Riki Malin…Survives WWII devastation of Nymegen

Written by Eva Hallam Solberg as told by Riki Malin

Published in the PCN December 18, 1980

St. Nicholas Day, December 6, 1944, came and went. No one expected presents; no one received any. That was as it must be. We were caught in the middle of World War II.

Almost three months before, on September 17, the 82^nd Airborne Division paratroopers dropped from the sky to liberate our city of Nymegen (Holland) from the German occupation. Intense fighting broke out, and our neighbors and ourselves had to flee to cellars. Our basement had a single entrance, and so was not safe. Next door, under a bakery, was a huge basement. Our neighbors said, “come, you will be safer here.” Sixty of us huddled below the ground for four days while the sounds of fighting assailed our ears.

December 23 came, and the Battle of the Bulge began only 125 miles south of us. We sat in the basement and prayed during three days of heavy shelling. There was no laugher, no singing, on Christmas Eve. St. Stephen’s Cathedral was destroyed by bombs. Church bells had been melted down to use for war materials. The churches and schools were destroyed.

“We are going to church,” my father announced on Christmas Day Hardened somewhat to the sounds of war for four years, but still afraid, our family walked to a barroom which had been converted into a makeshift church. As we tried to pray aloud, the building shook with sounds of shelling. “Dad, shouldn’t we go home? I whispered. “What better place to die than in church,” he answered stoutly. We straightened up and listened to the priest.

In Holland, December 25 is celebrated only as the birthday of Jesus Christ. We hadn’t heard that in other parts of the world gifts were given on His birthday. Imagine the surprise and delight of my two little sisters and myself, when the Allied soldiers brought candy, cigarettes, gum, cookies and apples to us. That was a Christmas Day I’ll never forget!

Read the rest of the story in "Looking Back Again: Life Stories from the Prairies of Montana"
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