send_you_to_billys

"You fucking guy!"

(Actual quote)

My scariest moment, apart from running guns past Nazi checkpoints would have been the time i was almost sent to a concentration camp (even though im not jewish) i was walking with a friend of mine through the snow one day (it was a brutal winter) and we were so hungry. We were on our way to a grain shed where we might be able to get some bread. I was so exhausted. I legs fell from underneath me and was facedown in the snow. It felt so good and i just wanted to lie there. I fellt my friend pulling my arm and yelling for me to get up but i coudnt. I was so tires. Then he told me "stay still Herman. Dont move" so i listened. He ran off somewhere and i heard an engine coming close to where i was lying. I heard German voices and my heart stopped. Someone hopped out of the vehicle and walked over. I held my breath, i was so terrified. The man nudged me with his boot and yelled in german. He lifted me by the arm and i went limp, playing dead. He cocked his rifle and yelled again. Then the driver yelled at the soldier and he went back in the truck. I waited until the truck was out of earshot and heard from my friend who had been hiding that the truck was full of young boys like myself, headed to the camps. The guard was about to shoot me when he was told not to waste ammunition. Id never felt so lucky in my life

I assume you mean when I started working for the militia. My older brother Hank gave me a package in my bike one morning in 1943 when I was 13 and told me not to open it, but to deliver it at an address as quickly as possible. I rode my bike through the streets of Amsterdam past tanks and German checkpoints without a care in the world. When I arrived at the address, I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer. I opened the package and saw three German pistols, likely stolen from Nazi soldiers. If I had been stopped or searched, I would have been executed in the streets. That was when I started working for the Militia

The war didn't end for us until US soldiers entered Amsterdam and cleared out he remaining Nazis. When we did start hearing whispers that the war was over, we celebrated, mostly in cellars with a small bottle of wine if we could afford one. It was the first time we felt hope in a long time

We celebrated, albeit quietly.

I am not Jewish, but I do feel great sympathy towards the Jews as my people were slaughtered by Germans as well. Anyone who denies it is a fool, as I would feel disgusted if anyone questioned the sacrifice the Dutch people had to endure as well.