Talk to someone who was there
We all know that in 2020, meeting in person with someone who remembers the war is difficult. So Europe Remembers is giving you the opportunity to meet online. Register here for video calls with WWII witnesses – military and civilian – at different times and in diverse languages. The calls will be streamed online, but only registered participants can take part in these special conversations.
AGENDA
Monday 4 May
Jan Loos
Jan Loos was 14 when he witnessed the Battle of Arnhem, in September 1944. Jan lived in Oosterbeek and can remember the day when the Germans occupied his town. When the battle of Arnhem started, Jan remembers greeting the Allied paratroopers who landed in the area. When the British occupied the Loos family house, they moved to the basement of their neighbours, where they stayed for a week, with almost no food. Jan remembers the terrible calls for help of a dying German soldier. Eventually, the family fled with many other people escaping from Arnhem. Today, Jan is a guide at the Airborne Museum.
15.00 (CEST), 14:00 (BST), 09:00 (EDT), 06:00 (PDT)
in Dutch
Wan van Overveld
Wan van Overveld was just five years old when he was liberated in the Paulushoef house, near Son, where he still lives today. Just before the liberation, he witnessed a bombing that injured his older brother. Later, when the van Overveld family realised the Allies had arrived, they left the basement and saw thousands of paratroopers in the sky. The name of Paulushoef was written on the roof of the house as a sign for the paratroopers, who landed close-by and were greeted by the family. Wan remembers that Americans soldiers cured his injured brother and gave them lots of treats.
15.30 (CEST), 14:30 (BST), 09:30 (EDT), 06:30 (PDT)
in Dutch
Maarten Dekkers
Maarten Dekkers was very young when war broke out in the Netherlands; his father was deported to Germany and later fought in the resistance. Maarten remembers seeing the first American paratroopers landing at Velp at the start of Operation Market Garden, and greeting the liberators at the bridge of Grave. On 22 September 1944, his house was surrounded by German soldiers who were looking for his father and threatening his mother, while 5-year old Maarten cried beside her. Maarten stayed with a family in Haps who protected him until the liberation. There, he witnessed the preparations for Operation Veritable and remembers seeing the Red Cross trains full of wounded Allied soldiers. Maarten today is a guide at the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek.
16.00 (CEST), 15:00 (BST), 10:00 (EDT), 07:00 (PDT)
in Dutch
Koos Suurhof
The Battle of Groningen took place in April 1945 when Canadians liberated the Dutch city. Koos Suurhoff experienced the liberation of Groningen up close, as a small child. He remembers the days of the liberation very well. Since then, Koos has been determined to ensure that the liberators of Groningen, the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada and their families receive recognition and support. He is committed to bringing attention to, and appreciation for, their efforts, and to keeping the memory of the liberation alive. He recently received Canada’s Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, a prestigious award for his work.
16.30 (CEST), 15:30 (BST), 10:30 (EDT), 07:30 (PDT)
in Dutch
Yvette Merchiers
Yvette Merchiers was a child during WWII. At the time of the conflict in Belgium, she stayed with her grandmother, along with an uncle and a refugee hiding there. She is the daughter of Laurent Merchiers, who took part in the Belgian resistance movement. For this reason, Yvette witnessed the resistance activities. Yvette remembers when the Gestapo searched their house and her room with a brutality that deeply shocked her. While her father became a politician and Minister of Justice of Belgium after the war, Yvette studied Law and pursued an academic career, becoming the first female Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Gent.
17.00 (CEST), 16:00 (BST), 11:00 (EDT), 08:00 (PDT)
in Dutch
Tuesday 5 May
Ruth Edwards
Ruth Edwards is one of thousands of Rosies, women who were named for the iconic Rosie the Riveter, and worked in factories, shipyards and other heavy industries during WWII. Ruth worked as an expediter at the Naval Ordinance Center in Charleston, WV. Her husband-to-be, Jim Edwards, fought in the Philippines, was at the Bataan March, and was later detained in a Japanese “death house” in terrible conditions. He never fully recovered physically or emotionally from this dark experience. After the war, Ruth taught business education at various school levels and served as State Supervisor of Business Education for the West Virginia Department of Education.
16.00 (CEST), 15:00 (BST), 10:00 (EDT), 07:00 (PDT)
in English
Mozelle Brown
Mozelle Brown was only 21 when she left Nicholas County aboard a bus to Akron, OH, to work as a riveter. She worked at Goodyear Aircraft in Akron, OH, during WWII and, starting in 1943, she riveted Corsair Airplanes. She still has the manual she used back in those days, with the math calculations in the margins. Nowadays, she is very active in contributing to the American Rosies ‘Thanks! Plain and Simple’ program, and she is largely appreciated for her quiet, sincere and most unpretentious way to make the Rosies known in the United States and beyond.
16.45 (CEST), 15:45 (BST), 10:45 (EDT), 07:45 (PDT)
in English
Paul Grassey
Paul Grassey was part of the 8th Airforce during WWII and he flew 13 combat missions as a B-24 pilot. In 1941, Paul decided to enlist for the Air Army Corps as felt he was his duty to fight in WWII, despite going against the wishes of his father. After the war, he graduated and was even a basketball player at a notable level. Today he is very active in promoting the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum of Pooler, GA and in supporting veterans. He has written a book titled “It’s Character that Counts” and has been recently awarded the French Legion of Honour.
17.30 (CEST), 16:30 (BST), 11:30 (EDT), 08:30 (PDT)
in English
Buck Marsh
Malcolm “Buck” Marsh was a promising engineer, but due to the need for soldiers he was instead sent to Europe to fight. As part of the 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, Buck fought in the Battle of the Bulge, in winter 1944. He remembers the terrible fighting in the snow, but also the comradeship in the regiment, which made life on the frontline easier. After the Battle of the Bulge, Buck crossed the Rhine and went on to liberate Cologne and a prison camp near Nordhausen. In 1946, he returned to the USA with a Purple Heart and three Battle Stars: one each from the Battle of the Bulge, Rhineland and central Germany.
18.00 (CEST), 17:00 (BST), 12:00 (EDT), 09:00 (PDT)
in English
Vern Ollar
Vern Ollar was part of the 29th Infantry Division. He took part in D-Day, landing at Omaha Beach at the age of 22. Vern, who was a gunner, remembers the strong resistance opposed by the Germans and the efforts to pull the artillery on the shore as there were no vehicles to transport them. After D-Day, Vern took part in the crossing of the Saar river in Dillingen, Germany, and in the battle of Dillingen, for which he received the Bronze Star. After a difficult comeback to civilian life, Vern moved to Texas, where he still lives now.
18.30 (CEST), 17:30 (BST), 12:30 (EDT), 09:30 (PDT)
in English
Ken Beckman
Ken Beckman flew 48 missions as a navigator for a B-17 bomber during WWII. He flew in the skies of Great Britain, Benelux and Germany, and remembers when his airplane was hit around Cologne and had to make an emergency landing at a Belgian airport which Ken was supposed to bomb a few weeks earlier, but he had missed the target. After the war, he was an airman for other 30 years, and he took part in the Korea and First Indochina wars.
19.00 (CEST), 18:00 (BST), 13:00 (EDT), 10:00 (PDT)
in English
Wednesday 6 May
Gérard Verdonk
Gérard Verdonk was born on November 4, 1926. Originally from the Netherlands, the Verdonk family arrived in Bény-sur-Mer in 1936, where they ran a farm. In 1994, when Gérard was 18 years old, he witnessed the fighting around Bény, when the Canadian forces from the Régiment de la Chaudière arrived. With his siblings, he helped a tank division of the Fort Garry Horse point out an enemy observation post in the woods across from the family farm. As the Canadians moved on, the small village that he lived in was liberated.
15.00 (CEST), 14:00 (BST), 09:00 (EDT), 06:00 (PDT)
in French
Jean-Marie Delahaye
Jean-Marie was born in Cherbourg, France. During the WWII, his parents, as butchers, were asked to stay in the city to feed the population. Therefore, they entrusted Jean-Marie and his five siblings with their grandparents. Together they took refuge in a presbytery, but in 1944 German soldiers forced them out. After a few days, they found a new place to stay thanks to a generous farmer. From there, 6-year old Jean-Marie saw the troops march, heard the bombs fall and discovered war’s consequences, but as a child he also played – despite the mines -, tasted chewing-gum for the first time and learned how to read with the only book they had, the Bible.
15.30 (CEST), 14:30 (BST), 09:30 (EDT), 06:30 (PDT)
in French
Jean Guillaume
Jean Guillaume was born in Sibret, in the surroundings of Bastogne, Belgium, in 1931. As the elder child of a large family, he always felt a sort of responsibility to keep track of the events. Jean remembers the year before the start of WWII as full of novelties, which however were interrupted by the German invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940. Jean remembers the exodus to escape from the war, the restrictions of those years, but also the liberation of 1944, the Battle of the Bulge and, eventually, the restored peace in Europe. For Jean it is important to keep remembering and learning from the past.
16.00 (CEST), 15:00 (BST), 10:00 (EDT), 09:00 (PDT)
in French
Yvette Merchiers
Yvette Merchiers was a child during WWII. At the time of the conflict in Belgium, she stayed with her grandmother, along with an uncle and a refugee hiding there. She is the daughter of Laurent Merchiers, who took part in the Belgian resistance movement. For this reason, Yvette witnessed the resistance activities. Yvette remembers when the Gestapo searched their house and her room with a brutality that deeply shocked her. While her father became a politician and Minister of Justice of Belgium after the war, Yvette studied Law and pursued an academic career, becoming the first female Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Gent.
16.30 (CEST), 15:30 (BST), 10:30 (EDT), 09:30 (PDT)
in French
Jacques Wittemans
Jacques Wittemans was born in Antwerp in 1933. Once Belgium was invaded, Jacques’ father was made prisoner by the Germans and the family left for France. On their way back to Belgium, Jacques remembers the sight of many bombed cities. When his father was arrested again, Jacques recalls that their house and even his schoolbooks were searched by the Germans. In September 1944, their house was close to the frontline of the battle for Antwerp: German cannons were placed in the backyard and, soon after, Canadian soldiers took over. Jacques remembers 8 May 1945 as a day of unspeakable joy, as he went downtown to celebrate the end of the war.
17.00 (CEST), 16:00 (BST), 11:00 (EDT), 08:00 (PDT)
in French
Thursday 7 May
Jutta Hertleins
Jutta Hertlein was five years old when the Battle of Berlin took place, and she vividly remembers her days in the bombed city. From 1943 on, she spent only little time at her family’s apartment in Berlin-Friedrichshain, but was evacuated most of the time together with her mother during the bombings. She spent the end of the war in a village near Fehrbellin in Brandenburg. In November 1945 her father returns home from Russian captivity, only to die three weeks later. In 1953 she left East Berlin, went to school, studied and worked as a newspaper editor in Heidelberg, Gelsenkirchen and Essen. 1965 she got married and returned to West Berlin. After 40 years of work, and 23 years as a journalist she retired in Berlin.
15.00 (CEST), 14:00 (BST), 09:00 (EDT), 06:00 (PDT)
in German
Jürgen Kirschning
Jürgen Fritz Erich Kirschning was born in Berlin in 1931. He spent his childhood witnessing the rise of Nazis in Germany during the 1930s. At ten years old, he remembers being forced to partake in the Deutsches Jungvolk (Hitler Youth) and distrusting Nazi propaganda. At two points during the war, he was evacuated like many children in Berlin to the countryside, spending time in Meerane (Saxony) and Sprottau (today Szprotawa, a part of Poland). After the war, he studied communications engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. He then went on to have a successful career as a development engineer, later working for IBM in Vienna and the computer industry in North Rhine-Westphalia.
15.30 (CEST), 14:30 (BST), 09:30 (EDT), 06:30 (PDT)
in German
Hartmut Topf
Hartmut Topf, born in 1939, grew up in the Berlin suburb of Falkensee where he experienced the end of the war. It wasn’t until after that war that he became aware of his family’s unique history. He is the great grandson of Johann Andreas Topf, the founder of the Erfurt company, “Topf & Sons” – who later became the main suppliers of incinerators for the extermination camp Auschwitz. For several decades, he has researched the history of his family’s company and became the co-founder of an association named “Place of Remembrance -Topf & Sons”. He was awarded in 2007 the German Federal Cross of Merit for his research. The book “Architects of Death: The Men Who Engineered the Holocaust” is based on his research.
16.00 (CEST), 15:00 (BST), 10:00 (EDT), 07:00 (PDT)
in German
Friday 8 May
Robbie Larnach
Magnus “Robbie” Larnach was part of the 25th Field Regiment of the Royal British Artillery. Originally from Scotland, he took part in the Normandy landings and in Operation Market Garden. He recalls all the progress of the Allied troops through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, crossing the Rhine into Germany and meeting with the Russians. After the end of WWII in Europe, he was sent to Asia, where he ended up on the island of Java, a Dutch colony at that time, following the bombing of Hiroshima and the surrender of Japan.
14.30 (CEST), 13:30 (BST), 08:30 (EDT), 05:30 (PDT)
in English
Mervyn Kersch
Mervyn Kersch was part of the UK infantry. At just 19, Mervyn was among the first officers to land on Gold Beach on the Normandy coast on D-Day and remembers being welcomed with wine, flowers and kisses by the French population. He recalls moving through France, Belgium and the Netherlands, in particular Nijmegen, before crossing to Germany. Of Scottish and Jewish origin, he was stationed close to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when it was liberated, and was moved by the terrible condition of prisoners. He was ordered to go to the Pacific but shortly before leaving, he learnt that Japan had surrendered.
15.00 (CEST), 14:00 (BST), 09:00 (EDT), 06:00 (PDT)
in English
Anne Robson
Anne was 9 when the war began and celebrated her 15th birthday the day before VE Day. Anne grew up in Sunderland, between the Tyne and Wear rivers, the largest shipbuilding town in the world at that time. While the Blitz is synonymous with war-time London, Sunderland’s shipyards, coalmine and port also made it a prime target for air raids. Anne has vivid memories of the bombing, rationing, evacuation, as well as school, treats and games. She witnessed the social effects of more than 700 local women entering the region’s heavy industries, and gained special insights from her mother and aunt, who worked with classified and sensitive information in the shipping firms.
15.30 (CEST), 14:30 (BST), 09:30 (EDT), 06:30 (PDT)
in English
Roly Armitage
Born in 1925, Dr. Roland “Roly” Armitage joined the 3rd Medium Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, during his second year of high school, aged 17. Arriving to the front 10 days after the D-Day landings, he participated in the Battle of Normandy, and was wounded south of Caen in late July 1944. Later, while serving in the Netherlands, he made a life-long friend of Freddy Heineken, the Dutch brewer. After returning to Canada, he became a veterinarian and a thoroughbred horse breeder, eventually serving as the mayor of Carleton Township, Canada.
16.00 (CEST), 15:00 (BST), 10:00 (EDT), 07:00 (PDT)
in English
Maarten Dekkers
Maarten Dekkers was very young when war broke out in the Netherlands; his father was deported to Germany and later fought in the resistance. Maarten remembers seeing the first American paratroopers landing at Velp at the start of Operation Market Garden, and greeting the liberators at the bridge of Grave. On 22 September 1944, his house was surrounded by German soldiers who were looking for his father and threatening his mother, while 5-year old Maarten cried beside her. Maarten stayed with a family in Haps who protected him until the liberation. There, he witnessed the preparations for Operation Veritable and remembers seeing the Red Cross trains full of wounded Allied soldiers. Maarten today is a guide at the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek.
19.30 (CEST), 18:30 (BST), 13:30 (EDT), 10:30 (PDT)
in English
Guy Whidden
Guy Whidden was a paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division. Guy was a machine gunner and jumped into Normandy in the early hours of 6 June 1944. Guy also jumped into Holland during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. He was severely wounded near Best during a mortar attack, while three of his best friends were killed. He was rescued by an officer and began an odyssey through hospitals in Belgium and the Netherlands to be cured. Recently, at 96, he got a mohawk haircut, which he said was used to intimidate the Germans in WWII, starting an online challenge to spread joy during the pandemic.
CANCELED
in English
CANCELED
Tom Lacey
Tom Lacey served with the 99th Infantry Division of the US Army and took part in the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944, where he carried portable radio and telephone equipment. Tom remembers waking up to one of the most intense artillery attacks, and the retreat towards Elsenborn in terrible weather conditions. After the Battle of the Bulge, he took part in the operations to advance in Central Europe. He went back to the United States a month before the end of the war. After the war, he graduated and worked for an airline company, got married and had 12 children.
20.00 (CEST), 19:00 (BST), 14:00 (EDT), 11:00 (PDT)
in English
Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin
Jim “Pee Wee” Martin was a paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division. He was nicknamed Pee Wee due to being the lightest man in the regiment. He parachuted into Normandy on D-Day just behind Utah Beach, and after a month of fighting, was sent back to London. In 1944, Jim took part in the landings during Operation Market Garden, was parachuted near the Dutch town of Son, and later had to endure the hard weather conditions of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. In 1945, he took part in various operations in Germany, including the occupation of Hitler’s mountain house in Bavaria.