Posts with the the Netherlands tag

Barris Beat

Act of Remembrance, Dutch style

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Kees Traas began his tribute to his WWII liberators with this Canadian military helmet.

It all began with a barn loft full of relics. As a boy growing up in the Scheldt River estuary of the Netherlands, Kees Traas heard stories about the soldiers who’d liberated his country in the Second World War. But it wasn’t until the 1960s, when he was a teenager exploring his uncle’s workshop that he learned his liberators were from Canada and worth celebrating.

“The 30th of October, 1944, our community was liberated by the Canadians,” Traas (now 58) told me this Liberation Week in the Netherlands. “My uncle saved war artifacts. So, as kids we played with them, and he gave me a Canadian helmet. That was the beginning. (more…)

Barris Beat

Letter to an unknown veteran

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The two women - l-r Kim and Monica - asked Canadian vet Harry Watts to pose with them for this photo.
The two women – l-r Kim and Monica – asked Canadian vet Harry Watts to pose with them for this photo.

There were two young women in his audience, suddenly captivated by what he had to say. He offered words of reflection, remorse and remembrance. Last spring, Harry Watts, in his 92nd year, had travelled to Holland to pay homage to his fallen comrades and to join in the festivities marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands. During a commemorative event in the Dutch town of Baarn, Harry was asked to address the assembly.

“We were volunteers,” Harry told the thousands gathered in the town’s central park. “Because a lot of our parents and grandparents had come from Europe, we came here to, in a way, liberate our families.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Teacher as student of living history

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment

It was probably the final phone call she made last Sunday night. I’m sure that she had been dealing with a myriad of errands. I imagine that she’d probably checked her to-do list a hundred times. I know for a fact that she had responded to a long list of messages from fellow teachers, her principal and concerned parents. After all, she was about to lead more than 60 students from Uxbridge Secondary School on a 10-day-long trip into history. Nevertheless, U.S.S. instructor Tish MacDonald phoned me.

“Just wanted to say thanks,” she said on the phone. “We’re down to the last few hours before we take off for Holland. Everybody’s all fired up.”

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