Five Brothers and a War

Postscript: Jan Gijsbertus van Pelt (1924-2011)

Many young men were immediately conscripted into the Dutch armed forces upon the conclusion of the war. Jan was, even at age 21, too old. This was a disappointment to him, and might well have been good for him to get his life back to order after his wartime traumas. Instead, he worked for a short period in Rotterdam at the Rijksverkeersbureau , a department of the Ministerie van Verkeer & Waterstaat (“Ministry of Transport”). After that he worked at a company called “Premier”, a coating and paint factory in Loosduinen, as a handelscorrespondent (“ trade corre spondent”). At the same time, he signed up for evening and weekend classes to further his professional credentials, also studying in Dutch, English and German. He taught private English lessons to school children. While he intended to go to Wageningen’s Landbouw Hogeschool , he never went. This was largely due to the unfortunate effects that the war

van Pelt

had on Jan throughout his life. Of course, his formative years from 15 to 21 had been lost altogether. Making matters all the worse, above the “normal” traumas of war, was his arrest and subsequent interrogation by the Germans during the first part of the war and then his being held as a slave during the last two years. Exacerbating that was the Allied bombing and ground attacks on Germany while he was in Germany. Capping all of that was the horror of being liberated by war criminals who threatened him at gunpoint, and then raped the women staying in the same house in which he was living. Then, one of his major anchors was removed when his father died. He often felt like the “odd man out” because he was the middle brother, with Leen and Piet being close, and with Kees and Bertus often involved with their football and other exploits. Leen and Piet were married on the same day in 1946, which made his feelings even stronger. But he himself married, with Immie Tadema on August 5, 1949, and had two daughters, Anna Marie “Ankie” in 1949 and Maria Geertruida “Marja”, two years later in 1951. Marja was

Five Brothers and a War

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