War Diaries (June 20) (nonfiction)

War Diary entries for June 20

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Diaries

Cornelis Komen: June 20, 1943

Many people on the train don’t even know what’s going on in Amsterdam. The last Jews are being rounded up. Herded together and taken away like cattle. From hearth and home to foreign parts. First, they’re taken to Vught, then they’re transported to Poland — oh, the misery these people must be going through. Separated from their wives and children. They may not be a pleasant people, but they’re still human beings. How can the Good God allow this?

But we’re on our way to Tiel. The train is packed, and in Utrecht another bunch piles in. But people are in a good mood, because everyone’s getting out today, to eat or buy cherries. In Geldermalsen we change trains to Tiel. Even more crowded. The carriages are bursting at the seams. But we’re getting there, and Van Dien is waiting for us. How peaceful it is, this small provincial town. When we arrive, there’s breakfast on the table. As always, this is such a lovely surprise to us. Smoke-dried beef and rusks.

Afterward, we have some coffee, and then we’re off to the cherry orchard. We need to walk three quarters of an hour. It’s beautiful in the Betuwe.6 We’re surrounded by nothing but rustling wheat fields, interspersed with beautiful orchards. Apples here, pears over there, and sometimes plum or cherry trees. One even more beautiful than the other. Then we reach Farmer Kerdijk. Van Dien immediately orders a box of 7.5 kilos of cherries.

We sit ourselves down and start to eat. The box is empty in less than half an hour, but then we’re fed up with cherries. That’s the problem; if you have too much of something, it soon starts to pall. We run a race. Van Dien loses to me. Wim beats Bert. The Willinks are the champions. Then we do some boxing. And then the boys try to wrestle Van Dien down to the ground. Not a chance. He breaks into a sweat. It’s lovely getting tired this way. How wonderful life is.

While in Amsterdam, the Jews are herded together like cattle. Carrying their bundles on their backs. Their blankets. They packed their things days in advance. Still, how hard their departure must have been. Parting from their familiar living rooms, their friends and acquaintances. While we are eating cherries, one basket after another. Lazing around. How lovely this place is.

—Cornelis Komen, a 48-year old salesman for an English asbestos company, recognized the disparity between how his family and Jewish people were treated during a 1943 train trip to an orchard. The outing was disrupted by a raid in Amsterdam that rounded up more than 2,400 Jews for deportation.

• Dutch War Diaries @ NY Times

Tatsusei Yogi: June 20, 1945

We stayed the whole day under an adan bush. There was some bombing.

[At Nashiro beach, near Itoman, we met the American troops. Chiyo was able to speak English and we were saved.]

—Tatsusei Yogi (nonfiction)

• A Wartime Diary by Tatsusei Yogi, edited by Takashi Yogi

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Cornelis Komen (nonfiction)
• War (nonfiction)
• War Diaries (nonfiction)
• Tatsusei Yogi (nonfiction)

External links

• Dutch War Diaries @ NY Times
• A Wartime Diary by Tatsusei Yogi, edited by Takashi Yogi