My father, Pieter Hendrik Borra (1919-1987), endured the bombardement of Rotterdam in 1940, as a soldier. He was locked up in a collapsed church for three days.  In 1944, he worked as a police officer in the village
of Putten, in the Netherlands.

During the night of September 30 and October 1, 1944, the resistance committed an attack on German officers in the neighbourhood of 'De Oldenaller' near Putten. The next day, during the Sunday service, the Germans announced that they would deport all men of the village to the concentration camps, unless the attackers made themselves known.

That day, my father was in Oldebroek, visiting my mother Aaltje van Asselt, when his collegue Bosman called and informed him of the attack and the German threat. The next morning, nine o'clock sharp, my father was back at work.  He was the contactperson on the policestation for the official resistance, supported by the Dutch government in London (information Boldewijn and Wallet).

My father, Pieter Borra (right, standing) with his Dutch colleagues, in 1944 in the backyard of the policestation "de Pol" in Putten

On that Monday morning he took the minutes of a meeting with the German officer Fullriede (information Boldewijn); none of the attackers had turned themselves in, and Fullriede carried out the deportation later that day.

My father knew the attackers, knew their names and knew also where they were hiding (Boeschoten). Shortly before he died, in 1987, he told me he should have spoken up during that meeting, but that he had not dared to.
The Germans would immediately have asked him how he got that information, and revealing that would have irrevocably led to his execution.

That Monday morning, 661 men were deported to the concentration camps. Most of them did not return and 552 died. Furthermore, the Germans burned down approximately 110 houses

My father has never openly dared to talk about this, neither at work nor at home, which caused a lot of tension and violence in my family. My contact to the ICODO Foundation in Utrecht, in 1995, has made clear to me, how big the influence of such events (a family secret) can be on a family, and how heavily this can affect family members throughout their lives.
The ICODO Foundation coordinates therapy for war victims and their relatives in the Netherlands.

During my years in Israel, Nir-oz, near Gaza (1996-2001) I learned what it means to live in a warzone,the kind of position my father was in Putten in 1944.

Further information on those events can be found at http://www.oktober44.nl 

In spring of 1957 my family left the village of Putten and moved to the city of Breda. After 4 years Breda the family moved to Arnhem, where I have spent the rest of my youth.

The book "Putten, de razzia en de herinnering" (Putten, the raid and the memory), by Madelon de Keizer (1998), mentions my father's name on page 372, in relation to an official report, dated Februari 6, 1947, in which evidence of the events in Putten was taken down. These reports have been secret and were only disclosed 50 years after the drama in Putten had taken place.