V-E Day: Eighty years later, liberation of the Netherlands by Canadians soldiers still burns brightly

Hamilton Spectator

08-05-2025

Martha van Mourik turns 96 in June, and her short-term memory isn't what it used to be.
But days from the distant past come back to her.
And one day burns brightest of all: May 8, 1945.
V-E Day.
Victory in Europe
. She was 16.
That was what came to mind when she woke one morning this week at her Hamilton retirement home.
It is the day that commemorates the Nazi Germany surrender in the Second World War, which came after Canadian soldiers had freed her home country, the Netherlands.
'Liberation,' said Martha's daughter, Jeannette van Mourik. 'Mom said that was the first thing she thought about when she woke up.'
Martha van Mourik, who is turning 96 in June, in a photo taken in 2018, wearing her special Remembrance Day top.
Jeanette related what her mother talked about that morning: how she recalled jubilation in her hometown of Joure, in the northern part of the country, when Canadian soldiers had rolled through.
On May 7, 1945, German Gen. Alfred Jodl signed surrender documents to the Allies in northeastern France. The next day, a second surrender was signed for officials from the Soviet Union in Berlin.
Hamiltonians celebrate the end of the Second World War in 1945.
But by this time, the liberation of the Netherlands by Canada had already been mission accomplished, in April, following an
eight-month campaign
in which 7,600 Canadians were killed.
An exhibit currently showing at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope commemorates the 80th anniversary of V-E Day.
Titled 'Maple Leaves and Tulips: Then and Now,' it highlights Canada's role in the liberation.
It also features the postwar era, and the Dutch 'war brides' who returned to Canada as part of a wave of Dutch immigration.
Each major V-E Day anniversary in Hamilton has been marked with ceremony and celebration; 2020 was an exception, when all was silent during the pandemic.
One of the grandest celebrations was for the 70th anniversary in 2015: a gala dinner and dance at the museum, where about 80 veterans who were between 90 to 96 years old attended.
They are nearly all gone now. And those who didn't serve, but who have carried memories of the liberation — like the van Mouriks — also fade into history.
That includes Jeanette's father, Albert. He died two years ago, at 93.
Albert's eyes would tear up, remembering the liberation and sacrifice of his homeland. He supported veterans' causes in Hamilton for the rest of his life.
'I was always thankful he had those tears, because he had carried so much inside,' Jeannette said.
Albert had desperately wanted to join the fight against the Germans, but was just turning 16 by the war's end. He had tried lying about his age, to no avail. Instead, he joined the Princess Irene Brigade drum corps.
Albert van Mourik as a teenager in the Netherlands, as a member of the Princess Irene Brigade drum corps.
The people in his town of Apeldoorn, 100 kilometres south of Joure, suffered terribly. To the end of his life, he never wanted to talk much about it.
He had witnessed corpses hauled down the streets in wagons, from starvation in the final winter of the war.
Albert and Martha travelled to the Netherlands in 2005, to take part in 60th V-E Day celebrations. He was photographed by The Spectator for the 70th anniversary, wearing his brigade beret, saluting at the cenotaph in Gore Park.
Albert van Mourik pays tribute to Canadian sacrifices in the Second World War, at the cenotaph in Gore Park about eight years ago. He had been a teenager in the Netherlands when Canadian soldiers liberated his hometown.
And one year, for Remembrance Day, he simply wrote a message on a cardboard sign and put it on his front lawn on the west Mountain.
It read: '70 years ago we were liberated by the Canadian army. Thank you!'
Albert van Mourik and his wife Martha show their appreciation for the Canadian soldiers who liberated their homeland on Remembrance Day in this undated picture.
Six years ago, Albert was eating a meal at his retirement home in Hamilton. He got to chatting with a fellow resident named Bernard (Bernie) Mudge. (Bernie died in 2021, at 100.)
That night, over dinner, Bernie revealed to Albert that he had served in the war. In the town of Apeldoorn.
Albert van Mourik, right, and veteran Bernard (Bernie) Mudge, after they had met years ago at a Hamilton retirement home, where this undated photo was taken. Mudge revealed to Mourik that he had served in van Mourik's hometown in the Netherlands, as part of the campaign to liberate the Dutch.
'My dad got very emotional when he heard that,' said Jeannette. 'All he wanted to do his entire life, was personally say thank you. He told Bernie: 'You were in my hometown. You helped save me.''