Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Amsterdam. I didn’t know that this city has more canals than Venice.
As we traveled through the canals, we passed the house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. Our tour guide spoke about the years that the German Army occupied the Netherlands during World War II. She added that the Netherlands had declared neutrality, but that did not keep the Germans from occupying their country.
Even though she was a young woman, I could sense that this occupation still was a painful memory for her.
After I returned home, I heard about a recently published book regarding the Dutch Hunger winter. A young man wanted to honor his grandmother who had survived this time of war. Germans had occupied the country on May 10, 1940. As the winter of 1944 approached, the Nazis cut off food supplies for the western part of the Netherlands in retaliation for the exiled Dutch government’s support of the Allies. After four years of brutal war and a year of bad crops, the winter of 1944 was exceptionally harsh. It is estimated that 20,000 people died as a result of this famine.
An additional 4.5 million people suffered the health consequences of the food shortage. The Oregon Health and Science University has spent 25 years studying the effect of this famine on infants born in 1944 and 1945.
The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health did extensive research on the DNA of the Hunger Winter children. They found that growth genes were altered by the famine, and this might also explain why these children appear to be at a higher risk for metabolic disease in later life.
After reading these articles, I can understand why the memories of the famine could be painful even for a member of today’s younger generation.
Every September since 2001, we’ve paused to remember the pain that we experienced on 9/11. I wonder how many generations will bear the scars of the events of that day, both from the loss of loved ones and the illnesses caused by the destruction of the towers.
I pray for peace and an end of the suffering caused by war.
