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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday June 14, 2008 - 3 Children of war will never forget the horrors Oakville resident recalls his experiences during the Second World War By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF "I remember I was playing in a little plot of garden and, at one point, I was doing something bad and my mother told me to go to my room. Two minutes later, a German tank drove right through the spot where I'd been." Robert Becks There are around 15 armed conflicts currently taking place around the world battering the souls of untold numbers of children in their wake. Having witnessed the horrors of war, losing their homes and their security, there are few who can truly understand what it is like to be a child living in a place rocked by conflict. Oakville resident Robert Becks is one of those people who does understand. Now in his 70s, Becks was born in 1937 in the Dutch city of Arnhem, a home that would give him a front row seat to one of the most devastating battles of the Second World War. The experience would have a lasting impact. "I found that at certain points in my life, if you come to a life-and-death situation some of these things come back," said Becks. "Things from earlier (in your) life kind of hit you and you have to digest them again." The events that would leave scars in Becks's mind began May 10, 1940 when Nazi Germany, fresh from its victories in Poland, Denmark and Norway, invaded the Netherlands as part of a violent thrust across Western Europe. The fact that the Netherlands was neutral did not spare it from German bombs. "The Germans all of a sudden bombed Rotterdam, which was the biggest harbour in the world, and just bombed the city to pieces without even being at war," said Becks. "Then they just took over Holland. We had a very small army and couldn't stand up to them." Despite being very young, Becks still has vivid memories of this period when the Germans were consolidating their victory. "I remember I was playing in a little plot of garden and, at one point, I was doing something bad and my mother told me to go to my room. Two minutes later, a German tank drove right through the spot where I'd been," said Becks. "It was an accidental thing, but they just went right through the gate and right through the spot I'd been playing. I've been lucky so many times." With Germany now in control of all of Western Europe, with the exception of Britain, the Dutch people began five long years of life under German occupation. Almost immediately, strict rationing was instituted with families only permitted to buy a certain amount of food each week. Many items such as clothing and shoes were also rationed. "That's why when people talk about Holland they talk about the wooden shoes," said Becks. "I had wooden shoes then because they were the best thing to have. First of all they kept your feet warm, you just had to put a bit of straw in them, plus they lasted for a while." People were controlled by a strict curfew, which carried severe consequences for anyone caught breaking it. CHANTAL AYOTTE / OAKVILLE BEAVER LIBERATED: Robert Becks shows his grandparents' house in Arnhem where Maj. Gen. Robert E. Urquhart was hidden for three days during the Battle of Arnhem.The green maple leaf was given to him at the age of seven by a soldier from first Canadian tank that liberated his city. This would prove to be a problem in 1942 when Becks's pregnant mother went into labour. " I had to crawl out on the road to the neighbour's house to try to get help," said Becks. "I was only five or six years old, but you did it because it was a matter of survival." Becks made it to his neighbour who, in turn, was able to contact a doctor. This doctor immediately hopped on his bicycle and rode out to where he was needed, but even he did so at his own peril. "If they caught you, they'd just line you up and that's it," remembered Becks. "It was a different life." Despite the daily hardships of rationing, curfews and having to darken their homes at night, the situation for Becks's family was not as bad as it could have been because his father was a police officer and needed by the Germans to keep order in the city. For most men, the Germans had other plans. "All able men were in hiding because the Germans would take them for forced labour in Germany," said Becks. "At this one farm, there was a haystack that had been made hollow and there were men hiding in there and we, as children, knew you could never let on that you knew where they were." Even something as simple as riding a train could be perilous because, despite having beaten the allies in Western Europe, the Germans had not won the war and, as such, allied air raids were common. "You would get on a train and the airplanes would come over and shoot at it," said Becks. "We made it to the railway station in Arnhem and it was bombed. I still remember my mother and my aunt each bending over one of us to try to protect us and then we ran and tried to find shelter under a table. I remember the wounded being carried in there." But the worst was yet to come. On June 6, 1944, the allies invaded Normandy and quickly drove the Germans out of France. Upon reaching the Netherlands the allies put into action a daring plan that, if successful, had the potential to end the war by Christmas. Code named Market Garden, the plan involved the dropping of thousands of paratroopers behind the German lines. The idea was that the paratroopers would seize certain key bridges thus allowing allied forces to roll through the Netherlands and into Germany. One of these bridges was in Arnhem. Becks remembers seeing this massive air armada passing overhead and, while he and his parents had evacuated to the nearby village of Ede, his grandparents found themselves right in the thick of things with British Maj. Gen. Robert E. Urquhart (played by Sean Connery in the 1977 movie A Bridge Too Far) occupying their house. "People would escape into the cellar and they would do surgery, they used my grandmother's equipment for surgeries," recalled Becks. The Germans, however, had no intention of going peacefully and in the ensuing battle Arnhem was destroyed. In the end, the British force was defeated with 1,500 killed, 6,500 taken prisoner and 2,500 forced to retreat. For much of the Netherlands, liberation would not come for another seven months. Meanwhile in Ede, Becks and his family endured their own brush with death when an allied plane dropped a bomb on their home as it attempted to hit a nearby German barracks. "You could see from the shadow coming over the window that the plane was coming," said Becks. "There were about 15 bombs dropped around the house and a lot of people were wiped out." Fortunately, Becks's family had reinforced the ceiling and walls of the structure's basement -- they escaped unharmed. As the family fled the area, Becks caught sight of a young See The page 7 UPCOMING SUMMER COURSES FILLING UP FAST! Snow in July? We guarantee you will experience it at DriveWise! For Course Information: {905} 845-7200 www.drivewiseoakville.com July 2, 3, 4, 5 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. July 7, 8, 9, 10 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. July 21, 22, 23, 24 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.