Photo top:

Sisters Johanna Haan of Chatham, left, Hilda Visser of Clinton and Klaaske Stoffelsen of Brantford present WWII veteran Jim Milne of Rockwood with a plaque and flowers.
The plaque is a framed copy of the identification papers of 21-year-old Anne Haan signed by Corporal Jim Milne. It was just a simple autograph scrawled on a government document 60 years ago. But Corporal Jim Milne’s signature on the identification papers of a young Dutch girl in Apeldoorn was considered a symbolic act of triumph over Nazi powers. The Canadian soldier signed the papers so Anne Haan could wave them a retreating German forces as they left her town.

Photo middle:
Corporal James A. Milne
WWII Veteran
1st Division - 1st Brigade Headquarters
Lorne Scots Regiment (Ontario)
Member of the Royal Canadian
Legion # 197/ Acton ON

Liberator of the Netherlands

 a very special personal tribute from one
local Dutch family to their liberator.

  Corporal James A. Milne - WWII Veteran was honoured with a gift and liberation story by sisters Johanna Haan, Anneke Haan, Hilda Visser and Klaaske Stoffelsen (absent was Cindy Slotegraaf). The Sisters were honouring Corporal Milne on behalf of their parents.  “The Canadians saved us” Joanna Haan, one of Haan’s five daughters, said during the ceremony. “When we heard the war was over, we ran into the streets and started to party.

Then we saw the Canadians coming down the road and people asked them to sign their identification papers they had to show everywhere for 5 years under German Occupation. “Getting the soldiers to sign those papers was a final act of defiance against the Germans so we could wave them in their faces.” The Haans immigrated to Canada in 1955 and unbeknownst to them, moved just a few km away from Milne’s Rockwood home. They met him for the first time 7 years ago, but eventually lost track of him. Anneke Haan, one of Anne’s grand-daughters, was going though some old documents recently and found the signed papers. The family began searching for Milne again. But it wasn’t until he was spotted on television doing an interview at a liberation ceremony earlier this year that the family learned he was still in the area. They convinced him to meet with them at yesterday’s ceremony. “I remember that day in 1945 well”, milne said yesterday. “They all wanted us to sign their papers. It was a big celebration”
 ....story by Alan Ferris / Mercury Staff / Guelph Mercury 9/9/05..