Matthew

Matthew Dresens (no not me, I was named after my grandfather or Opa as the Dutch call it) was born on January 11, 1928 in the city Maastricht. Matthew was in high school when the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940.

"The Germans enforced  their  own  rules,  and  took  away  our  freedom. They ordered people to stay in their  houses after dark and to black out our windows and shut off our lights. Our city felt like a ghost town."  

These blackout conditions were ordered for a simple reason: concealment. The Germans did not want allied forces to see or find illuminated cites. Light cities could be located and then possibly liberated. The city of Maastricht where Matthew lived is located just 15 miles from the German boarder.

American B-25 bombers fly over Holland during the war.

 "I remember seeing planes fly over my house, I figured allied, on their way to Germany on bombing runs. These were some of he scariest nights of my life. We slept in the cellar, hopping a praying that we would see the light of day. Not only did plans fly over our house, but dog fights were a constant occurrence, as well. Planes that were shot down routinely crashed into neighboring houses. It was simply luck our's didn't get hit."         

In the occupied homeland, the Nazis controlled everything from bikes to radios. Matt remembers people would risk their lives just to hide radios that could keep them informed with the outside world. If the Germans were to find these said radios, the Dutch could be killed.

As mentioned in the Occupied Holland page, the Germans controlled much of the Dutch food. The Germans ordered farmers to give up all their crops. Matthew explained that him and his brother would  carefully venture through paths in the woods into farmers fields. Once there, they would take as much as the two of them could carry, sneak back through the paths and deliver it to their family

“Thankfully we were successful in dodging the German troops and we brought back crops for my family. I was thankful my family and I survived these challenging years.”    

Following the occupation, Matthew served for two years in the Dutch Army Corp of Engineers. The Corp gave aid to malnourished citizens who had lived in concentration camps during the Occupation. Many of these citizens would not have lived without the volunteer help from the Corp.

 "I was proud of the commitment I made  to  this  army, but  I was very concerned of what kind of future may lay ahead for myself and my family in this world"    

Unfortunately Matt had no pictures of his time during the war. The Germans forced most of the cameras held by Dutch citizens to be surrendered.