumstances. I have chosen not to use relationship terms, such as “oma”, “opa”, “tante” or “oom” (“grandpa”, “grandma”, “aunt” or “uncle”, respectively) not because of a lack of respect, or familiarity, but rather because the relationship with the characters is different for the various readers. As a result, my Oma van Pelt, Maria Gertruida (Sonneveld) van Pelt, is referred to as Marie, which was her

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Foreword

nickname. Similarly, Opa van Pelt, Leendert van Pelt, whose nickname was Leen, is referred to as Leendert. That was done because his eldest son was also Leendert, and my uncle, “Oom Leen”. In order to keep them separate, the son is “Leen” throughout this book. This book does not use the Dutch naming protocol for the use of women’s maiden names. In Dutch culture, a woman really never loses her maiden name, but it is hyphenated after her married name. Thus, Maria Geertruida van Pelt-Sonneveld was Oma’s legal name after her marriage to Leendert van Pelt. I have chosen though to use parentheses before the married surname to show the maiden name, as I did in the previous paragraph to describe Oma van Pelt. I have chosen to use American spelling rather than my native Canadian or British, but I will use native words wherever possible to avoid very awkward anglifications of words such as “Cologne” when the real name would be “Köln” or where it is just as simple to use the native word, such as the German, “Rhein”, rather than the English bastardization, “Rhine”. When that same river crosses into Holland, the word used would be the Dutch, “Nederrijn”, rather than the English “Nether Rhine”. However, there are exceptions, such as the use of the words “German” and “Germany” rather than “Deutsch” and “Deutschland”, as those terms would themselves be awkward to use. Because there are so many Dutch words and names in the book, I have provided a brief section that discusses the Dutch language, in order to allow non-Dutch readers not to be as intimidated by words that are seemingly unpronounceable. One of the most obvious examples is one that was just used with the word “Nederrijn”, because of the “ij” combination. This combination is called a digraph, because the two letters form a single sound that cannot be pronounced by pronouncing the letters in a normal fashion. The “ij” essentially becomes a single letter of the alphabet, and when it begins a word, it would be capitalized as such. The “IJsselmeer” is correct, not “Ijsselmeer”. An English speaker would be tempted to pronounce “ij” as “idge” like in the word “fridge”, whereas a closer approximation would be to turn the “ij” into a “y”, just by taking the two dots off of the “i” and the “j”. To finish with the word “Nederrijn”, the first syllable of the word “Nederrijn” would be pronounced “Nay” and not “Ned”. It would be far easier for a reader to know that the names of the van Pelt brothers are not pronounced in Dutch as they seem in English. “Leen” is pronounced “Lane”, “Piet” is pronounced “Peat”, “Jan” is pronounced closer to “Yon” (not “Yawn”), “Kees” is pronounced “Case” and “Bertus” is pronounced closer to “Bair” rather than “Burr” for the first syllable. Finally, great thanks go out to all of the people who contributed to this effort, from the memories, photos, documents, proofreading, editing and advice. In particular, my parents, Kees and Flora, tante Immie, oom Bert, cousin Hannie Ford and my wife, Carol. A great thanks also goes out to the descendants of the family that sheltered Oom Leen and my father for the last five or six months of the war. The Aantjes family, particularly Willemijn “Willy” and Arja, were extremely gracious and generous in their help. They both went well above and beyond what I could have expected in providing crucial information and photographs that filled in an important segment of this book.

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Table of Contents

About Holland

The van Pelts

Nazi Germany

The War

preface

History

Commentary

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Holland—The Name

Technically, “Holland” does not exist as such. Noord Holland (“North Holland”) and Zuid Holland (“South Holland”) are two of the provinces that house 39% of the Dutch population.

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Holland—The Name

The official name of Holland is Nederland, which literally means “below land” or “lowerland”. The people of Nederland are Nederlanders and the language is Nederlands. However, in common parlance, the country is called Holland , and this is what this book will use. The term “the Netherlands” is the anglicized form of Nederland . The term “Dutch” is another anglicized word, from a word that originally referred to the people of Holland and Germany. Of course, the real name of Germany is Deutschland , stemming from the word diutsch . At that time, the Dutch word was dietsc . In English, there was a differentiation between those people living in the higher altitudes were “high Dutch” and those in the lower altitudes, encompassing the low area of Germany, Belgium and Holland, were “Low Dutch”. As Germany formed into Deutschland in 1871, the numerous fiefdoms of Germany coalesced into a single nation. It is an interesting fact of history that this unification was formalized in the Palace of Versailles, the same building that caused Germany so much harm 47 years later with the Treaty of Versailles. Another aside is the origins of the name “Pennsylvania Dutch”, considering that this group had nothing to do with Holland. In their language, they are Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch. Note that the term “ Deitsch ” is a direct derivative of the old terms dietsc and diutsch . And remember that the Pennsylvania Dutch trace their origins to the late 1600s, from what is now southwestern Germany—about 200 years before Germany existed as a nation.

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Provinces of Holland (2014 Population ) Drenthe Population: 489,077 Capital: Assen Flevoland Population: 399,673 Capital: Lelystad Friesland

Population: 646,354 Capital: Leeuwarden Gelderland Population: 2,019,296 Capital: Arnhem Groningen Population: 582,846 Groningen Limburg Population: 1,121,021 Maastricht Noord Brabant Population: 2,479,0324 Capital: ‘s Hertogenbosch Noord Holland Population: 2,739,032 Capital: Haarlem Overijssel Population: 1,139,635 Capital: Zwolle Utrecht Population: 1,252,233 Capital: Utrecht Zeeland Population: 380,783 Capital: Moddelburg Zuid Holland Population: 3,575,451 Capital: Den Haag

TOTAL POPULATION 16,335,356

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The Language

Dutch is a Germanic language, with sister languages of English and German.

Germanic

West Germanic

North Germanic

East Germanic

English German Dutch (Frisian Afrikaans Flemish)

Gothic

Norwegian Swedish Danish Icelandic Faroese

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As with other languages, Dutch has evolved dramatically over the past few hundred years, to the point that the modern version is almost indecipherable from that of the 16 th Century. In fact, the Dutch have gone so far as to formally modernize their language, rather than allowing it to develop on its own, the way that English has evolved. They have not gone the route of the French though, where they have a committee to add words that are acceptable and reject words that are not pure enough. Or, indeed, the way that the French Canadians have used, which involves the formal process of making the use of non French illegal, enforced by the so-called “language police”. Therefore, Dutch has a lot of common-use English words included in its everyday vocabulary. The reason to include this basic foundation of the language in this book is due to the number of Dutch words and phrases that are necessarily used throughout. A person who is not conversant in Dutch could be somewhat kerflummoxed by the seemingly unpronounceable combinations of letters. The alphabet pronunciation, which is important because the sounds of the basic alphabet are used with great consistency in the pronunciation of Dutch words is as follows:

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The Dutch Language—Alphabet

LETTER ENGLISH SOUND

COMMENT

A

apple

This sound will be shown for pronunciation purposes as æ

B

bay

C

say

D

day

E

day

F

eff

Identical to English

Pronounced like “hay” but with a guttural “g” in front. In this book, this sound will be shown as §

G

ghay

H

hat

I

beet

Spoken exactly as the English letter “e”

J

yay

K

cat

L

ell

Identical to English

M

emm

Identical to English

N O

enn

Identical to English

oh

Identical to English

P

pay

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Cuckoo clock

air

Sound is rolled in back of throat

S T

ess

Identical to English

tay

U V

ew (e.g., tube)

Very short sound—shorter than “tube”

vay

W

way

Soft, airy “w” sound

X

Ricks

No similar sound in English. Combination of the “a” sound in “apple” followed instantly with the “y” sound of “yolk” “z” is pronounced with a hard “s” sound with the slightest hint of the “z” in front. In Dutch, a “d” at the end of a word is pronounced “t”

Y

ay

Z

Set

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The Dutch Language—Diphthongs

Note that when an English person speaks of the letter “a”, a Dutch person will hear what he thinks is the letter ”e” as both are pronounced identically. The same thing happens with the English letter “e” and the Dutch letter “i”. The reverse is also true of course, in that a Dutch person speaking of “i” will be understood to have said “e” by an English speaking person, and “e” will be interpreted as “a”.

Diphthongs (Single syllable vowel combination that glide between two sounds, as in the English “oy” like “boy”).

DUTCH

SOUND

COMMENT

ei ij/IJ ÿ (really “ij”)

ay

No similar sound in English. Combination of the “a” sound in “apple” followed instantly with the “y” sound of “yolk”. For pronunciation, this will be shown as “αy”

ieuw

eew

The Dutch word for “new” is “nieuw”. The pronunciation is similar to combining the English words “knee” and “know” to create “kneew”)

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The Dutch Language—Consonants

DUTCH

SOUND

COMMENT

d

d, t

A “d” at the end of a word is pronounced as a “t”, otherwise as a normal “d” As in “meisje” (“girl”) which is pronounced with the “m” sound then the “a” as in “apple” followed instantly with the “y” sound of “yolk”, then “shə” =m αy shə Either s+gutteral “g”, such as “school”=s§ol, or if toward the end of a word, s alone, because in old Dutch, the “ch” were silent. Thus, the Dutch beer “Grolsch” is pronounced with the guttural “g” followed by the rolling “r” and ending “ols”, with a sharp “s” sound, like the English “ss”=§rolss. Is pronounced the same as in English, NOT the German way, which would add an “h”, as “strüdel” which would be pronounced shtru del, or “Gestapo”, which would be Ge-shtop-o Again, pronounced the same as in English, NOT the German way, which would also add an “h”, as with the German wine, Spätlese, which is pronounced Shpayt laysa.

sj

shoot

sch

st

street

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sport

kn

kn

Unlike English, both sounds are pronounced.

nk

ngk

An English “ing” sound is inserted before the “k”.

th

t

When a combined consonant, the “h” is silent. If the “t” ends a syllable and the “h” begins another, both are pronounced, as occurs in the English word “pothole”.

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The Dutch Language—Double Vowels

DUTCH

SOUND

COMMENT

aa

Apple

(lengthen the “a” sound)

ee

Lane

The name “Leendert” is pronounced Lane dirt The name “Kees” is pronounced Case

oo

own

Long “o” sound lengthened. Boot in Dutch is then pronounced like its English equivalent, “boat”. School (from the Greek σχολή) is the same word in both Dutch and English, but the Dutch add the guttural “g” sound after the “s” and pronounce the “oo” as described. Similarly, the English borrowed and transliterated the term “cole slaw” from the Dutch “kool-sla”, meaning cabbage salad. In Dutch, the “sla” part is pronounced with the “a” sound of “apple”, not with the “w” sound added in English.

uu

skewer

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The Dutch Language—Vowel Combos

DUTCH

SOUND

COMMENT

moo or slew loud or now

oe

au

ea

ray-apple

This combination retains its two-vowel, two-syllable sound.

eu

err

As in, “to err is human” if pronounced properly, not as in “air”.

ai, aai

I

The sound is very similar to the English “I”, which had a “y” sound at the end. Pronounced oo-y, where a “y” is added at the end of the double “o”.

buoy

oei, oi, ooi

out

Prounounced exactly as in some English words, like “mouth”.

ou

ui

but-w

Use a longer version of the “u” in the English “but” then add the “w” sound.

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Koeieuier strings together seven vowels, with consonants only beginning and ending the word for “cow’s udder”, although the seeming impossibility of that word caused it to be changed, by inserting an “n” in the middle, to make it koeienuier.

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The Dutch Language—Accents

DUTCH

SOUND

COMMENT

Does not change the sound, but adds emphasis

É/é

umlaut

Only used to separate syllables when it would not be obvious. In English, the word “skiing” is not obvious. Using the Dutch protocol for the umlaut, it would be spelled “skiïng” and “coordinate” would be “coördinate”. This is not only true for double vowels, but could also be used to differentiate the sound “oa” as in “boat” from “boa” as in constrictor—“boä”.

Dutch typically pluralizes words through the use of “en” at the end of a noun. So, kers (“cherry”) becomes kersen (“cherries”), and oog (“eye”) becomes ogen (“eyes”). This is not universal, however, as appel (“apple”) becomes appels (“apples”). What is very different from English though is the use of the apostrophe to pluralize words. The Dutch word foto (“photo”) becomes foto’s , which does not connote possession in any way. It was intended to simply avoid the problem of having the word be fotos, which would be pronounced more like “fo-toss” (rather than “fo-toes”). That word would not seem plural to a Dutch speaker. In Dutch, apostrophes are only used to show possession when the noun is proper, and then only when that proper noun ends in a vowel. Thus, “Oma’s” would be correct, but “Tom’s” would not be. The exceptions would be when the proper noun ends with an “e” or an “s”, such as “Kees’”, “Bertus’ or “Gijs’”. “Leens”, “Piets”, or “Jans” would be possessive.

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While not Dutch, a note about the use of “ß” in this book:

Within the German language, the letter represented by “ß” is called the “Eszett” or the “Scharfes S”. In English it would be substituted for a double “s”. Thus, Arthur Seyß Inquart could be spelled Arthur Seyss-Inquart. This book uses the “ß” instead of “ss”.

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Dutch Naming Protocols—Given Names

Over the centuries, protocols and traditions developed in Holland with regard to both given names and surnames. These protocols can be boiled down into several phases. The first phase was preeminent during the Germanic period where names were made up by combining two parts of other names into a single name. For example, Albert is a name that combined Adel with Bert. An endless series of combinations was possible when naming a child after his or her relatives. The next phase occurred during the Middle Ages, when religious influence became predominant and people were pressured to name their children after biblical or church characters—particularly saints within the Catholic religion. This naming convention was stressed even more after the Protestant Reformation, largely as a means of ensuring that children would remain faithful to their Catholic roots. To this day, Catholics use such names when giving their children first or middle names. While the previous Germanic naming protocols did not disappear, they became less frequent. Leaders in society, who were often also influential in religion, became trendsetters such that commoners would follow. Thus, the Catholic church and society were both moving toward making naming conventions more religious. Names such as Johannes (John), Pieter (Peter) came into strong vogue. The name Johannes was shorted to Jan and the name Pieter was shortened to Piet. Another name that came into vogue was Cornelis, which is the uniquely Dutch name derived from the Roman name Cornelius. The name became powerful religiously as a result of the account in the tenth chapter of the Book of Acts (Acts of the Apostles) where a Roman centurion named Cornelius became the first Gentile convert to Christianity. The name Cornelis was then shorted to Cees or Kees, both of which were pronounced the same way, as in the English word “case”. The two names Jan and Kees became extremely popular, even combining them as JanKees. The very term “JanKees” came to mean “ordinary guy” or “Joe Blow” when referring to a generic person in a story. Realizing that in Dutch the letter “j” is similar to the English “y” when beginning a word, the term “Yan-kees” became an anglicized term, then coming to mean American. Of course, in English ending a noun with an “s” typically turns the word into a plural form. While in Dutch JanKees is singular, in English it was transformed to its singular form, Yankee. Another transformation or adaptation occurred in naming conventions when names of relatives took on a more formal protocol. The origins of this is generally assumed to come from a superstition related to Catholic reincarnation. The idea was that newborns were reincarnated ancestors or other relatives. This led to another superstition in that it was not acceptable to name a child after a living relative, because the older living person would supposedly soon die. Another religiously-based protocol was that Catholics typically used the Latin form of a name, such as “Maria”, whereas Protestants usually modernized names, such as “Marie”.

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Dutch Naming Protocols—Given Names

The formalized rules that became extremely commonplace were: • The first-born son was to be named after his paternal grandfather

• The first-born daughter was to be named after her maternal grandmother • The second-born son was to be named after his maternal grandfather • The second-born daughter was to be named after her paternal grandmother • Any other children were usually named after their uncles and aunts. • If a child died, the next child born with the same gender would take on the same name as the deceased child. • If a mother died in giving birth to a girl, the girl would be given the mother’s name. The latest phase in Dutch naming conventions developed after World War II, when people became far less religious, and therefore the traditional names moved out of vogue. Modern names were developed, having no ties to the names of relatives, much less religion. In previous years, there was a movement to create names phonetically, such as converting the French name “Jeanne” to “Sjaan”, or “Jacques” to “Sjaak”. This movement picked up strength as the post-war Dutch language itself was made more phonetic and simple through wholesale changes to spellings.

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Dutch Naming Protocols—Surnames

Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, as the Dutch language was being modified and modernized, Dutch surnames were not. There are thousands of surnames that now are archaic in their spellings, but because they are actual names, they have not been modified. For example, the new spelling for the old Dutch word jagt (“hunt”) is jacht . Both are pronounced identically. While the word itself has changes, the name has remained in the old version. In Holland, surnames were a relatively recent development. While many had surnames prior to Napoleon becoming emperor, it was only after a decree in 1811 that surnames became required. Previous to the addition of surnames, children were known as a child of their father, called “ patronymic ” names. For example, Jan the son of Harman would be known as Jan Harmanszoon , or Jan Harman’s-son. This would then be shortened to Hermansz. A notable Harmonszoon was Rembrandt, whose full name is Rembandt Hermanszoon van Rijn. Rembrandt was born to Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuytbrouck. Deciphering that, Rembrandt was the son of Harmen (Harmenszoon) who in turn was the son of Gerrit (Gerritszoon), and his mother was Neeltgen, the daughter of Willem (Willemsdochter). This brings up the next naming protocol, which is the inclusion of the word “van”, meaning either “from” or “of”. It can also be “van de” or “van der” meaning “from the”. This convention is called “ toponymic, ” meaning that the name is derived from a place. Thus, in the case of Rembrandt, his family was apparently from the region of the Rhine River, hence the name “van Rijn.” Yet another convention is occupational. The person could be the equivalent of John Carpenter, or Jan Timmerman, or a surname Brouwer , meaning “Brewer”—a person making beer. In earlier years, had Jan Timmerman’s son become a brewer, he could have simply changed his name to Jan Brouwer because there was no formal system for tracking surnames. Many people’s surnames derive from some physical trait. De Groot means “the Big,” de Jong means “the Young” and de Lange means “the Tall”. Other names are those of animals. For example, de Leeuw means “the Lion” and Vogel means “Bird”. Some refer to a desire to be something, such as Prins or “Prince”, or de Koning meaning “the King”. Finally, some just fit into the category “what were they thinking?,” such as the surname Naaktgeboren , meaning “Born Naked”.

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Geography

Holland is a very small place, particularly when viewed within a North American context.

Holland is 1/11 th of the size of California. It is about 3 ½ times the size of Los Angeles County and is about 80% the size of San Bernardino County.

When superimposed on Canada, it is almost lost. Holland would fit into Canada about 270 times.

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Geography

The entirety of Europe, from Ireland to the Middle East and up through the Caucasus mountains, is the same size as Canada. Nazi Germany, even at the height of its power, would easily fit into either the United States or Canada. In fact, The Third Reich would take up about 1/3 rd of Canada, size-wise.

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Geography—Population & Density

In 1700 AD, the population of Holland was fewer than 1.8 million. In 1800 it had grown slightly to almost 2 million. One hundred years later, it had grown by more than 2 ½ to 5.1 million, and in the 20 th Century it tripled to more than 16 million.

Population of Holland 1700-2010

20,000,000

15,000,000

10,000,000

0 5,000,000

Holland is a very densely populated nation. Within the context of the entire world there are 134,940,000 km 2 , or about 52,100,000 miles 2 , with 7.2 billion inhabitants. That equates to 53 people per km 2 or 137 people per mile 2 . Within Holland, there are 406 and 1,052 respectively. That makes Holland one of the most dense and urbanized nations on earth. In fact, aside from tiny islands, principalities and nations, such as Hong Kong, Macau, St. Barths, St. Maartin, Vatican City, Bermuda, et cetera, Holland follows only Bangladesh (1,091/2,828), Taiwan (647/1,676), and South Korea (503/1,303) as the most dense among nations with populations greater than 11 million. For comparison purposes, Canada is the second lowest, at 3.6 and 9 respectively (Australia is 3 and 8). Being such a small and densely-populated meant that Holland’s land use and protection were paramount and therefore water management was critical to the point that without human intervention, most of Holland would be uninhabitable. Management of water has always had two components: saltwater and fresh water. Very counterintuitively, even with the extremely dense, urbanized geography, Holland is also one of the very top agricultural exporters in the world, ranking within the top five in most measures, and as high as second, behind only the United States in some reports. Also counterintuitively, Holland has been growing in terms of landmass over the past thousand years. By the 9th Century, the Dutch began cultivating their boggy, marshy land by draining it. This resulted in shrinkage, where some sections of the country were lowered by up to 15 meters, meaning that much of the land was below sea level.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

The Dutch have built dykes for more than a millennium. The first dykes were only about one meter high, but as the centuries rolled by, they became increasingly more stout. At a certain point, the defensive measures of simply keeping water out were upgraded to be offensive, where water was pumped out of low-lying areas. The first water-pumping windmill was built in 1282 AD. These measures were further upgraded to actually reclaim low lands. The Dutch began to “reclaim” land starting in the 16 th Century, by constructing dykes and building thousands of water-pumping windmills that would move water up to various levels and locations, then to canals and waterways and eventually out to sea. At a certain point, this “reclaiming” was far more a “claiming” because most of the efforts are done on topography that lies below sea level. It has been done on a massive scale for a long period of time. In the 1800s, there were more than 9,000 windmills in Holland. Essentially, Holland is a series of river deltas, meaning that the movement of fresh water through the nation has been as important as keeping saltwater out. Perhaps Holland should be described as a dizzyingly confusing series of river branches together forming a monumental river delta.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Satellite image showing the overall Dutch river system, looking northeast from the North Sea.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Above: Superimposing the landmass of Holland onto a modern road map highlights the topographical changes over the centuries. Left: more than one quarter of Holland is below sea level, and more than 60% of the population lives on land that is below sea level. The average land elevation is 11 meters.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Between 1820 and 1850, the responsibility for dyke construction and maintenance was given to scientifically- and militarily-trained engineers, thereby formalizing the previous ad hoc engineering that had existed up to that point. But the flooding continued, albeit now at a far slower pace. The slowdown was due to incremental construction of sea defenses which had been added over the centuries. There were two floods in the 20 th Century. The first occurred on January 13-14, 1916 where dozens of dyke breaches caused serious floods in the area of the Zuiderzee (“Southern Sea”). This body of water was by now called the IJselmeer , after a monumental dyke was constructed to enclose this bay of the sea, thereby converting it into a freshwater lake. The last major flood occurred on the evening of January 31/February 1, 1953 when more than 2,500 people lost their lives. The flooding was caused by a combination of high tides and an extremely strong storm hitting Holland from the North Sea. The storm also affected Britain and Belgium.

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All in all, it is not a surprise that the Dutch became the world’s experts in flood management.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

The total size of Holland is 41,500 km 2 , of which 7,700 km 2 is water. This leaves a land area of 33,800 km 2 of which more than 7,800 square kilometers of land was reclaimed from the sea. Put another way, Holland had a land mass of about 26,000 km 2 , and then added 30% to its land area since the 1600s. Because the Dutch were not only expert windmill engineers, but also expert financiers, windmill projects often were joint ventures between land owners and financial backers. This joint venture created a system where both parties brought money to the table, and led to the expression, “Going Dutch” which in more modern times meant that the cost of meals was split between the diners.

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Land Reclamation Through the Ages

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The amount of land reclaimed over the past centuries ( eeuwen ) is shown on the map. Note that on the legend, 14de = 14 th , 15de = 15 th , etc.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Of course, the Rhein (English “Rhein”, French “Rhin” and Dutch “Rijn”) River is the major river, with its origins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It forms part of the borders between Switzerland and Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Germany and Germany and France before flowing into Holland and finally into the North Sea. Its flow is vast, normally at 2,900 m 3 /s (100,000 ft 3 /s—or about 750,000 U.S. gallons.) That represents filling an Olympic-sized pool every second.

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The source of the Rhine, from Tomasee (Lake Toma).

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Geography—Rivers and Water

After the Rhein flows into Holland, intact, it immediately branches into two rivers, the Nederrijn (“Nether Rhine”) and the Waal , then it branches again into the IJssel , immediately before the city of Arnhem.

Nederrijn

Waal

Rhein

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IJssel

Nederrijn

About 10 km (6 miles) past the split between the Waal and the Nederrijn, the Nederrijn splits again. It flows westward from the lower right to the upper left through Arnhem, and the IJssel River flows north to the upper right.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Another of the great rivers in Holland is the Maas, which is known elsewhere as the Meuse River. Maastricht, in the extreme south of Holland takes its name from the crossing of the Maas River. The Meuse originates in northeastern France, in Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse, which is two-thirds of the way from Paris to Switzerland. It mostly flows to the north, turning westward when it reaches Mollenhoek in Holland.

North Sea

Waal

Maas

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Near the town of Rossum, the Maas and the Waal almost meet before the Maas turns southerly.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Waal

Maas Waalkanaal (“canal”)

Maas

In 1927 a canal was constructed near the town of Molenhoek to connect the Maas and Waal Rivers. Not surprisingly, the canal is called the “Maas-Waalkanaal”.

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Geography—Rivers and Water

Another canal was built to connect the Waal with the Nederrijn and the cities of Utrecht and ultimately Amsterdam.

Lek

Nederrijn

Amsterdam Rijnkanaal

Waal

The same system of the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal [rα yn ka naal] at the town of Wijk bij Duurstede where the Nederrijn [Nay der rα yn] ends and the Lek begins. The Lek then ends the journey of Rhein River waters into the North Sea, at Hoek van Holland .

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Utrecht

Amsterdam Rijnkanaal

Nederrijn

Lek

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Geography—Rivers and Water

As a final note on the river system, there is another, less important, river: the Amstel. The prime notoriety of this river is that the name Amsterdam traces its name to the Amstel. Through various refinements of the name, the city went from Amestelledamme to Amstelredam to Aemsterdam and finally to Amsterdam . Apparently the name derives from dykes built along the river to protect the new town rather from the actual damming of the river, which occurred after the initial name was used to describe the community founded in 1220 AD.

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Floods

Floods have been a major influence on Holland over the centuries. Major floods began to be recorded in 838, killing 2,437 people. Thousands were killed by the flood of 1014. Additional floods were recorded in 1042, 1134, 1163, 1170, 1196. History records that 60,000 people were killed by the flood of 1212. Two years later, another flood affected the entire nation. 36,000 people were killed in 1219. 1248, 1277, 1280, 1282, 1287 saw severe floods, and at least 25,000 people were killed in 1362. Thousands of years ago, it is postulated that the shape of what would become Holland was fairly large.

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Floods

In 5,500 BC, Holland’s central lake (now the IJsselmeer ), which was in reality a collection of marshes and lakes, looked like this:

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Changes to the landscape 5,000 years later, 500 BC

The green areas represent tidal flats and marshes while the brown represents bogs and other low lands. The name “Low Countries” is not without meaning when referring to Holland and Belgium.

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Floods

With the demise of the Roman Empire, and therefore Latin, the name of the lake became Almere . The process of erosion continued despite dams and dykes that were constructed. The lake continued to grow and in 800 AD, it was significantly larger:

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800 AD

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Floods

Two floods changed the lake into the Zuiderzee in the 1280s. The first, in 1282 broke through the dunes around the Frisian island of Texel, flooding the lake with saltwater, and the second, far larger, flood was on December 14, 1287, named the Sint-Luciavloed (“St. Lucia Flood”) as it was the day after St. Lucia Day.

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Floods

In the case of the Sint-Luciavloed, the flood was the result of the destruction of a dyke system caused by the combination of a high tide and a storm surge. Between 50,000 and 70,000, mostly Frisians, are estimated to have lost their lives in this storm. It also had the effect of making Amsterdam a salt-water port city.

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This flood was very similar to the events of the 2012 Super Storm Sandy that ravaged New York City and the surrounding area.

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Floods

Above, Super Storm Sandy caused massive flooding in New York and New Jersey in 2012. Even in modern times, with predictive forecasting technology, the effects of storms, and their subsequent floods can be catastrophic. Below, Hurricane Katrina caused massive damage to New Orleans in 2005. Within the context of Holland, centuries ago, it is unsurprising that so much damage was done, and .so many people died.

history

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Religion in Holland

The van Pelt house was a very religious place. Central to the family was the Protestant religion, and specifically the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk or NHK (“Dutch Reformed Church”), as distinctly different from the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland or GKN (“Reformed Church in the Netherlands”). This should not be confused with the Christian Reformed Church. What they all have in common is the roots in the Reformation, hence that word appears in all the names. The underlying theology is nearly identical in that they are based in Calvinism. Calvinistic doctrine holds five basic tenets, which are coincidentally captured under the acronym “TULIP”: • "Total depravity," also called "total inability," asserts that as a consequence of the fall of man into sin, every person is enslaved to sin. • "Unconditional election" asserts that God has chosen from eternity those whom he will bring to himself not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, his choice is unconditionally grounded in his mercy alone. This is predestination. • "Limited atonement," also called "particular redemption" or "definite atonement", asserts that Jesus's substitutionary atonement was definite and certain in its purpose and in what it accomplished. • "Irresistible grace," also called "efficacious grace", asserts that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (that is, the elect) and overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith. • "Perseverance of the saints“, or perseverance of God with the saints, (the word "saints" is used to refer to all who are set apart by God, and not of those who are exceptionally holy, canonized, or in heaven) asserts that since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated by humans or anything else, those whom God has called into communion with himself will continue in faith until the end. Calvinism was a very strong reaction to Catholicism, and the various trappings of the Catholic religion—including many parts that are extra-Biblical, particularly in the areas where Catholics believe that church traditions are on an equal footing with the Bible. Calvinism stripped away Catholicism and ended with a far simpler religion. That certainly extended to physical accoutrements as well. Calvinist church buildings are typically very simple, again in reaction to the ostentatiousness found in Catholic Churches. The differences between the various branches of the Dutch Reformed Churches lie in the continuum between liberalism and conservatism, as well as governance. As a move toward liberalism was orchestrated, a conservative reaction followed. In terms of governance, the issues dealt with who was able to manage church functions, particularly in the relationship between the monarchy and the church.

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Religion in Holland

While Holland was a religious country at the beginning of the 20 th Century, it rapidly became one of the most secular countries, beginning after World War II and gaining speed until about 1960. Even within the Catholic Church, Holland has been considered to be renegade by the Vatican. Recently, the Dutch Catholic Church convinced the pope not to visit Holland, because a reasonable turnout among the country’s “parishioners” could not be guaranteed, and the visit could become a huge embarrassment. Dutch church leaders have long been considered to be radical in their liberalism, and have clashed frequently with those in upper church governance. In the beginning of the 20 th Century, Holland was 60% Protestant and 40% Catholic.

Catholic 40%

Protestant 60%

By 1947, 44% were Protestant and 39% were Catholic. The balance of 17% were non religious.

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Catholic 39%

Protestant 44%

Non Religious 17%

Today, Holland is 24% Catholic, 15% Protestant, 6% Muslim, 1% Buddhist and 1% Hindu. Of the Catholics, only 27% actually believe Catholic doctrine, while 55% are iets -ists (from the Dutch word iets , meaning something—as in, “I don’t believe the Church, but there must be something,” and the rest are agnostic.

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Religion in Holland

Buddhist 1%

Hindu 1%

Muslim 6%

Protestant 15%

Non Religious 53%

Practicing Catholic 7%

Non Practicing Catholic 17%

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Religion in the van Pelt House

Religion in the van Pelt household was a central force. As is typically true in religious families, the parents were the ones who were the true believers, while there was grudging acquiescence among the children. It was also important to surround the family with like believers. That meant that family members should not become too close with members of the variants of the Reformed Church, with non-believers, and especially with Catholics. The Dutch Reformed Church consisted of three main groups that had a different view of how to conduct a church service. There were the “Ethicals”- the ones that believed in God, but not to the extent it was necessary to be too strict about it. Next were the “Confessionals”—the middle of the road members, not too strict but also not too easy going either. The third group, the smallest, were very strict and were the “Orthodox.” Their beliefs were close to what the Bible literally teaches. Their services should always have a reading of the Ten Commandments, and only Psalms based on the Book of Psalms should be used for the song service. That was the van Pelt’s group. Every school the boys went to was a “Christian School” where Bible study was one of the subjects, and therefore a grade was given at the end of the term. At age 18 a youngster was expected to go to the local church’s catechism classes to become a church member. Before each meal, a blessing of the food was asked, often by one of the older boys. For younger children, the blessing could be the standard “ Heere, zegen deze spijze, amen ” (“Lord, bless this food, amen”), but as they became older, somewhat more was expected. Breakfasts usually included bread and cheese, typically Edam or Gouda. On weekdays and Saturdays, the family members would go down at their own time, but they would always eat at the dining room table. Weekday lunches would usually involve sandwiches, and this meal would also depend on where the children were during the noon hour. Dinners would be communal events with rare exception, and would definitely start with a blessing. Upon completion, Leendert would read a chapter from the Bible, with the children often seeking out the shortest Psalm in order to speed up the process. Before the family left the dining room, one of the older boys would have to give thanks to God for the meal. Sundays were quite different. Breakfast was served to the entire family, and eggs were always served, usually boiled eggs presented in an egg cup. At 10:30am, church services started. Each Friday, the churches would put out a combined newspaper detailing the times of their services, and the speakers. The presumably unintended consequence of this was that people went “minister shopping”, whereby a minister who was not up to snuff would not be visited. There were several churches available, including the Bethelkerk, which was only a few blocks from the Margrietstraat on the Mozartlaan (where Leen and Rita would live until Leen’s death in 1976). Another choice was the Bethlehemkerk , just around the corner from the Tomatenstraat, and the church the van Pelts attended while living on that street from 1930-1936.

van Pelt

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Religion in the van Pelt House

< The Bethlehemkerk was on the corner of the Laan van Meerdervoort and several other streets, including the Azaleaplein and the Laan van Eik en Duinen. The cemetery where Leendert, Marie and Leen were buried, Eik en Duinen, was on the Laan van Eik en Duinen.

> The Bethelkerk at the corner of the Mozartlaan and the Händellaan, which is a continuation of the Hoefbladstraat across the Laan van Meerdervoort.

After services, at noon, the family would head home for a cup of coffee, with some form of sweets, followed by the large, hot meal, which was typically served at about 1:30 or 2:00pm. If any visitors came > The Bethelkerk has had its vegetation grow wildly over the years. Inset photo dated 1939.

van Pelt

over, they would have to leave prior to the meal being prepared, unless one of the boys became impatient and started cooking, to ensure that the smell of the food would reach the living room to give a hint that it was time to wrap up the visit. Once the meal was over, Kees and Bertus might “go for a walk”, which usually ended up meaning listening to a radio broadcast of a football game at a friend’s house. Even a dull game sounded exciting when the commentator did his magic. The day was supposed to be spent in quiet activity or contemplation, not dealing with football. Monopoly, card games and actual walks through the dunes were standard pastimes. The evening meal was usually made up of sandwiches.

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History—Pre-history to 1400 AD

As old as Amsterdam is, the history of Holland can be traced prior to the Roman Empire. However, Holland really began its development into a nation beginning during the Roman Empire.

Mask of a Roman Horseman, discovered near Leiden

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Roman Empire in the Rhein region, circa 70 AD

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History—Pre-history to 1400 AD

Even being a very small country, there are distinct differences between regions, and even between cities. These distinctions continue to this day in language and thought. There are very noticeable differences between the accents of various cities, despite the fact that the cities are relatively close together. The way a person from Amsterdam talks is different from the way someone from Den Haag speaks, which is in turn different from the way a resident of Rotterdam talks. Yet those are far more similar than the almost separate language spoken by the people of Limburg. The Dutch spoken in northern Belgium is again very distinct. In the United States, (although far larger) the accent distinction is similar. For example, there are huge distinctions between New York City (which even has distinctions between its boroughs) and New Jersey or Boston. And of course those northeast accents are completely different from those of the south, which have their own idiosyncrasies. A South Carolina accent is different from a Georgia accent which is very different from a Louisiana accent which is again completely different from a Texas accent. Friesland in Holland is unique in many ways, and not only in terms of language, though Frisian is still an official Dutch language. The northern sector of Holland has been inhabited by the Frisians, who had an on-again, off-again independent status over the centuries. While Frisians were never conquered by the Romans, they certainly did have a great deal of interaction with them. Independence was a constant motivation that continued in resisting all external forces, including Christianity. As a part of its resistance to Christian expansion, Frisians murdered the highly revered missionary Bonifacius in 754. It took many generations, and an acceptance by the Christian church of the Frisians heathen beliefs to finally convert them. For example, the Teuton Yule, which honored the lengthening of days was converted into Christmas. Fertility eggs, long a symbol of the Spring season were amalgamated into the Christian Easter festival. Other Frisian tenets were simply accepted wholesale—such as the persecution of witches. Tests of potential conversion of visiting missionaries were undertaken to see whether the Christian God they professed was more powerful than their own gods. The Frisians were aided in their independence fight by the forces of nature when floods changed the geography of the region, leaving them far more isolated. Rising sea levels expanded the inland lake known in Latin as Lacus Flevo , (in Dutch as Flevomeer , and in English as “Lake Flevo”) into the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). Note that the Nordzee (“North Sea”) and the Zuiderzee take their bearings from a Frisian perspective—the northern body of water being the North Sea and the southern body being the Zuider Zee. Also note that the newest Dutch province is Flevoland, having been reclaimed from the sea by means of draining the water from the area and creating a polder.

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