Then and Now pictures: IJMUIDEN Holland

[Alex van de Wetering]

it sure is a small world

It sure is, Tony! The brick factory is just outside Hillegom on the road to Lisse. It's still in business today.

Excellent research plus pictures, Alex

Thanks Hanno....and thanks for correcting the title


Here are three more then and now shots. I took the "today" pictures 45 minutes ago. Location is about 100 meters from my house! Marktplein/Kruisweg Hoofddorp

Period pictures were taken 7 may 1945. source: www.beeldbank.noord-hollandsarchief.nl

Alex

[Barry Churcher]

Thanks Alex for the excellent thread. Then and now photos always amazed me. Thanks in particular for the photo with the C15TA. As Tony says we non Europeans can't really grasp what the war did. I think if more Canadian young people could visit some of these places they would have a better appreciation of history. As a young child in Canada the war touched us in small ways but it did not have the impact that it must of had on European youth. My uncle died in the war, another was an alcoholic because of the war, another uncle got shot in the stomach and had spinal injuries and consequently wore a leg brace, again because of the war. Anyway you get the picture. Children today only see things on TV which to them is the same as a video game or a movie. I know the effect that seeing some of the remnants of the conflict had on me. Seeing tank traps still in a field in Noord Holland and gun bunkers and submarine pens in Ijmuiden is kind of sobering. Brian took this photo of Albert, Dirk and I on the farm where Dirk stores his beach equipment in Camperdun.

[motto]

A few years ago I was driven around East Sussex by a knowledgeable local pointing out some of London's defences in the form of dragons teeth and pill boxes. It was an impressive and in some ways chilling experience to see these remnants of a time when the outcome was very much in doubt.
If not for the RAF and the Royal Navy these defences would have been put to the test. Today they are easily missed unless you know where to look. It would be brilliant to have them all recorded, particularly with photos. Especially then and now.

David

[Alex van de Wetering]

I am glad everyone enjoys these then and now shots. Barry, I will see if I can take some more "C15TA" then and now shots.

Attached are some more then and now shots I took a few years ago. All four taken in Holten in the Eastern part of Holland.

Alex

[Robert Bergeron]

It is indeed a great series of pictures Alex and thank-you for posting them.

I was touched by memories and events of the war even if i lived in Canada and was born in 1960.

I have an uncle in New-Brunswick ( my mother's brother ) who served in the North Shore Regiment during the war. I only realized what he had been trough during the war once he had died.

In my mother's village , Baker Brook New Brunswick while i was about 12 , i met a gentleman named Morneau who was missing a hand.He was the caretaker of the skating rink. I was visiting my grandmother and really did'nt know he was a veteran so I asked him what had happened with his hand.

He directly and nicely answered that he had his hand blown off by a German booby trap set up in a child's toy while picking it up in Holland during the war.He thanked me for asking and we became friends . He told me his story of going through France, Belgium and finally how it all came to an end in Holland.

People in Canada were touched by the war but even more when the guys came home .

Thanks for remembering their sacrifices Alex .

Robert

[Alex van de Wetering]

Robert,

I couldn't agree more. Hearing the stories of veterans or reading eye-witness accounts really shows the sacrifices made by these men.



Two then and now pictures taken in Rijssen, very close to Holten, also in the eastern part of Holland.

The third picture was taken in Delden. The picture of the two(!) Defrocked Priests is a personal favorite of mine. Did anyone ever see a better quality print of this picture? ( I presume it's Canadian archives , but I am not sure...)

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

I was in my old hometown Haarlem a few weeks ago....and had to wait a bit....so took some more "now" pictures at the edge of the city centre.

There is a bunch of good Liberation (vehicle related) pictures in the Kennemerland Archives; attached you will find three of them. All three were taken near the "Houtplein" area. The large building was the old "Sportfondsen" swimming pool where we used to swim with school. It was broken down somewhere in the early 90's, I think.


Alex