THE SCARRED OAK. William Walraven
whose strength and endurance he admired, had its privileges. Many times, his father gave him some extra pocket money on Sundays.
Meat, like beef and pork, was practically nonexistent, but Eric’s father raised a whole stall full of rabbits, and his mother would prepare them in many different ways. Also, he would exchange his tobacco and liquor rations for rye or wheat at the farms and then milled it by a hand-operated grinder in the stall behind the house. A twenty-five-pound bag of rye would take hours to mill, and turning the handle of the grinder would lame Eric’s arms.
Also, the thick cream of the fresh milk received from Willem’s farm, when left overnight, was gathered for a week and then poured in a big ceramic jar. A plunger that extended through a hole in the cover of the jar was moved up and down by hand until the butterfat separated into butter. This butter, a bit sour tasting, on a slice of still-warm fresh white bread baked in his mother’s kitchen oven, was a real delicacy. Rye was burned in a dry frying pan on top of the stove whose smoke made the eyes tear and was used as a coffee substitute. Coffee beans were impossible to get. The same way, the petals of the tulips were prepared as a tea substitute.
One day John and Willem, the farmer, butchered a small pig the German inspector had overlooked in the stall behind John’s house. Willem had tied the pig’s legs together and used another piece of rope around its mouth. Late in the evening, when it was already dark, he had carried the pig across the road to Eric’s place. Willem’s family was too afraid of the Germans, and they didn’t want anything considered illegal to happen on their property. Everything went as planned. The pig was lying on a table in the stall. Willem would cut the pig’s throat with a butcher knife, and John stood ready with a pan to catch the blood that later would be prepared into blood sausage, a delicacy in Holland. However, at the moment the knife entered the pig’s throat, the pig jerked, and the rope around its mouth came loose. It started to scream like a “stepped pig.” The animal couldn’t have done a better job to alarm the Germans. Grinding rye and butchering pigs without a permit meant automatic jail sentences. This screaming must have been heard all over the village. The jerking motions of the pig covered both men with its blood. The shock of being discovered by the Germans paralyzed them for a moment until Willem made a slash at the pig’s throat with such force that he nearly cut its head off. The screaming stopped, and quickly they turned off the light. There they stood waiting for the inevitable, too scared to talk or to breathe. In the dark, they heard the blood flowing from the table onto the floor and felt the last life jerks from the pig. At any moment, they expected the Germans to rush into the stall and take them prisoner. For a long time, they stood there, heavily perspiring and listening to every sound in the neighborhood, but nothing happened. With a sigh of relief and still heavily breathing, they continued to butcher the by-now-lifeless pig. This was the first and the last time Eric’s dad butchered a pig in his stall during the war.
After WWI, Germany had paid off huge war debts to many countries and was broke. Nearly 50 percent of the population had no jobs, and a large number of workers were involved with the communist union. All this was the reason that a person like Adolph Hitler, by promising a radical change for all of Germany, became their new leader. When Hitler started as führer (leader), he made many changes in Germany, all for the better at that time. He provided jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped. Germany, who was in a great depression, saw a bright future again. However, one large part of the population was Jewish. The Jews were the bankers, businesspeople, etc., and they controlled most of the wealth Hitler needed to reach his dream of a united Europe (the Third Reich).With his two companions, Goring and Himmler, the day was set for the barbaric destruction of the Jewish population.
It should be mentioned, however, that not all Germans were barbaric and mean. It was only these special groups—the Gestapo, some sections of the SS, and the NSB (Dutchmen who collaborated with the German). This last group was most feared because it could be anyone, even your own neighbor. Most of the regular German forces consisted of men who were forced to join and came from all ranks of life, from city dwellers to farm boys, and they hated these special forces. Some of the agricultural inspectors, most of them farmers themselves in their homeland, were reasonable people, and when handled fairly, they would many times knowingly miscalculate the produce to the farmer’s advantage. If some of the farmers, after several warnings, still tried to make a fool out of an inspector, they took drastic steps, and the punishments were harsh. It was the greediness of some of the farmers who made it harder and harder for the other farmers to assist their neighbors when the war lingered on.
The German dictators were cruel in many ways, but they also changed many things in Europe for the better. Particularly, changes were made for the workmen and the younger generation. For the labor force, anyone who worked overtime got extra pay, and if Sunday work was involved, they got also extra rations of food, cigarettes, and a small bottle of gin. Also, the Germans believed that after they won the war and changed all of Europe into one Germanic master race, their hopes of success lay in the younger generation. Most of the Dutch people are of the German race, so the younger generation had to be strengthened not only mentally but also physically. For the first time, weekly sports and gymnastics were introduced in the curriculum of the schooling system. Also, vitamin C or oranges were supplied to the schools in wintertime and once a week were given to the children.
Also, youth groups were organized, like the Hitler Jugent (Hitlers Youth) for boys and girls in the ages from ten to sixteen years old. The uniforms of the boys consisted of white shirts, black tie, and black short pants; the girls were similarly dressed, except with a black skirt. All carried armbands with a swastika, the symbol of Nazism, imprinted on it. The groups were organized like the Boy Scouts and had summer camps, where the basics of Nazism were taught. When they marched through the cities and villages, they sang beautiful German songs that made many youngsters envy them. Eric also wanted to join this group, because the uniforms, the singing, and the marching were to his liking. His parents, however, knew the real reason of the German minds and wouldn’t hear of it. At that time, Eric couldn’t follow their reasoning and didn’t agree at all with their decisions, but then he was too young to understand and saw only the fun part of this German master plan.
One day the Germans advertised that Adolph Hitler would drive through a close-by town the following Saturday on his way back to Germany. All people were requested to cover all sidewalks. Eric and Nico went to the marketplace to see this Hitler. All sidewalks were full of people, but both had no problem pushing their way to the front. In front of the people, on both sides of the road, were SS soldiers keeping the road clear. After about one hour, a large amount of motorcycles, followed by several cars, went by. In one of the cars was a rather small man dressed in yellowish brown uniform, flat hat, and small mustache. Hitler stood with his right arm stretched sideways, saluting the crowd, who were supposed to give the same greeting back to him while shouting “Heil Hitler [Haile to Hitler]!” It took only a minute for him to pass, and both boys did not know what all the fuss was about.
Within a few years, most items and materials that could be used in the war were not available anymore. One of the first on the list were bicycle tires. Bicycles were the only form of transportation for most people. They would use old rubber hoses, which sounded like flip-flops because the ends were tied together with heavy staples, or they rode on bare rims, which made a hell of a noise. Nevertheless, it was transportation.
Of all the villagers who sat on the stoop at the corner of Eric’s street in the evenings, one person was always the loudest and most talkative of the group. His name was Tom VanDer Wal, a farmer in his midfifties and strong as a horse. Tom always knew and could do everything better than anyone. It made many people angry. One time when he left after showing off again, the remaining men decided that they would teach him a lesson.
After discussing many different options, they decided on a bicycle race without tires around the village. They knew that normally he would win, but one thing Tom did not remember was that one of the villagers, Piet Vlodrop, had an identical twin brother, Alex, living about seventy miles away in another village. Both brothers had not been in contact with each other since early childhood; nobody knew about this. The next Saturday, Piet and another villager went by train to visit Alex, asking him if he would go along with the joke on big-mouth Tom. After listening to the two men, Alex decided to do it.
The plan went as planned.
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