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Oral history interview with Sybe K. Bakker

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2013.274.1 | RG Number: RG-50.030.0720

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    Oral history interview with Sybe K. Bakker

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Sybe K. Bakker, born on January 4, 1925 in France, discusses his parents and brother; his Dutch ancestry; his mother’s death in 1928; his and his brother’s time living with his grandmother in The Hague, Netherlands while his father worked in South Africa; his father’s brief return to the Netherlands in 1937 before moving to England; his grandparents’ plans for the family to join his father in England before the invasion of the Netherlands in 1940; his grandparents; his grandfather’s socialist political views; his father; his father’s veterinary practice and focus on swine; attending school in Bilthoven, Netherlands with Jewish and non-Jewish students; his half-brother; switching schools and continuing his studies in Hattem, Netherlands; how his grandparents’ experiences during World War I impacted how they reacted to the German occupation during World War II; life under German occupation; his classical education, which included studying Dutch, German, French, English, Latin, and Greek; finishing school and attempting to go to the Dutch merchant marine academy, only to be denied because he would not sign a declaration supporting Nazi policies; going into hiding in 1942 after refusing to sign the declaration; the resistance providing him ration cards while in hiding; becoming involved in the resistance; traveling to Belgium with a friend, Harry, and attempting to get into France, Spain, and Portugal in efforts to ultimately get to England; being arrested while trying to reenter the Netherlands from Belgium; being interrogated at a police station but being released after one night; learning Harry’s father was also involved in the resistance; becoming involved in helping stranded Allied airmen get to safe houses before his arrest by German troops on December 5, 1944; having to prove he was not Jewish; being transported to a nearby town to be questioned by the Gestapo; being transported to Kamp Erika, a concentration camp, near Ommen, Netherlands; conditions in the camp; forced labor digging trenches and other hard labor; being forced to sing as he and the other prisoners were marched through town to their forced labor assignments; getting beaten by multiple guards for singing poorly; using shovels as helmets during air raids; liberation in March 1945; returning to Hattem and going into hiding; receiving a resistance assignment to cut telephone wires; how the resistance became a sort of police force; how many in the resistance joined the armed forces at the end of the war and his service in the marines; his brother’s service as an air force pilot in the expeditionary forces; his training for the Pacific Theater of World War II with American Marines; V-J Day; completing training and serving in Java, Indonesia in the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps for two and a half years; becoming a motor mechanic and driver; returning to the Netherlands briefly after the completion of his service and then moving to England; reuniting with his father, stepmother, and half-brother; working in England until 1950; sailing in his free time; sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States as part of a competition; competing in many several sailing events; meeting his future wife on a ship from England to the United States for a visit; learning the dairy trade; getting married in Vermont; moving to the Baltimore, Maryland area for work; his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren; and his war medals.
    Interviewee
    Sybe K. Bakker
    Interviewer
    Ina Navazelskis
    Date
    interview:  2013 October 07

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Oral histories.
    Extent
    1 digital files : WAV.

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Bakker, Sybe K.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Ina Navazelskis, on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, conducted the oral history interview with Sybe K. Bakker in Catonsville, MD on October 7, 2013.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:04:28
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn74539

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