Bombing of Rotterdam - WWII

Yesterday I saw a short movie on YouTube about the bombing of Rotterdam during WWII. I’ve never talked much about the war - maybe in an effort to forget it. But, of course, that’s impossible, and I owe it to my posterity to record as much as I remember. Actually, that’s why my granddaughter Kayla wanted me to start this blog - to once in awhile record something about "The Olden Days".

The war began in Holland on May 10, 1940 - I was almost 13 years old. Very early in the morning we woke up to the sound of airplanes. I ran out into the street in my nightgown and there we saw german airplanes dropping hundreds of parachutist on the city of Rotterdam (about 7 miles from my hometown Vlaardingen). These parachutist then took up strategic locations in the city. We were told later that many of the parachutists wore civilian clothes, and some were dressed as catholic priests, but I couldn’t tell for sure from where I was. I just saw figures falling out of planes.

During the next four days more planes and troops and then tanks and heavy equipment followed. The Germans invaded all of our borders. By Tuesday, May 14, they gave Rotterdam an ultimatum to surrender or be bombed. News of our capitulation reached the enemy in time but, nonetheless, heavy bombardment started about 1:45 in the afternoon.

For two and a half hours the Germans kept bombing the city - a relentless rain of death poured from the skies. After the bombing was over, more than 26,000 buildings lay in wreckage. Nearly 25,000 men, women and children lay dead in the street or buried under the masses of rubble. (I’ve never seen a complete and accurate count of the dead, but the general consensus is 25,000.)

Even though he bombing lasted for only a few hours, for at least three days the inner city was pitch black because of all the smoke and dust - there was actually more damage from the fires that broke out than from the actual bombing

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Our LDS church building in the St. Jans Straat, where I had been baptized some 4 years earlier, was totally destroyed.

Also heavily bombed was the "Sint Laurens Kerk", a beautiful cathedral. Only the walls of the church survived. The entire interior burned down. The restoration of the St. Laurens Church took place between 1952 and 1968.
The church is now mainly used for concerts, lectures and exhibitions.

The next five years - my teen years, I spent trying to cope with the war, and utterly hating the germans.