Food Coupons

Geertruida Elisabeth Middendorp (November 21, 1911 - July 13, 2007) was a member of the LO Dutch Resistance. The LO made counterfeit coupons; it also obtained authentic coupons from loyal Netherlands citizens in the employ of the Dutch Nazis. more...

Other groups conducted raids and robberies to steal authentic coupons from government agencies. And some Dutch civilians gave up their own coupons to the LO during the second world war. She married Hendrick Middendorp ( October 2, 1911 - July 13, 1989) in 1934

The Invasion

Though we had known war was coming, we really didn't know what to do. There was no such thing as trying to get our basements full of groceries. But there was no actual panic that I could detect. Our Army (Leaer), Air Force (Luchtmacht) and Marines (Mariniers) were heavily armed and ready and did engage in some fighting. But they couldn't stop the Germans. German war materials and man power were much too advanced and they were able to implement Blitzkrieg, "lightning war." So when Rotterdam was bombed that was sort of the end, or the beginning of the end. It was rather useless to fight back. We were bewildered, and we didn't know what to think about it, how long it would take. We didn't know what was in store. On 10 May 1940, the German 10th Army, spearheaded by airborne troops, invaded the Netherlands. The rest of the Wehrmacht force committed to "the overrunning of the West" executed rthe Manstein Plan through Belgium and the Ardennes Forest.On 14 May 1940, the Dutch commander ordered a cease-fire. Three days later, the entire Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Netherlands had maintained during World War I, a policy of neutrality. While many of their neighbors fell to the Germans during World War I, the Netherlands remained outside of the war. With the advent of World War II, the Netherlands sought to again remain neutral - a hope bolstered by a promise of nonaggression made by Hitler. However, as with so many other promises made by Hitler and the Nazis, this assurance proved worthless. On May 10, 1940, the German army began its invasion of the Netherlands.Despite valiant efforts made on the part of the Dutch military, the Netherlands fell to the Germans after only five days of fighting. After the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch capitulated. Though as ordinary people we were not able to do much to prepare ourselves, the NSB (pro-German people, i.e. National Socialist Movement or Nationaal Socialistische Beweqing) had been well informed. One part of their dirty work entailed filling the second of two fuel tanks on our G.1 planes with water. Once in the air, trying to ward off the Germans, our double-tailed planes actually fell out of the sky when the second of the fuel tanks became engaged. Another common NSB activity was to disable bridges. Indeed, the NSB did many things to generally help the German Army establish itself in Holland.

Read more at Wikipedia.org