Now & Then: Debbie Heitkamp

The war years were very traumatic and difficult for Debbie Hietkamp in her native Holland. From her comfortable home in Gore Bay, she recalls the horror of that war. “We were close to the German border in Laren. I was eight when the war started with airplanes roaring over our home, and 12 when they came for my dad in the middle of the night, in July of 1944. They had found enough evidence of his underground work. He had been part of the fight to keep our young men from being sent to work in German factories. Their young men were fighting in the war. Our young workers had gone into hiding with the help of people like my father. He hid some in our own home during the day. At night, when the raids were more likely, they slept in the woods.”  

“Dad gave each of us a kiss on the forehead, and it never occurred to us that this would be his last goodbye. The German soldiers took him to a camp and we never saw him again. Later, we heard from the Red Cross in June of 1945 that our father had died in German camp, in December of 1944. He was just 52 years old.”

“Our home was a bit like Grand Central Station. We had one family staying in our living room and another in the

Article source: https://www.manitoulin.ca/now-then-debbie-heitkamp/