Geert Tipker grew up in the Groningen village of Onstwedde, with which he made the Second World War as a child. He now entrusts his experiences to the paper. The veteran conjures up some booklets, which he wrote himself.
“I was seven when the war ended, another child. Later I came across a piece in the newspaper, about a farm in Groningen where Jews were. It was completely burned down in 1942. I recognized that story, I saw that happening. I think that’s one of my earliest memories.”
This year we commemorate the end of that war and we celebrate freedom for eighty years. “We really have to keep celebrating that,” says Geert Tipker firmly. “Even if there are no more people who have experienced the war anymore. I will go back to Onstwedde on 4 May, my parents are there.”
Father arrested and secured
The arrest of his father by the Germans made a deep impression on Tipker. “He was arrested in 1944 and was fixed with several villagers on the German island of Helgoland. Later he managed to escape and fled home.”
“In 1945 my father came home, he was very angry at the time. After the war he went to the Dutch authority forces, but he only served a few months there. He got sick and died at the age of 25.”
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