Five Brothers and a War

Leen and Kees— Onderduikers

A few days after Christmas, Leen, Piet and Kees packed up the cargo bags strapped to the rear racks on their bicycles with some clothes, a bit of food and water. They had planned an early start, 7 o’clock. At that time of the year, the sun did not rise in Holland until almost 9 o’clock, so they would be able to get out of Den Haag under cover of darkness. Piet Homburg was supposed to come to the Margrietstraat house by that time, but as they waited impatiently, he was nowhere to be found. Finally, after 8’clock, he arrived pedaling his heart out on a woman’s bike. On his way over, he had run into a couple of German soldiers who had confiscated his top-of-the-line five-speed model, and he had to run back home to take his run-of-the-mill one-speed girl’s model belonging to his sister. Rather than pedaling at his usual majestic pace, he was huffing and puffing while pedaling at a ridiculously fast clip. After emotional good-byes, they all rattled out of the street, on their wooden-tire equipped bikes, heading for an extremely uncertain future. On the positive side, by this stage of the war, the Germans were fighting a losing battle and many of the occupying forces had been employed at the border regions—which would allow easier transportation at least until they had to cross into the liberated area. Using only secondary roads, they finally arrived at their first stop. This was a rural address supplied by one of Leendert’s brothers an hour’s ride past Rotterdam. It was supposed to be a farmer who might allow them to spend the night. After having lived with collaborators for over four years and being conditioned to exercise caution, they first casually rode past the house, trying not to arouse suspicion. They were shocked to find, at that very moment, the person at that address cleaning a rifle outside one of his barns. Had they arrived at any other time, their trip would have ended with a drive to Germany. Dutch citizens, who were not collaborators were absolutely not permitted to have firearms at any time. Radios were forbidden, and rifles were far more restricted yet.

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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