A personal look at the Liberation of the Netherlands
Ann Meunier of St. Albert, Alta., sends a number of photos that her late father Albert Thomas Collins kept in a small box following his return from the Second World War. Collins was in the 3rd Canadian Army Infantry and participated in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945.
Among the photos were scenes from the Liberation parade in Apeldoorn in 1945. Another photo simply shows two Dutch women surveying the damaged streets after the Germans departed. Closer to home, are photos from the Poesse family where Albert Collins stayed near Vorden, in the eastern part of Netherlands. One photo shows young Lies Poesse wearing a coat make from blankets that Collins had given her. Another shows Lies (left) and her sister Riek wearing sweaters that they had made from wool given to the troops to mend their socks and uniforms.
“My father never talked a lot about the war but I do remember him saying how well they were treated by the Dutch people,” said Meunier. “A few years ago I was able to correspond with Lies Poesse in Holland and she was able to write to me and tell me some very interesting information and stories.”
We would like to thank Ann Meunier for sharing these photos and invite others to share their photos and artifacts of wartime or peacetime. To submit a high quality photograph (no photocopies), please mail it to Find-Share-Discuss c/o Legion Magazine, 86 Aird Place, Kanata, ON, Canada, K2L 0A1 (photos will not be returned) or by email (large file JPEG) to magazine@legion.ca. Please include your daytime phone number and mailing address along with a description of the photo, its date and the location and the identity of the people (first names and last) and where they are in the photo. Have questions? Call us at 1-613-591-0116.
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