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✜ An’s brother, Pieter Tichelaar, outside the Tichelaar family home on the Turfmarkt.
family in our front room. Our family moved to the back of the house. The officer and his wife were young and had small children. I could go out with them and talk to people who were not just from rural Friesland in the north of Holland. It was a very special time for me. I was 17 and not accustomed to going out. Escorted by the young lieutenant’s wife, I went to the Development and Relaxation evenings. I loved every minute I spent there. I learned about all kinds of things culturally and socially by going to lectures and plays and dance performances. It was wonderful, but in the back of my mind I was increasingly aware of what could happen and that we were living with more and more of a threat. The war broke out on the nights of May 9 and 10, 1940. We heard airplanes, but otherwise, everything was quiet. Father knew that our whole village had to be evacuated to Workum or maybe even farther away. We heard he was not going to leave, and we wanted to stay, too. Father took his civic responsibility seriously and, besides, he had a factory to guard. The town crier told everyone in the village to get out as quickly as possible. People were to put their names on their house keys and leave them on the porch of Turfmarkt 5, our house. I sat on the porch in the spring sunshine holding a big drawer. I was entertained by all the keys that had no labels on them. What would happen when their owners came home? The lieutenant’s wife joined me on the porch, and we suddenly realized how quiet the town had become. We were filled with excitement—and uncertainty. She felt that especially because her husband had left in the middle of the night to man the fortress at Wons with his company. Nearby was the important Ijsselmeer Dike which our boys had promised never to give up. THE GERMAN OCCUPATION BEGINS 22