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The Damstras from the Netherlands The Promise of a Better Future D uring World War II, a quarter of a million people—half of them Jewish—were killed in the Netherlands. Many more died of starvation during the four-year-long German occupation. The war left Holland’s countryside flooded with salt water from broken dikes; buildings and factories were stripped or destroyed; and there was little wood left with which to rebuild. Tohelpthecountrygetbackonitsfeet,churchofficialsandthe Netherlands government set up emigration offices in poor areas. Their goal was to decrease unemployment and reduce overpopulation . Travel expenses were subsidized and people were assisted in making arrangements and contacts overseas. Between 1948 and 1953, nearly a million people left the Netherlands . One hundred thousand went to the United States; many others went to Australia and Canada. Most grew up during the Depression of the 1930s and had experienced hardship for a long time and now had large families when jobs and farmland were scarce. Some emigrants resided in Indonesia, but were forced to leave when the country separated from the Netherlands. Since there wasn’t room in their homeland, they had to go elsewhere. In Michigan, many descendants of earlier Dutch settlers welcomed and sponsored the new immigrants, making sure jobs were 204 | THE DAMSTRAS linedupforthenewcomers.Akeypersoninorganizingsponsorship was Willard “Bill” C. Wichers. Among other accomplishments, the “Father of Holland” brought the De Zwaan Windmill to Holland, Michigan, from the Netherlands for visitors to enjoy. He served on the Michigan Historical Commission and was the Tulip Time Festival director from 1946 to 1952. Wichers became involved with the Netherlands government in 1941 when Princess Juliana visited Hope College. In 1953 the U.S. Refugee Relief Act was passed, which allowed 17,000 Dutch individuals or family units to come to the United States. Wichers and his wife, Nell, helped find sponsors and jobs for immigrants in theHollandandGrandRapidsarea.Theyalsopersonallysponsored 1,000 immigrants who couldn’t secure sponsors. Wichers recalled, “We didn’t have to spend a cent on any of them. They all made it in this country.” Friesland is a northern province of the Netherlands, but its citizensconsideritalmostaseparatecountry,asmostpeoplespeak Friesian as their primary language. In 1955, Carolyn Damstra’s grandparents, Tys and Trijntje (Tina) (nee van der Velde) Dam decided to move with their five children, Durk (Dick), Trijntje (Terri),Tjitze(Ted),Lammert(Bert),andAllert(Al),toGrandRapids from Friesland. After coming to the United States the family name, Dam, was changed to Damstra. Today, all but one of the children of Tys and Tina live in or near Grand Rapids. Tys passed away in 1994, Tina in 2005. Dick and Bert are retired from T. Damstra and Sons painting business, Terri (who lives in Chapel Hill, N.C.) worked for the World Health Organization and passed away in 2009, Ted is a retired Amway executive , and Al is a bartender. Two of Tys’s granddaughters (Dick’s daughters) follow in his footsteps as artists: Emily does freelance work in scientific illustration, and Carolyn is a landscape painter and works for the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. In 2004, Carolyn Damstra interviewed her grandmother Tina, her uncle Ted, and her father, Dick. Sadly, her grandmother died in 2005 shortly before the Movers and Seekers: Michigan Immigrants and Migrants exhibit opened at the Michigan Historical Museum. The following includes excerpts of an article she wrote FROM THE NETHERLANDS | 205 that appeared in the January–February 2005 issue of Michigan History magazine in conjunction with the exhibit. Childhood Memories My favorite childhood memories of my grandpa are quiet afternoons working together in his basement woodshop, the smell of sawdust, paint, and turpentine hovering in the air. After a lifetime of working ten-plus hours a day, often six days a week, his hands did not know how to be still. In 1955 his tireless spirit motivated Tys to bring his wife and their five young children to the United States from the Netherland’s rural northern province of Friesland. My grandma was my favorite person on the planet, and food had a lot to do with that. She often made toast with butter and De Ruijter sprinkles: orange-, pink-, and yellow-colored sugar, or else there was another kind that was chocolate. Grandma also sliced us off thick pieces of Leyden cheese, known as komijnekaas (cumin cheese), from a huge, red, wax-coated ball. For Christmas, the Tys Damstra made these toys for his grandchildren in his workshop. COURTESY OF THE DAMSTRA...

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