Although Holland was fully expecting war to break out, it was still a tremendous shock when, in the early morning of May 10, 1940, the first fighter planes appeared above Dutch soil and German soldiers crossed the border. They were the vanguard of things to come. Often dressed in fake Dutch army uniforms and helmets, they quickly conquered the bridges over the big rivers in order to facilitate the rapid invasion of the rest of the German army.
The fight only lasted a few days. On May 12, Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard, together with their daughters, Beatrix and Irene, were evacuated by ship to England. Queen Wilhelmina and her cabinet followed a day later. On her instruction, the army was left in the command of General Winkelman.
After the terrible bombardment of Rotterdam on May 14, the destruction of most of Holland’s air force, and the threat of Utrecht receiving the same treatment as Rotterdam, Holland capitulated.
The Dutch queen led her cabinet from London for the rest of the war, and the Germans were in charge in Holland.
I found a postcard in the archive that Sabine sent to one of her friends during this time. On it she mentions how scared everyone was by the continuous bombing during those first few days, which she both saw and heard.
Holland was immediately placed under military control, but by the end of the month, this was replaced by a new civilian government headed by the Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart, soon nicknamed “six and a quarter” on account of him being small and having a limp.
Initially the occupation did not seem to make much of a difference in everyday life, and there was optimism that this would be a short war. But slowly life did begin to change. Traveling around became difficult, food was getting scarcer, and freedom was generally curtailed.
It became clear that the Germans were there to stay, and Resistance efforts, especially by the communists, began to form immediately, but soon the rest of the population realized that their freedom and rights were in serious danger, and Resistance groups began to form everywhere.
Apart from those who joined the Resistance, there were many people who escaped or tried to escape overland via Sweden or Portugal, or direct to England by using boats, dinghies, canoes, in fact anything that would float. They fled in order to make contact with the exiled Dutch government in London and offer their services by either joining the Allied forces or becoming secret agents.
Some 1,700 courageous men and women managed to survive this hazardous escape route across the Channel, although many more tried and did not survive.
They were soon dubbed the Engelandvaarders (England voyagers).
Among those who arrived in July 1941 in London were Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and Peter Tazelaar. Erik had been a friend of Sabine since they were in their teens, and Peter she would only meet later during the war when they became involved in the same Resistance group.