Comments on: Alie Touw’s War

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 09 May 2020 19:27:24 +0000

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story. My husband’s father was imprisoned in Mauthausen, and was welcomed to England after the war. Alie’s story, like my father-in-law’s, is a lesson in courage in the face of the evils of war.

By: Doodie

Doodie — Sat, 09 May 2020 15:00:43 +0000

Alie, the story about your family’s struggle to survive the war is an inspiration. Thank you for sharing it.
I was born in Lincolnshire after the war, and was delighted to read about the connection with your story. How wonderful that you remembered that detail!
My mother was born in London and moved to Lincolnshire after marrying my father. They met whilst he was serving in the RAF during the war!

By: sprite

sprite — Sat, 09 May 2020 10:03:27 +0000

Such a wonderful read.
Having been brought up in occupied rural France with the stories of local farmers, I came to the realization whilst living in the East End of London, that there are as many wars as each individual experienced it and the psychological legacy was very different according to geographical location of the affected ones.
The story of Alie is a stark reminder that Belgium, Holland and the North of France bore the brunt of both conflicts as WWI also affected those regions more than any others.
I’d love to hear how Alie ended up in England after the war. One of the first lady I nursed at the Bethnal Green Hospital when it was still in existence in 1979, was a french lady by the name of Sophie who, coming from a poor mining town in the North of France, I had followed her english lover to the East End at the end of WWI. Alone and suffering from some form of dementia, she had reverted back to her native tongue and was forgetting english, so she responded better to my speaking french to her than to other nurses prompts. I shall never forget her and how I wondered how she had been perceiving the world throughout her life.
If you ever write about Alie again, could we have a bit more about her life after WWII and how she ended up in the East End.

By: Paul Sieloff

Paul Sieloff — Sat, 09 May 2020 08:26:18 +0000

My Uncle flew 3 of the Manna missions in a Lancaster from Cambridgeshire, all crew members of those missions say they were the best flights of the war, they were still at risk of being shot down but they after 5 years were saving lives not taking them

By: Kristine Dillon

Kristine Dillon — Fri, 08 May 2020 20:52:10 +0000

Such a touching account of life during WWII. How can one feel anything but profound respect for people like Alie Touw and those of her generation who faced the immense hardships of war and yet persevered. I can only imagine how hard it is for her to share her story and relive the ordeal she faced and yet, I am thankful for her doing so. It puts into perspective how strong the human spirit is. It is telling of the great depth of character that previous generations were able to muster up when they were faced with unimaginable hardships. It make it abundantly clear to me that during this time of shelter in place, so little is being asked of me.

By: Julia harrison

Julia harrison — Fri, 08 May 2020 17:54:12 +0000

I have read the comments here and join in saluting Alie’s courage in telling her story. Thank you for helping her bear witness to those days of unimaginable hardship. My father spent the war in movement control and helped organise the food parcels for the Dutch people. Only now, reading this personal account do I come close to understanding what it must have meant.

By: paul loften

paul loften — Fri, 08 May 2020 14:44:49 +0000

Thank you and Ali for this timely reminder of the end of the war in Europe. whilst all this was happening at Arnhem my father was waiting just a few miles away in Eindhoven with 30 corp to relieve the paratroops at Arnhem. But it never happened. During the prolonged stay in Eindhoven, he made a friend who worked at the Phillips factory there. The family, with two small children, were starving as was all of the civilian population and he brought them meat from the army kitchens. After the war, we received letters from the mother with photos of the Dutch children until the mid-1950’s when they stopped coming.

By: Achim

Achim — Fri, 08 May 2020 11:44:54 +0000

An emotional, touching and thought-provoking story …

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Fri, 08 May 2020 11:33:10 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, thank you for sharing the story of Alie Touw’s life in occupied Holland at the end of WWII. So reminiscent of Ann Frank’s account and so many others. Seventy- five year ago, yet her takeaway is worth reflecting upon:

“Alie understands that the culture of keeping house is the basis of a civilised life, she knows this because she has experienced the disruption when a family home is destroyed and the domestic world is displaced by chaos and violence.”

By: Barbara Robertson

Barbara Robertson — Fri, 08 May 2020 10:09:44 +0000

Read this at 11am today and brought home to me the individual human endurance and courage and community spirit , thank you