The Remarkable Journey of Mr Prins: World War II, Jewish Refugees and the Bath-Alkmaar Friendship

By Aletta Stevens

The greatest journeys are escapes. Night-time, suitcases of cash, chaos, the final burning of papers. 56 people flee in a small boat. In 1940, as exiled Dutchman Eli Prins arrives in England and makes his way to Bath, he instigates a longer journey, one from war and uncertainty to safety and solidarity. Based on personal testimonies and unpublished sources in English and Dutch, this book vividly reconstructs the experience of war in Alkmaar and Bath. It is a story told in full for the first time: how the Jews are expelled from Alkmaar; the fate of Eli's parents; the Bath Blitz; and then in 1945, after the Dutch Hunger Winter, how the people of Bath chose to help Alkmaar and its children. This is both a local story and a European one, written not just to commemorate history, but also to remind ourselves that we still need such heroic and uplifting stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brown Dog Books
• Release date: Apr 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839521393

Book preview

Part 1: Escape

O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted

Isaiah 54:11*

The Netherlands, 9–15 May 1940

A small number of determined individuals are moving ever closer to their destination, unaware that their paths are about to cross: Eli Prins, Alfred Goudsmit, Bertus van Loosen, Ben van Hasselt and Frouk Tromp, Loe Woudhuijsen and Loes Spaander.

Thursday 9 May, the eve of war

Blaricum, 20 miles south-east of Amsterdam, shortly after 10 pm

ALFRED GOUDSMIT

Through the moonlit streets, a well-dressed, 53-year-old gentleman is walking home. He is Alfred Goudsmit, managing director of the beloved Dutch department store, de Bijenkorf, known for its quality goods. Alfred can look back with pride at his twelve years in charge of the business. Who would have thought that it would grow into a chain of luxury stores, with a staff of several thousand? A Jewish family firm with many Jewish employees.* For a moment, Alfred stops. Smoothing down his moustache, he looks up at the sky. Under the starry firmament his small stature – neatly presented in a three-piece suit, white starched shirt collar and shiny cravat – seems diminutive. His mind ponders the fact that this beautiful evening is marred by only one prospect.

Alfred continues on his way through the wide, leafy avenues, past large, old houses and well-kept gardens. This affluent village offers comfortable country living with a touch of the bohemian. He reflects on his conversation with the dinner guest he has just accompanied home, 48-year-old Mrs Gertrude van Tijn.* Since her divorce three years ago, she continues to live with her teenage son and daughter at the ‘Houten Huis’, close to the woods. The house has a chic interior with antique furniture and an impressive library, whilst the exterior boasts a tree-lined driveway and a tennis court. Alfred knows Mrs Van Tijn from the Stichting Joodse Arbeid, a Jewish foundation of which she is the Secretary and he is the Treasurer. The foundation supports the Nieuwesluis ‘labour village’ in the new Wieringermeer polder in North Holland, a farm complex where young Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria receive training in agriculture and trades.

Alfred Goudsmit.

During their walk they talked about the possibility of war in the Netherlands. Thus far, the Netherlands has maintained its policy of neutrality, as it did before, during and after the First World War. To Mrs Van Tijn, a German-born Zionist and leading light in the Committee for Jewish Refugees in Amsterdam, the prospect of a German invasion is not only abhorrent, but also suffused with a cruel irony. For seven years since Adolf Hitler came to power, she and the Committee have been helping thousands of German-Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied territory cross the border into the Netherlands to look for permanent settlement or onward travel to Palestine or the Americas. With Denmark and Norway under German occupation since last month, does the Netherlands await a similar fate? And what should they, as Jews, do then?

Enschede, a Dutch city close to the German border, evening

BEN VAN HASSELT

28-year-old secondary school head teacher Ben van Hasselt is meeting family friend Tammo Wolt. Tammo works at the nearby border crossing near Glanerbrug, a small place between Enschede and the border with Germany. The border post is closely guarded by military police. Despite closing the border with Germany on 17 December 1938, the Dutch authorities are still trying to curb the huge influx of refugees. To accommodate them, the Dutch government built Westerbork Central Refugee Camp a year later in a remote corner of Drenthe, a province in the north-east, near the German border. Since then, Jews from Germany, Austria and Sudetenland – the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia – entering the Netherlands illegally will be treated as ‘undesirable aliens’.

Tammo and Ben discuss the chances of war breaking out. It is difficult to imagine, as there has been no fighting on Dutch soil for more than one hundred years.*

Ben has become involved with refugee work. There is a network of Dutch people who rescue Jews from the Nazis and smuggle them across the border into the Netherlands. Recently, such a network was discovered at Glanerbrug, which was using the convent gardens for its purposes. People who harbour illegal refugees are liable to prison sentences, and any refugees who are caught will be sent back. By talking to refugees, Ben has become aware of the terrible things that are happening in Nazi Germany. Being Jewish himself, it is even more frightening. Ben has heard stories about the immense difficulties faced by Jews, how their rights as citizens are gradually and inexorably being taken away, how they are hounded and robbed by Brownshirts* in the street, how tens of thousands have been arrested and deported to internment camps. Closer to home, his uncle and aunt took in two Jewish girls from Germany after their parental home had been attacked during Kristallnacht, the ‘Night of Broken Glass’, the night of 9 to 10 November 1938. Ben read about this in the Dutch press. Jewish-owned properties were smashed, synagogues were set on fire, and there were mass arrests and brutal killings.

Eli Prins.

When Tammo asks, ‘What would you do if the Germans invaded our country?’ Ben has his answer ready. It is something he has thought about a great deal. In the 1930s he was a pacifist, but now he firmly believes that the Netherlands will not be able to maintain its neutrality. It is clear that the country is preparing for war and if it were attacked, he for one would not be idle. He replies passionately: ‘If the Germans invade, I’ll escape and join an army to fight against the Fascists!’

Friday 10 May, the day of the German invasion

Alkmaar, 25 miles north-west of Amsterdam, 5.30 am

ELI PRINS

Eli wakes with a start. It sounds as if heavy motor cars are thundering past the house. He rushes to the window and looks out. As he rubs his eyes and wakes up properly, he realises he is mistaken. The noise is not that of vehicles, but of anti-aircraft guns. In the direction of Bergen, a small coastal town and military airfield 7 miles north-west of Alkmaar, he sees planes soaring and diving behind the houses, leaving clouds of smoke in the air. It looks like the Germans are bombing Bergen Airfield.

Quickly, he turns on the wireless. There is news from London that British troops have just landed in Iceland and that there is a shortage of soap in Berlin, neither of which is disconcerting. Nevertheless, Eli thinks he should wake the sergeant major who has been billeted at their house since September 1939, after Alkmaar was made a garrison town for the Second Regiment of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery. The sergeant major is reluctant to wake up and mumbles grumpily: ‘Mr Prins, I had a difficult day yesterday, and I don’t enjoy being called for routine exercises. When I am needed, they will phone or send an orderly. Please let me sleep!’ Fifteen minutes later, however, an orderly arrives to announce the highest state of alarm.

Eli tunes into Dutch stations, but there are no broadcasts. Belgian radio, however, reports that the Netherlands has been attacked by Germany overnight, and that the Belgian Cabinet is in meeting. Next he tunes into a German radio station and shudders as he recognises the voice of Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, broadcasting to the German people from Berlin. Goebbels is trying to justify the invasion of the Low Countries by claiming that Britain was planning to attack the Ruhr area through Holland and Belgium. ‘A load of lies and slander,’ Eli thinks to himself, ‘a piece of shabby trickery.’ The ten-point memorandum is followed by fierce accusations against the Dutch authorities, including HM Queen Wilhelmina. At 8 am the Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP) broadcast on Dutch radio to confirm that the Netherlands is at war.

With everything in disarray, Eli realises some of his activities, such as his poetry readings, literary talks and study of the history of painting, will have to be put on hold for the time being. He resolves to offer his help to the city. First, however, he must go to the bank to secure his money, valuables and shares in a safe deposit box. He steps out of Bierkade 11,* a handsome town house with brick façade and clock gable along the road overlooking the North Holland Canal. Alarmed by the invasion of Denmark and Norway, in April he left his small room in Amstelveen, just south of Amsterdam, to be with his family. This is his parental home, where he has lived with his mother Rosette, father Isaac, brother Aron, and his sister Rose, who married and moved to England in 1939. In the 1920s he was based here as a poet, playwright and theatre producer. In the 1930s he used this work as a cover to travel to Germany and Austria to help establish an underground network to bring Jews and anti-Nazis to safety in the Netherlands. This covert work, now in grave jeopardy, is his main mission, a voluntary mission that makes him a number one target for the Nazis.

Prins family home, Bierkade.

Having visited the bank, Eli makes his way to the town hall, where he recognises the tall figure of 41-year-old Burgomaster Van Kinschot, addressing residents from Bergen who have fled to Alkmaar following the attack on the airfield:

We called you this morning in the hope of giving you a safer home. But unfortunately there is no safe place, neither in this town nor anywhere else in Holland. Stay where you are, do your duty, and help and listen to the authorities.

Eli receives a message from a friend, asking to see him at 4 pm. It is Mr R.P. Goettsch, a teacher who is now head of the Dutch Air Raid Precautions (Luchtbeschermingsdienst or ARP). The headquarters are at the Weigh House, the impressively ornate, towering building at the centre of Alkmaar’s world-renowned cheese market. Mr Goettsch explains he would like Eli to join the ARP. Eli does not need persuading and declares himself ready to start work. In his new post as telephonist, he passes on messages to the seven posts in which the town has been divided, and observes all the comings and goings at the office. As a member of one of Alkmaar’s oldest families, Eli recognises many faces. Disconcertingly, he also notices some ARP members who, in his opinion, are not to be trusted. There has been talk of a high number of fifth columnists in the country. Could there be Nazi sympathisers attempting to infiltrate here, too?

From the tower of the Weigh House, Eli watches as parachutists come down over the city. There have been rumours of large numbers of German paratroopers disguised in Dutch uniform. Some are taken prisoner on landing; others are shot before reaching the ground. Despite these measures, two Germans are found in possession of ARP identity cards. Throughout the day, the wireless brings news of scores of enemy planes over Delft, Rotterdam and other cities. Concerned about possible traitors in the ARP, Eli visits Police Commissioner C.C. Walraven. Just fifteen minutes after Eli has left, however, Dutch military authorities arrest Walraven and his Chief Constable of Police as fifth columnists.

Night falls. Eli stays at his post overnight and manages to get some sleep.

ALFRED GOUDSMIT

Around 4 am, Alfred Goudsmit and his wife Gertie are woken by the roar of aircraft. They wonder if the Dutch Air Force is carrying out a military exercise. Then the wireless brings news of planes flying in a north-westerly direction. Could this be a German attack on England? But when reports begin to come through of bombings and parachute landings in the Netherlands, it is clear that Hitler has violated the country’s neutrality. Alfred and Gertie realise with a shock that the war has already begun.

Anxious for further news, Alfred cycles to the village centre. There are plenty of people on the streets, but no one has any new information. He returns home to discuss how he might reach his office as a matter of urgency. He feels it may be risky to travel by car, so after a hasty breakfast and with several rations stuffed in his pockets, Alfred sets off on his bicycle, wrapped up in warm clothing. As a rule, the twenty-mile journey to Amsterdam follows a pleasant and peaceful country road, but today it is crowded with both military and civilian vehicles. Everyone seems to be on the move.

After two hours’ cycling, Alfred arrives in Amsterdam at 7.30 am. As he approaches de Bijenkorf, his department store at Dam Square, employees are talking animatedly as they prepare to go into work. Naturally, the outbreak of war is the topic of the day.

De Bijenkorf department store, Amsterdam.

Alfred enters the building and goes to his office. He addresses his staff and calls several emergency meetings. There is grave concern at the invasion, but everyone manages to remain calm. The store opens at 9 am and Alfred calls the Rotterdam and The Hague branches. Feeling too restless to stay at his desk, after two hours he calls a meeting of the Board of Directors. As a precaution, they agree to pay all staff half a month’s salary before Sunday. All German employees are given notice to remain at home. That day, the store is even quieter than expected, except for an initial run on air-raid protection products. Alfred decides not to go home, but to stay overnight in Amsterdam at the house of his nephew Hans Isaac.

BEN VAN HASSELT AND FROUK TROMP

Ben van Hasselt is fast asleep in his room at the boarding house at Hengelosestraat 72, Enschede. It is 5 am. Despite the increasingly loud drone of aircraft flying over in large numbers, Ben continues to enjoy his peaceful slumber.

In nearby Glanerbrug, however, his long-term girlfriend, primary school teacher Frouk Tromp, is woken by the noise and instantly realises what it means. She rushes over to Ben’s house and storms into his room, shouting: ‘I can’t believe you can sleep through all this! We’re under attack from German planes – it’s war!’ Ben wakes with a shock. He stares at Frouk. Her wavy, jet-black hair looks as if it has been tied back in haste, and under thick eyebrows her dark eyes flash with fear. Ben jumps out of bed and looks out of the window. ‘Are you sure they’re German? They may be English,’ he suggests, hopefully. But Frouk’s response leaves no room for doubt: ‘No, Waalhaven* has been bombed and parachutists are being dropped behind Dutch lines.’ Ben says: ‘Then we have to leave straight away.’ He quickly gets dressed and, after grabbing his coat, motorcycle hat and goggles, they rush out of the house. Ben starts up the Douglas, his trusty English motorbike, with Frouk on the back.

Ben van Hasselt.

Frouk Tromp.

Their first stop is Henri’s house. Ben’s elder brother Henri is also a teacher in Enschede, and he and his long-term girlfriend Jet are Ben and Frouk’s best friends. Henri also has a motorbike, and in the summer the four of them enjoy camping trips to France or the Belgian Ardennes. Ben and Frouk urge Henri to leave as soon as possible, as they expect the Germans to be arriving soon, and they promise to warn Jet in the meantime. But Henri is not keen to abandon everything at a moment’s notice. The prospect of being a refugee and the dangers on the road present too much uncertainty. Ben and Frouk have no choice but to leave him behind.

On their way to Jet’s house, the city of Enschede makes a surprisingly calm and orderly impression. Briefly, Ben and Frouk speak with Mr Sellenraad, the education inspector, to inform him of their departure. He wishes them a safe journey and expresses his hope that he will see them back alive. Jet is up already. She seems nervous and keeps talking about her father and brother. Ben and Frouk try to persuade her to flee with Henri, but she is unsure. It is an unbearable dilemma. On the one hand, it makes sense for her and Henri to leave: after all, they are young and can start a new life. But to desert her family… It does not feel right. Ben and Frouk have to leave her to make her own decision.* There is only one thing on their minds: to get away as soon as possible. They will need to cross the breadth of the country to reach Amsterdam and from there a port on the west coast to sail to England. They jump back on the Douglas, speeding at nearly 70 miles an hour in a north-westerly direction to the city of Hengelo, some twenty minutes away. En route, several passers-by warn that they will not get through, as all roads have been blocked by order of the Dutch Army in anticipation of German troops.

Presently, they encounter their first hurdle. Following the invasion that morning, the Dutch Army set off explosives under bridges along the local canal, the Twentekanaal, and erected anti-tank obstacles to delay the advance of German troops. They have to take a side road instead, riding parallel to the canal until they come to the town of Delden, fifteen minutes further west, where the bridge has been demolished. As Ben and Frouk are struggling to get themselves and the Douglas through several barriers, two other motorcyclists are doing the same. They decide to join forces. Together they break down a sentry box that has been abandoned by Dutch troops. The wooden planks are useful as a kind of ramp when placed against what is left of the bridge. In this way they will be able to get the motorbikes to the other side of the Twentekanaal. Whilst they are busy doing this, several cars arrive. Their drivers soon realise it is impossible to get through and have no option but to turn around again. Ben and Frouk watch as they drive off with disappointed-looking passengers.

Having reached the other side, they continue to follow the canal to the town of Goor, 5 miles further west, but this time the demolished bridge is impossible to negotiate. It is just as well that they do not attempt it, as they spot the first German soldiers on the other side of the water. Shocked, they instantly turn round and go back through the town, where helpful locals show them an escape route through the woods. They are still in the company of the other riders, but one of their engines overheats and they have to wait half an hour before it has cooled down and can be restarted. Sometime later, when it breaks down completely, they have to walk to a farm to ask for help. Ben and Frouk do not want to lose any more time and decide to continue by themselves. They simply have to keep heading in a westerly direction. After approximately 40 minutes they come to another canal, the Overijssels Kanaal, but there is no bridge, only a small boat. The boat’s owner is reluctant to take them across, suspecting them of espionage or having been parachuted in. But as luck would have it, a Dutch soldier from the border arrives and recognises them as local teachers. He rows them across, with the motorbike in the boat.

Ben and Frouk on Douglas motorbike.

Ben and Frouk hear the intermittent sound of planes. They suspect the Germans are not far behind.* At the town of Deventer, both bridges across the IJssel River have been demolished. Residents have made their rowing boats available and once more Ben and Frouk are taken across. To their regret, they have to leave the Douglas behind, as it does not fit in the rowing boat. They now see Dutch soldiers in several locations, ready to defend the exploded river crossings, and with relief they realise that they have successfully reached the Dutch defence lines. And so Ben thinks this is his chance to volunteer with the Dutch Army.

To his disappointment, however, he is told that he can join only in the next big city. Since civilians are no longer allowed to use the trains, their only option is for Ben to go back across the water to fetch his motorbike. Frouk stays behind, waiting anxiously. Ben is away a long time and Frouk is worried. Will he manage to return with the Douglas before the advancing German Army arrives? If not, what is she to do on her own and how would they find each other again? Finally, she sees him, with the motorbike, on what turns out to be the last rowing boat to get across the river before fighting commences. The Dutch soldiers have their machine guns at the ready: the Germans are here.

Faced with further delay in the form of trees felled across roads, Ben and Frouk now head for the city of Amersfoort, an hour west of Deventer, through the woods. On the way, they meet a boy who claims that, going by the accent, he has just spotted a German passing by on a bicycle. Fearlessly, Ben revs up the Douglas and goes in hot pursuit of this possible spy. Having stopped him, the bewildered cyclist claims to be a German-Jewish refugee. Ben is not prepared to believe him without proof. So he asks the stranger to recite a Jewish prayer. The man is not familiar with it, but offers to recite the starting lines of the Ma Nishtana, the ritual ‘question’ traditionally asked by the youngest boy attending Passover Seder. When this appears to be genuine, Ben lets him go.

Next they pass evacuees coming from the direction of Amersfoort, who warn them that the city is on fire and is being evacuated. Despite urgent advice to turn back, Ben is determined to proceed as planned. When they reach the town of Voorthuizen, they are stopped by Dutch soldiers with orders not to allow anyone through. Ben explains that he wants to volunteer for the Army and manages to obtain a pass to continue to the next town. Their route runs more or less parallel with the Grebbe Line, the Dutch defence line consisting of flooded plains, sluices and earth walls, where the 2nd and 4th Dutch Army Corps are preparing to confront the enemy. At the town of Barneveld, 4 miles further south, the Dutch soldiers and the Burgomaster have no time to deal with Ben’s application, but again he and Frouk receive a permit to travel on. The roads are now full of evacuees, cows and farm carts piled high with linen, blankets and household possessions.

When Ben and Frouk finally arrive in the city of Amersfoort, Ben is told he cannot join the Army without training, and is sent to volunteer with the Red Cross instead. He helps out until the evening, when reports come through of approaching German troops. Ben and Frouk have to go back on the road. In Bussum they stay the night at a farm, having made good progress. Now it is time to rest.

IJmuiden, a port 17 miles north-west of Amsterdam

In the province of North Holland lies the deepwater port of IJmuiden. It derives its name from its location at the mouth of the IJ, a body of water where the North Sea Canal connects the harbours of Amsterdam with the open sea. The port is of strategic importance and forms part of ‘Fortress Holland’, the key area of the Dutch national defence.* It consists of a large complex of sluices, harbours and canals, close to the centre of the steel industry. On approaching from Amsterdam along the road that hugs the south side of the North Sea Canal, first the town of Velsen and Velserbeek Park come into view on the left, whilst the paper factory is visible across the water on the right. Then follows the residential area of East IJmuiden town. Several regiments have been stationed here since 1938, with soldiers accommodated in country houses, schools and hotels, and officers billeted in civilian dwellings. To the right of the Parkweg road, the North Sea Canal expands into a complex area of inner and outer canals and different-sized sluices. These eventually lead to Fort Island, where the port commander is