On the book Forgotten Children; Malnourished and lonely towards Drenthe
In March 1945 two inland boats sail from the west of Holland to Hoogeveen. On board are 45 malnourished children from Reeuwijk. The dangerous journey was organized by dominee Pieter Warmenhoven.
At the beginning of 2016, granddaughter Jessica Verhagen finds his travel diary, which reads like a tribute to Drenthe. She reconstructs the journey in a book, the book became a film.
Pieter Warmenhoven, dominee or minister in Reeuwijk, is the organizer of one of the many children's transports to Drenthe. His plan for the March 1945 crossing comes up during a gathering with ecclesiastical leaders and notables in the village. The health of many children is of great concern. There is hunger and disease, as it is just after the Hongerwinter in 1944-1945. The children's transports during the war mainly focus on the big cities, where there are many victims.
Most villages are not officially offered assistance. In Reeuwijk, minister Warmenhoven, minister Lindt, Pastor Schneiders and Dr. Batelaan organize a clandestine transport of children to Drenthe, where there is still food. The journey cannot be done by road because important bridges have been destroyed by the allied forces.
Two skippers, who sail empty to Hoogeveen for the food supply of the Germans, are willing to take the children. At the time, foster families had not yet been found. On Warmenhoven's shoulders, as the leader of the journey, rests a great responsibility. He leaps into the dark, hoping that God will bless the grip. And the parents give their small children, relying on the pastor, for an indefinite period to unknown families.
Eventually there will be a total of 45 children from all four denominations, ages ranging from 6 to 15 years old.
The children of the transport have been pre-examined by the doctor: “They had to be at least 20 percent malnourished, not sick, not suffering from lice or scabies and not wetting the bed”, Verhagen sums up. The families pay to join the boat five gulden per child. "That is a lot of money in the war." After a dangerous and difficult journey over the IJsselmeer in the middle of the night, while allied forces were in the air, the children's transport arrives in Zwartsluis via the IJsselmeer. The pastor then gets on his bike towards Hoogeveen, looking for foster families. He succeeds, and luckily so, because some small children were so undernourished, they had to be fed on breast milk for a week before their bodies could digest proper food anymore.
This story has remained under the radar for decades. In early 2016 Jessica Verhagen (53) from the city of Gouda finds her grandfather's travel diary when she helps her mother clean up. “A children's transport in the war? By my grandpa? I actually knew nothing about this, it intrigued me immensely.” The children of the transport are now well into their 80s. Verhagen wants to reconstruct the journey of her grandfather. She realizes that she should not wait too long, delves into the archives and consults sources. Soon the first contacts are made and many interviews follow.
“Many of those involved are only now ready to discuss it”, says Verhagen. “They have always kept silent about what happened to the children and their parents. Too drastic, too uncomfortable, too private. Shame also played a role. Families were forced to watch their children go hungry. To them, then to send them away to strangers ... that is not easy. Families reunite after the war, count their blessings and everyone goes on with their lives. The war was not discussed.
However, now that the children of that time have reached old age, some of them have stories they want to tell and not take with them to the grave. “It is quite special that those who were involved are now facing a stranger and have so much to tell, sometimes in detail”, says Verhagen. “I've seen family members who were stunned, listening to their grandmother's story. Sometimes emotions are also released. As if the memories suddenly hit them head-on. Fear is not mentioned, but the kids on that boat must have been terrified to leave home and must have felt very lonely.”
The research has become a book, a reconstruction of the journey from March 1945. It contains all the stories of the children Verhagen spoke to, foster families and families of the ones that looked after the children on their journey. One was especially hard to find: he was a former member of the NSB. Principled yet also a good person. With his German papers he piloted the boat safely both on the way there and on the way back, then with food, through the German patrols.
The title is Forgotten Children, because that is how many of the children at the time seemed to feel: forgotten by the Netherlands, by history.
By Jessica Verhagen
For the NLCLUB.NYC
July 5th, 2021
This book is available in Dutch (online at Bol.com) and in English (at Amazon.com).
It was made into a film in 2019 to make the story more accessible to young people. The film lasts 28 minutes and was made with the youth theater Mirakel from Gouda, in an original boat that was used for the children's transports. The film is also available in Dutch and with English subtitles and can be ordered by mailing Jessica Verhagen at jessie99x@gmail.com.
