Five Brothers and a War

Atlantikwall

Houses located in the exclusion zone, just toward the dunes from the Margrietstraat, were abandoned, and often disassembled to get wood to burn to heat homes during the Hongerwinter of 1944-45. The top photo shows the proximity of the disassembled homes to the Dalton HBS, with children foraging in the foreground.

van Pelt

This grainy photo was taken from the balcony on the middle floor of the Margrietstraat 20 home, looking toward Meer en Bos, which can be seen in the background. Notice the buildings on the right-center are the same ones in the photo above—the ones in the exclusion zone. That is how close the zone was to the van Pelt home. Just on the other side of the Meer en Bos park was the Ockenburgh airfield, and the location where the Germans later fired their infamous V-2 rockets.

Five Brothers and a War

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