At the Overloon Oorlogs Military Museum, a curator came to meet me in the lobby. She walked me to this viscous looking Sherman Tank that sported huge thick chains on a giant spinning drum that was positioned out in front of the vehicle. She told me that my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken likely walked behind one of these beasts while he was in the Netherlands. The Germans would position many mines as they retreated from the advancing Allied army.
The name of this tank is the Sherman Crab MK1. It is a flail tank with the rotating roll, that hits round bullets with a force of more than 330,000 pounds on the ground causing the mines to explode in front of the tank. It is a way to created a safe passageway for troops to move forward. The tank would have a crew of 5 men and could reach a top speed of 25 miles per hour. It has a 75mm cannon and 2 machine guns.
Besides all the armament, there were sections of the museum which told the more personal side of having to be in an occupied country. Helene Egger was 10 years old when the Netherlands became occupied by the Germans. She was Jewish. Her parents were divorced. She lived with her 2 older brothers in her grandmothers house in Amsterdam. Her mother developed a brain tumor and died in 1941. Helena was devastated.
Less than 6 months later her oldest brother went to a work camp. He was actually sent to Westerbroek Jewish transit camp in Drenthe. Shortly after, her other brother went to the work camp voluntarily. He was bored of living at his grandparents home and missed his brother.
The Westerbork transit camp became a gathering place for Jews before they were transported to labor camps in Germany. Approximately 107,ooo Jews and 245 Sinai and Roma were deported to Westerbork and then “to the east”. They were transported in freight cars without food or water. Most were sent to extermination camps like Auchwitz and Sobibor, while other went to concentration camps like Bergen Belsen and Theresienstadt.
Her brothers ultimately were sent to Auchwitz concentration camp where they were murdered. Her father as well was later rounded up by the Nazis and murdered in a concentration camp. Ultimately Helene lost everyone in her immediate family, but her grandparents, Aunt and Uncle kept her safely hidden in the country. Helene lived to be 94 years old.