Without any official agreement, Alsace—Lorraine was immediately returned to France. Poland received the provinces of Poznan, West Prussia and also a promised section of Pomerania. From a section of the torn Imperial and Royal Austrian and Hungarian Empires, an independent state emerged in Czechoslovakia, which included the Sudetenland. Germany’s colonies were withdrawn, coming under the law of a League of Nations. Danzig, with its 97% German population, and not only as member of a guild of merchant towns but also the door to the Baltic, was given to Poland. In 1922 it became a part of a customs duty area.
It was therefore not unexpected, when at the outbreak of the next Great War, these developments became an explosive keg of gunpowder! During the course of reparations, if the amount of coal from Germany’s coal-mines, or wood from their forests, were not delivered punctually, it was reason enough for France to send five divisions of French and Belgian soldiers to the Ruhr. Many arrests followed, upsetting the cold and starving population. French officers made themselves ‘lords of the streets’, forcing people into the gutter with whips.
The ‘victors’ did everything they could to enforce the Versailles Pact, thus being responsible for an atmosphere that festered in the new generation in Germany which was then the torch-bearer of National Socialism under Adolf Hitler. The peace treaty of 1919 could be regarded as responsible for the dictatorship arising from 1933.
In between times, a certain American ‘style’ in bars and amusement halls, and the sound of jazz music spread over western Europe and the pattern was not confined to such places. To the anger of the conservative-minded it had spread to inner decor and fittings. However, this popularity of everything American suddenly ended in 1929, as Wall Street crashed. The results of ‘Black Friday’ spread like wildfire around the globe and resulted in one of the worst economic crises of all time. Before the end of 1929 there were already 30,000,000 unemployed. Stockbrokers and profiteers ruled the roost, under the noses of a very limp government. In Germany, it was clear that it had become a land of two classes, the rich and the poor.
Holland, as an up-and-coming land of industry and having become far more independent, was not spared the results of a worldwide recession. With a population of 8.8 million, almost 1 million were unemployed, despite its colonies in the East Indies, known today as Indonesia. The social climate was a catastrophe, as its prosperity dropped continually.
In the families of the unemployed, meat was to be seen on the table just once a month, and then only for the father. A hot meal was eaten just twice a week. In a family with children, it was usual for them to possess just one set of underwear. When the mother washed it they stayed in bed, for the whole day when necessary, until it was dry. When, if unemployed, you were caught visiting the cinema, then your unemployment benefit was reduced. For those under twenty-one years of age and those over sixty, there was no financial support whatsoever. With that, the government worsened the social problem instead of getting to grips with it. More than once, they even radically reduced the unemployment benefit.
In July 1934, in order to protest against this, the workers organised a demonstration on the streets of Amsterdam. The Army and Navy were called in to help the police suppress the protesting masses. There were demonstrations elsewhere, not only in Amsterdam. On that day, the result of people against tanks was seven deaths, and more than two hundred casualties. For those in power there was then nothing left of the widespread Dutch liberal mentality, when the population had dared to voice an opinion!
In 1933 mutiny even broke out within the Dutch East Indies Navy. The crew of one of its warships, the Seven Provinces, mutinied in Indies waters, when their pay was drastically reduced. But to no avail. The Dutch government ordered the ship to be destroyed. It was attacked by the Navy. Twenty of its crew were killed.
For us children living with our parents in Zierikzee, that was of no consequence for we had other problems, for instance, school. The school-house seemed to be of gigantic proportions to us, small as we were. Its ceilings appeared to be as high as in a palace, and it had colourful maps decorating the white walls of the classroom. The classroom was dominated by bulky school desks, and the desk of the master on the dais. Behind him was a huge blackboard smeared with chalk. The portrait of ‘the mother of our land’, Queen Wilhelmina never seemed to age, since she had looked down on her subjects with her youthful appearance, for some years.
Our teacher, wise and demanding respect, always ruled us with a cane at the ready, to ensure discipline. It was not always warranted, but it did us no harm. Meister Ten Haaf was hard but fair and was our favourite teacher. He knew how to attract our attention, particularly in history. Dramatically, he would stick his hand into his jacket and seize our imagination in portraying Napoleon Bonaparte. Almost without breathing, we would wait for the words of this Corsican general, as standing before the Pyramids in Egypt, he told his soldiers, “Men! Thousands of years are now looking down on you!” All that was missing was Bonaparte’s tricorne hat.
We school children literally hung on the words of our teachers. We lived, we feared and we suffered through the experiences of Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette in the guillotine era, and the dictatorship of the French Jacobins. We followed the glory of the Grand Armée in their battles at Preussisch-Eylau, Friedland, Austerlitz. We ‘perspired’ in our classroom, in the heat of the Nile. With the modern Genghis Khan we ‘froze’ in the freezing temperatures of Smolensk and Beresina. We were also proud to know that our grandfathers had also fought with a red cockade on the front of their bearskin caps. Then, in our warm and cosy school-room of the thirties, we could not know that years later, some of us would ourselves be freezing in those same Russian Steppes, and wearing the emblem of the Totenkopf, or ‘death’s head’.
That Napoleon had left behind him a Europe in fragments, is something that we were never told. What we were told, was that as France’s national hero and Grand Emperor, his last resting-place was under marble, not far from the Champs-Elysées. Our teacher was convinced that he had been a blessing for the world and held a high position in the world’s history.
Our enthusiasm had been fired to re-enact what we had heard about this ‘grand army’ in school. In wanting to do the same, we marched around with wooden rifles and capes, storming the banks surrounding the meadows. Such banks were for the safety of the sheep and cows when flooded and while I was the only one with an air rifle (no longer functional), I was the leader of the gang. Our ammunition was really what we could lay our hands on, such as lumps of clay or root vegetables. Often, after it had rained, the low-lying meadows were sodden, and we too were sodden and muddy. The cows didn’t mind, nor were they disturbed by our war cries. Only when we drove them into a gallop to attack, did they object in bewilderment with a ‘moo’.
For us ‘children of nature’ the island was a paradise, and it was ours. It belonged to us. There were no tourists, and we knew every corner and every backyard. The farmers knew us too. Protected against the wind by tall trees, the thatched, red-bricked farmhouses always stood alone. Framed by water-filled ditches and green meadows, the vegetable gardens always separated houses from stalls and barns. The sweet-smelling perfume of phlox surrounding the vegetable gardens, mixed with that of hay and dung. We played in the sweet-smelling warmth of the hay-barn, springing bravely from the highest bale on to the straw below. It was here that we learned about a taboo subject, that was not taught in school, or at home, and that was of sexual behaviour. We learned from the animals on the farm, from the horses and pigs, and from the hand of ‘mother nature’. The story of the stork belonged at home.