Challenges after Liberation

[Text: Amalia, a hidden child in the Netherlands, describes a moment of panic during liberation and recalls the challenges of leaving her foster family after the war.] 

Interviewer: Do you remember anything else about your time in hiding that you could tell me about? 

Amalia Boe-Fishman: No, I probably remember more about when the Canadians liberated Holland. I remember a little bit, because I must have had some type of bad experience. I guess, maybe because it was my first opportunity to go out into the city. So, my big sisters, my foster sisters, took me in the city and in Leeuwarden, like any other town in Holland, they have moats around the city, so you always have to go over bridges to go inside into the city. So, apparently they took me over one of the bridges into the city. And then somehow or another, some type of panic happened. The Germans came back or whatever. And apparently, everybody was sort of trampling over the bridge. And I don’t know if the bridge really moved or if it didn’t move, but I must have had such a shock that after the war, when I stayed with my parents, I didn’t dare to cross any bridges.  

Interviewer: Wow. 

Amalia Boe-Fishman: It took my mother a long time, one foot at a time, to cross the bridge. So, I remember that part well. And I also remember the part, that probably was the hardest part, that I had to go back to my own family. And I’m sure you heard that from many more people. But I do remember that I was supposed to meet with my father and that I ran away and was hanging onto a fence when they tried to drag me away. And I remember falling into bramble bushes or something. It just, sort of, made much more of an impression on me, going back to my own family.