Historical writings on Zeeland and the Second World War
Sixty years after WWII means sixty years of historical writings about the last armed conflict in our province.
Up until the 8o's, the literature has been documented in my bibliography Zeeland 1940-1945. From the literature
of the past 15 years concerning Zeeland and WWII, I have made a personal selection, without the pretension
of being complete.
J.N. Houterman
The first years after the war, many memorial-books
were published by municipality-organizations, but
also the writings of the units that participated in the
actual battles.
The first major studies about the battle for the Scheldt-
river appeared in 1944. All of this was still fueled with
the sense of good and evil, winner or loser, as befitted
a victor. On a military level it showed complete disdain
and contempt for the adversary. Thirty years after the
war, the provincial government deemed the time right
for proper, factual provincial history. A project was
started, resulting in two books. The first part was written
by a storyteller pur sang, Levien de Bree. He could
write with fine detail for the personal aspect, describing
events in a graphic manner, but not always being his
torically correct in the details. His early demise saw
his work being continued by Ger Taal. It is to his merit
that he managed to document the resistance of Zeeland,
by conducting many interviews and research. Differences
of opinion concerning the written draft of these inter
views, and the premature death of Ger Taal eventually
caused Gijs van der Ham to get the job of writing the
second part of Zeeland's wartime history.
If we mark de Bree as a real storyteller, then Gijs
van der Ham deserves the title of True Scribe: he is a
lot more accurate and business-like. Where he relied
on archives-investigation in most 'civil' matters, when
describing military issues he leaves the archives out,
and uses literature that has already been published,
and is often one-sided too. Coinciding the publication
of Zeeland 3940-3945 part 2 in 1990, Hans Sakkers
and I published a work that was equally one-sided, but
now from the other side. Our book 'Atlantik-wall in
Zeeland and Flanders', based entirely on German
military sources sparked a new wave of literature
about Fortifications, and the German side of the war-
history. Within the frame of the ST-series, attention
was focused on special subjects like
German war-photography on Walcheren, and
Russian/Soviet-soldiers within the Wehrmacht
(Ostgruppen) in Zeeland. Also published were theme-
works about certain aspects of the German defense-
line, known as the 'Atlantik-wall': the fortifications at
Oostburg, Groede and Breskens, the bunker park
Toorenvliedt, the battery Baslcensburg and the Landfront
at Vlissingen/Flushing. The last two publications were
also aimed as support for those, who seek to preseive
these war-monuments. A first serious (and succes
sful!) attempt to correct the one-sided sources military
sources after Gijs van der Ham, and paint a more
balanced picture was Ton Goossens book on the war-
history of West-Zeeuws-Flanders. His strictly thematic
approach leads to a more complete picture, but one
cannot help feeling he could have delved much deeper
into certain matters.
That writing-in-detail can sometimes prove to be too
much is demonstrated by Rene Hoebeke, who writes
about the war-history of the region around the Sloedam,
but loses himself in petty details. A comprehensive,
yet sometimes fragmented approach is documented
in the war history of Zoutelande. Similar local history,
photo-books, personal memories and dairies were
published about Vlissingen, Middelburg, Domburg/
Oostkapelle, Serooskerke, Aagtekerke, Mariakerke,
Biggekerke, Zoutelande, Schouwen-Duiveland,
Yerseke, Krabbendijke, Rilland-Bath, Hansweert/Waarde,
Zeeuws-Flanders (East and West) and Yzendijke A
scientific study was delivered by J.Kramer-Vreugdenhil
about the experiences of the Walcheren-village-popula-
tions, with a lot of focus on the religious and governmen
tal issues. A separate, and under-represented theme
within these war-historical writings is the Resistance.
There have only been some detail-studies about
resistance-groups like that of old-Marine-man van
Beest, and the illegal paper Trouw (Faith). Also published
was a small book to commemorate the executions of
52 Zeeuws Tijdschrift 2004/6-7
