Today I
played tourist and went to Dordrecht for the afternoon. It’s a beautiful city,
the oldest in Holland. It was also the first city to back William the Orange
against the Spanish in 1572. I saw the Great Church, the
house of Simon van Gijn (a wealthy collector whose house was turned into a
museum after his death in 1922), a WWII museum, the Augustine Church and the Hof complex, in which is the States Hall where the First
Assembly of the Free States convened in 1572.
In addition to the sights to see, there was a classical music festival going on in Dordrecht. In both of the churches I visited there were free concerts going on, as well as different music groups performing on street corners and market squares.
The WWII
museum was my absolute favorite. It consisted of an upstairs and downstairs of
a narrow old house, completely filled with WWII memorabilia. The museum
attendants were three old men, all volunteers, and they showed people around
the museum telling them all about the different pieces. I got to hold the boots
of a Nazi soldier, touch a POW uniform, and hear my guide’s memories of the
war. One of the things I’ve wanted to do since I got to this country is talk to
someone who was alive during the war. Unfortunately most of the Dutch people
that old don’t speak English. My guide spoke excellent English and was about
four years old when the war ended, so he still has memories of those days.
People are amazing. They did without so many basic necessities and still had
the courage to fight against the Nazis who occupied their country. Many of the
Dutch people who escaped during the war were trained in espionage and returned
of their own free will to Holland to be a part of the resistance movement.
