Storyteller: VandenBorn, Willy

Interviewer: VandenBorn, Erick

Date: 02/24/2017

Language: English

Initiative: Tulsans Talk

Description: Willy VandenBorn reveals her memories of WW II in Holland. She was 9 years old when the Germans invaded her town. Sounds of airplanes at night, shortage of food, school closing, her father mostly starved in a work camp in Germany and later helped the underground. Walking miles to farms to get food, sleeping in haylofts on the way, having no lights, heat or gas are remembered. She met a man at church who was with the Canadian troops that occupied her town when the Germans were defeated. She and her husband raised 7 children in Tulsa after migrating to America.

Subjects: World War II in Holland, Food shortages, Father sent to a Work Camp, Migrating to America, Moving to Tulsa from Chicago, Meeting other Dutch people