Sidney Woman Witnessed Liberation of Holland

SIDNEY - Nearly sixty-five years ago, the Second World War was coming to an end in Europe. In the days leading up to Nazi surrender, Holland was in its darkest hour, but Canadian soldiers rolled in, in trucks and tanks, and liberated the country.
It was a moment one Victoria woman remembers well.

As Anna Maria Zeeman hand writes her memoirs, she comes to the emotional chapter. A young woman of 17, she joined the crowds in Amsterdam awaiting Holland's liberation from the grips of Nazi Germany. As she remembers, the feeling was overwhelming. Zeeman remembers

"You don't know the feeling of being oppressed for five years," she says. On the day the Canadians came, she says they had hope, and could make plans again.

The end of the Second World War couldn't come soone enough for the Netherlands. The people were starving. Childhoods and teen years, like Zeeman's, were lost. Only now that she writes does the realize the magnitude of what happened.

And so as Zeeman reflects, she writes so the stories won't be lost and so generations will come to understand the appreciation the Dutch have for the Canadians.

"We will never forget."

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