The scraps of war

Globe and Mail

08-05-2025

As Canadian and Allied troops drove the German army out of the Dutch city of Groningen on April 16, 1945, they were greeted as heroes by the local population. Among the throng of well-wishers was a 25-year-old teacher named Klaas Nieborg who was desperate to collect some mementos from the Canadian liberators.
Mr. Nieborg spoke just enough English to ask the soldiers if they would sign a scrapbook he was putting together. Dozens and dozens obliged.
They not only signed their names but many also added their home addresses and scrawled messages to Mr. Nieborg. Some handed over photos of their wives, children, brothers, sisters. Others gave the young teacher scraps of Canadian candy bar wrappers, cigarette packages, used train tickets and even a fragment of a parachute – all of which he carefully pasted onto the pages. Mr. Nieborg became such a fastidious collector that he started another scrapbook and ultimately covered 250 pages in memorabilia between April and August, 1945.
The scrapbooks were stored in the Nieborg family home for more than 70 years before finally ending up in the regional archives in Zwolle, a small Dutch city roughly 100 kilometres south of Groningen which was also liberated by Canadian forces around the same time.
In honour of the 80th anniversaries of Zwolle's liberation and Victory in Europe (VE) Day on May 8, which commemorates Germany's surrender, the archives staff have made digital copies of the scrapbooks and they hope to track down relatives of the hundreds of soldiers who left their mark.
'It would be great if we could communicate to Canada that these notebooks exist and try to tell the story of how important Canada was for us,' said Vincent Robijn, the director of the archives known as Collectie Overijssel.
'Especially nowadays it's important to say 'thank you' and to also realize there's a strong connection between Europe and Canada. And maybe we can tell our story in Canada and say, 'We have a mutual a shared history.''
The scrapbooks came to light almost by chance and nearly ended up collecting dust in the archives. They first surfaced in 2019 as Zwolle was preparing to mark the 75th anniversary of the city's liberation. Mr. Robijn and his staff decided to tour some towns in the region to see if people had anything from the war they wanted to donate to the archives.
'We thought, we won't find anything because we already know everything about the war in the Netherlands,' he recalled. 'We didn't realize that a lot people had material that was still at home in their basements and attics.'
A long line of people showed up with letters, diaries and photographs. Someone even brought a stainless steel toilet from a British warplane. Among those who came was Mr. Nieborg's son, Joop. He'd been hanging onto the scrapbooks for years. 'There was a drive in the family to do something with these books,' Joop recalled.
Mr. Robijn and his staff were amazed at the contents. They thought about handing the books over to the archives in Groningen but decided to keep them in Zwolle because many of the same Canadian soldiers were also likely involved in the liberation of that city as well.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 75th celebrations in 2020 and the scrapbooks sat on a shelf in the archives for another four years.
About six months ago, as Zwolle geared up to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation, Mr. Robijn suddenly remembered the books. 'I said to my colleagues, 'We have to do something with these notebooks.''
He tried to decipher the soldiers' names, addresses and hometowns but he was overwhelmed by so many unfamiliar places. He nearly gave up but then one of his co-workers, Anniek van Dijk-van Leeuwen, suggested they seek help from a couple of Canadians who were already involved in a project with the archives.
Geoff Osborne, from Toronto, had been searching for a photograph of his grandfather, Earl Olmsted, who was part of the Canadian division that freed Zwolle on April 14, 1945. Mr. Osborne also worked closely with Nathan Kehler, a Canadian army veteran who leads an Ottawa-based non-profit group called Canadian Research and Mapping Association. The association has been mapping the location of every Second World War Canadian army soldier and digitizing millions of war records to make them easier to search online.
Mr. Osborne and Mr. Kehler have started looking at how they can help the archives make Mr. Neiborg's scrapbooks more accessible to Canadians. 'I think it's a great opportunity to allow people to research and see if they can find their grandfather or relatives' names and really build a story behind it,' said Mr. Kehler.
Mr. Osborne said the beauty of the scrapbooks is that they are so personal. Just seeing the soldiers' handwriting brings them back to life, he added. 'It's like a light switch when you're talking about history.'
Zwolle has long celebrated the role Canadian troops played in freeing the city and in particular the heroics of Leo Major, a one-eyed French Canadian soldier who single-handedly got the Germans to leave Zwolle by tricking them into thinking an Allied assault had begun.
Mr. Robijn said the scrapbooks demonstrate that there are many more stories to tell. 'Of course, it's not only about the big heroes. There are also all these men and also women who came to the Netherlands to play a part in the liberation,' he said. 'And now we know a lot of more.'