Pictured above is Willemien Rieken.

She was only 9 years old when she first began laying flowers on the grave of William Edmond, a British soldier who fought and died to liberate her Dutch Village.

From the day he died, and for 75 years, she looked after his grave and kept his memory alive.

During WWII, William served with the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron and took part in the Battle of Arnhem in the Netherlands.

Sadly, on September 17, 1944, he was shot in the back by a German sniper and fell to the ground.

One of his comrades, St David Christie, rushed to his aid, but nothing could be done to save William. Seconds before dying, he said to David: "Tell my wife I love her."

This British soldier was then buried at the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.

Willemien Rieken passed away in 2020. She was one of the last surviving Flower Children, young people who laid flowers at hundreds of graves of Allied casualties in a ceremony after the end of the war.

Niall Cherry, secretary of the Arnhem 1944 Fellowship, said: "She was one of the last surviving Dutch civilian links to the Battle of Arnhem.

Willemien was a lovely lady who tended to the grave of Trooper Edmund for many years. She will be sadly missed."

thank you for reading.

don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Comments

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war. In April 1945, 2nd Lt. Peter During was a South African fighter pilot (N.7 Squadron) running missions over Italy when his Spitfire was shot down by German AA fire. He managed to crash land his plane behind enemy lines where he was immediately captured. Whilst been escorted to a German Lufwaffe Prisoner of War (POW) camp (he was a pilot and thus his interrogation and imprisonment was the responsibility of the German airforce), he opened a conversation with his captors. He was quickly able to establish that they could already see the writing on the wall, that the war was at an end and Germany would lose it. ...

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles. Antony Beevor wrote: "... In Paris, there were cases of prostitutes kicked to death for having accepted German soldiers as clients. (...) A large number of the victims were prostitutes who had simply plied their trade with Germans as well as Frenchmen, although in some areas it was accepted that their conduct was professional rather than political, others were silly teenagers who had associated with German soldiers out of bravado or boredom. In a number of cases, female schoolteachers who, living alone, had German soldiers billeted on them, were falsely denounced for having been a "mattress for the boches. (...) Women accused of having had an abortion were also assumed to have consorted with Germans. Many victims were young mothers, whose husbands were in German prisoner-of-war camps. During the war, they often had no means of supp...

The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt. Engelbert Dollfuß (4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian Fatherland Front politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government. In early 1933, the so called "Selbstausschaltung des Parlaments" happened, which made the Austrian parliament unable to govern. Suppressing the Socialist movement in February 1934 during the Austrian Civil War and later banning the Austrian Nazi Party, he cemented the rule of authoritarian conservatism through the First of May Constitution. Dollfuss was assassinated on 25 July 1934 by a group of Austrian Nazis, who entered the Chancellery building and shot him in an attempted coup d'état. During mass trials which took place after the coup, Hudl was sentenced to li...

WORLD OF ALL

Search This Blog