Tjerk de Boer

Witness from “Ons Amsterdam” by Tjerk de Boer, director of the Algemeen Handelsblad.

“Monday morning arrived four Canadian tanks; they left later. The arrival of these tanks, was for the Domestic Armed Forces the sign for a more or less rash disarming of the Germans, they didn’t agree the way it happened and a battlefield burst out at the Voorburgwal, in front of our building, and at the Dam.
The Dam was crowded with people and the Germans aimed their machine-guns on it. I can only say it was criminal. Also over the Voorburgwal the machine-guns and rifles rattled. It was a street fight.
I was with others at the office and had to stay there until the battle had ended. It started at 02:00pm, and 05:00pm a German officer with a white flag came out of the Grote Club for capitulation. I went home when traffic was being released through the Spuistraat. On the street laid dead people, more then hundred wounded and bicycles from people who fled, carrier cycles and hit cars etc. A real battlefield. This has been for Amsterdam the end of all hostilities”.

 

Source: www.onsamsterdam.nl

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