The following is an account written by Wil Cornelissen, a remarkable Jew from Zwolle who was granted the medal of honour of the city. He is also story-teller par excellence at elementary schools in Zwolle, relating accounts of the Second World War. This one is about the liberation of Zwolle on April 14, 1945. As you know, Zwolle was liberated by the Canadians. Our first Canadian liberator, Mr. Leo Major, was appointed honorary citizen of Zwolle on April 14th, 2005.

April 14th
Years after the war, my mother's doorbell rang. It was the 14th of April, the date on which Zwolle, my town of birth and place of residence, was liberated. Coincidence? Ah, well, the rabbis say there is no such thing as coincidence. Let's just keep it at that.
It was Tonny who stood on the doorstep. Years before the war he had been engaged to my Jewish cousin, Elly. They had even already given notice of their intended marriage. But they never did get married.
Tonny had been very fond of my mother. And the feelings were mutual. He called my mother Auntie Truus.
Seeing each other again after so many years, brought tears to their eyes. Tonny was the living memory of the part of our family that had perished. Of Granddad and Grandma, Uncle Jochem, Nanny, Lily, and all the others. And of Elly, too. They had all been transported east and never made it out of Auschwitz, Sobibor and Bergen-Belsen.
He told us that for quite a while after the war he had worked as an interpreter for the Canadian troops. Did he know it was Zwolle's liberation day today? No, he had no idea.
Tonny had a big problem. His relationship with Elly had broken up at the time. "But what if the wedding had taken place? Then Elly would have been saved. It would have been a mixed marriage, just like Auntie Truus'. And then she would not have been sent to an extermination camp. And if the marriage later turned out to be a mistake, then they could simply have got a divorce, right? Then she would still be alive..."
My mother and Tonny talked for hours. They embraced for many minutes when he left. As if it was only then that Tonny actually bid his goodbyes to the family and to Elly.
Just recently I happened to meet Tonny's brother. He told me that Tonny married late in life. He passed away a few years ago.

He had three daughters.

The eldest was called Elly...
Wil Cornelissen

Elisabeth and Ebbie:

A Dutch Girl and a New Brunswick Soldier

April 1945: Life in Beverwijk, Holland had been extremely tough for the last several years.  There was just nothing to buy to eat and the Dutch people were starving.  Her uncle had rigged up a garden hose as a tire on her bicycle but it was so hard for the 18 year old Elisabeth to peddle even a short distance to barter for supplies.  Food coupons provided one ladle of mashed turnip or kale or red cabbage per person per day.  Her family was hiding her brother carefully from the Nazis so there was no food coupon for him. Everyone was thin with hunger, cold, wet and worried sick.  The Germans had flooded the lands.    Another brother, who had been studying to be an electrical engineer, had already been taken by the Germans to Germany. Claude Ebbett (Ebbie) was a wireless operator in a signal truck.  His regiment in the 1st Canadian Corps had been in the centre of Holland since March 1945. He had been in Algiers and then Sicily.  From France, they came through Belgium towards Arnhem and Apeldoorn, Holland.  When the war ended on May 8th 1945, his regiment went by convoy to Beverwijk to disarm a Steel Factory that the Germans had turned into a munitions factory.  They had de-mined a field and set up a camp there.  The liberation of Holland had begun. On the morning of May 9th, Els and two of her young girlfriends were pretty curious to see these Canadians who had just arrived in her home town.  What did Canadians look like?  Eskimos? Claude and a friend were playing catch when they saw the girls looking on. Not to give this story proper justice but for the sake of brevity, Claude and Els met there and fell in love.  They were married on December 12, 1945.  Claude left to go back to Canada on the R.M.S Mauretania the next morning.  It was not until August 26, 1946 when Els sailed into Halifax on the “Brides Ship”, The Lady Rodney Red Cross Ship, that they were reunited. Els had tried to learn a bit of English. This year (2005), they will celebrate 60 years of marriage and now reside in Sackville, New Brunswick. Claude Ebbett is a member of the Sackville Legion.  
Story by Meredith Fisher.

photo below:
Meridith Fisher distributing the concert Program

Last week I was attacked by Hummingbirds
and Black flies and chocolate Mousse