Page 54 - Discover Spring 2021

Reign of Terror CONTINUED
(53.6 degrees Fahrenheit) makes them ideal
as a winter shopping place. It also means that
the caves were perfect as bomb shelters, as
well as for the resistance forces to hide from
the Nazis while making their explosives and
other weapons. The caves extend underneath
the ruins of Valkenburg castle, which is also
an important tourist attraction in the town.
Those underground corridors were no doubt
used in olden times, both to protect occupants
of the castle in the event of an attack, and for
its knights to wage surprise attacks against
would-be intruders.
Besides the numerous caves in the
town there is also a replica of the catacombs
of Rome. It was designed by Dutch architect
Pierre Cuypers in the early 20th Century. He
also designed a hotel and an open air theater.
The architect was a resident of Valkenburg
at the time. Valkenburg is situated in
southeastern Holland between Germany and
Belgium. In fact, both countries are within a
half hour of the village where Tini grew up.
That is why, she says, she speaks a dialect of
the Dutch language, in which she uses many
German and French words.
“We were good friends with the
Germans,” she said, “We used to go to
Oktoberfest and vacations there. We were
friends.” This must have made it doubly
confusing, especially for the children, when
Germany began to bomb them, followed by
those hard years of occupation.
The town’s close proximity to Germany
caused other problems as well during the
conflict. Not only did they have to worry
about German bombers, but American and
English as well. Many was the hour that Tini
and her family spent sheltering in a cave while
bomber planes flew overhead.
“Everybody bombed us,” She said.
“When we heard planes we ran.”
She did not seem to have dreaded
52 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SPRING 2021
hiding in the caves as much as the night time
black-outs. Besides not being allowed to
go out after dark, if the Nazis saw even the
smallest light in your home during a black-out
they would shoot right into the house at the
light.
“My brother’s best friend was killed
they way,” she recalls.
She also remembers her mother, a
devout Catholic, setting an alarm clock to go
off in the middle of the night. When the alarm
clock rang, the family knew that it was time to
gather in the dark to pray.
“Sometimes she would set it twice in
one night.”
She remembered that her mother
always seemed calm, and her father nervous
and fearful that he would be picked-up by the
Gestapo and taken away from his family.
“My mother lived to be 90,” Tini said,
“And my father died when he was just 65.”
Tini’s school was used to house
prisoners from a wide variety of countries.
The Nazis used these men to dig fox holes
for them, and to perform other menial tasks
along with hard labor.
“We did not have school for two years.
We had classes in the hotel but I couldn’t
concentrate there.”
The best hotels in town were
confiscated by the Nazis for their use, and one
in particular housed the pregnant girl friends
of the German soldiers, Tini says. The kids
in town learned this from eavesdropping on
their parents. It was rumored that the women
were part of the Nazis’ plan to populate their
country with blue eyed, blond haired babies.
Just days before the Americans arrived,
the women were whisked away. Many of
them were from the Netherlands as well as
neighboring countries.