Five Brothers and a War

Jan’s Liberation

The red line on the map below represents Allied/Axis areas of control, with the blue boxes showing Allied armies/generals and the red boxes showing German armies/generals. Note how cut off western Holland was by mid-April. Jan was southwest of Stüttgart, in the center bottom of the map. He was freed immediately after the date this map was drawn, on April 18, 1945. Jan’s location is highlighted with a star.

van Pelt

The red outline, with red transparent fill (including the olive green section) represents Germany. Of course, the Soviet Red Army was rapidly advancing from the east, having advanced to Berlin. Germany had almost been completely overrun.

Just a few weeks before the end of the war, Germany was cut in two. Also note that by this date, most of Holland had been liberated, with the important exception of Western Holland, where the entire family, except Jan, resided. As Jan was freed, he still had to wait until he could finally get home.

Five Brothers and a War

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