As Allied military equipment rumbled past cheering crowds, Canada seared itself into the collective soul of the Netherlands 80 years ago.
The First Canadian Army cleared much of the country of its Nazi occupiers over an eight-month period near the end of the Second World War. On May 5, 1944, German forces formally surrendered in the Netherlands, securing a cross-Atlantic friendship bound to this day by blood and history.
Liberation Day’s anniversary did not go unacknowledged in the spring sitting of the Alberta legislature. And for one assembly member, the connection lives on in a profound and personal way.
The valour of Canadian soldiers “gave my family life and gave me a future,” said Chantelle de Jonge, the UCP member for Chestermere-Strathmore. “From the depths of my family’s story and my own heart, I am forever grateful.”
Her grandparents grew up under occupation. Members of her family risked their own lives to hide people who the Nazis would otherwise kill. Sometimes family members were forced to provide shelter to occupying soldiers. One grandparent had to hide for over a year to avoid being forced to work in German factories.
Late in the war the Nazis opened dikes in a failed attempt to stop Allied troops from defeating them, de Jong recounted from her family’s history. “My family was displaced, split up and their homes destroyed.”
The Nazis cut off food and fuel, triggering the Hunger Winter and causing 22,000 civilians to die of starvation.
Said de Jong: “Five years of occupation. Five years of terror, danger and oppression. Five years of hunger, hatred and hurt. And then, finally, came the Canadians.”
The soldiers hanging from those jeeps and tanks brought hope, freedom, life and liberty.
“In our family’s records it is written: the war came to an end, and it was with much unity and manpower that the land and people were able to look beyond the bleak reality of what their country had become. Within a decade they left their war-torn home in search of a better future in a new land. They chose Canada.”
They were not alone. The war’s end triggered a wave of immigration to Canada over the coming decades. Among those who left the Netherlands were more than 1,800 war brides, some of whom met their future husbands along some cobblestone road on Liberation Day.
Today, one million or more Canadians claim at least partial Dutch ancestry. Between 1951 and 1961, the Dutch Canadian population exploded by more than 60 per cent to about 430,000, according to Statistics Canada.
In 2021 StatsCan pegged the number of Dutch Albertans at 4.2 per cent of the population or about 175,000 residents.
Still in his role as speaker, Nathan Cooper said: “The terrain was treacherous, the landscape formidable, and the attacking forces had all of the advantage. It was flat, soggy or flooded, and thousands and thousands of Canadians lost their lives.”
Cooper said that because of “valiant efforts of Canadian and Allied troops,” many Dutch lives were spared. Citizens were provided food and other essential supplies as the Canadian and Allied forces pushed the Nazis out of the Netherlands.
The Government of Canada estimates that 7,600 Canadians died in the eight-month campaign to liberate the Netherlands. The First Canadian Army was international in makeup, including up to 175,000 Canadians and 275,000 soldiers from other nations.
Under Gen. Harry Crerar, the army in northwestern Europe during the war’s final phases “was a powerful force,” says the Veteran Affairs Canada website. At the time, it was also the largest army ever put under the control of a Canadian general.
“Town by town, canal by canal, Canadian soldiers pushed back the occupying German forces in the Netherlands,” says the site.
Said Cooper: “To this day the Dutch people welcome Canadian military veterans to the shores to celebrate them and the historic efforts that were so vital in securing their freedom and the freedom of their country. Today, along with the Dutch people, we remember and we honour their efforts and sacrifices.”
