Kanaalkade Velsen-Noord

Mrs. Douwstra was 12 years old at the start of the war.  The family lived on the Kanaalkade [Canal Quay] next to the Van Gelder paper factory.  In 1942, the family received orders to leave. The reason given was the presence of German Navy ships near the Velser Tunnel construction site, on the opposite bank of the North Sea Canal. The family came to live at Burgemeester Weertsstraat, also in Velsen-North, in a much larger house than the one on Kanaalkade.  This house used to be the residence of an NSB man, a Dutch collaborator, who had left because his windows were smashed time and again. In September 1944, they had to evacuate once again, this time in great haste on the very same day the evacuation notice hit the mailbox. And no evacuation address was provided.  The entire family (6 people) ended up in Heemskerk with a family of seven. Both families were crowded together in a tiny shopkeeper’s house.  Every day, Mrs. Douwstra would walk on foot to nearby Beverwijk with her father to try to find another home. After several months, they stumbled on an uninhabited house on Grensstraat with two sealed rooms, where the furniture belonging to the original owners was stored.  One year later, they were able to move to Arendsweg, to the house where one of the brothers had been in hiding.