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Life is full of adventures, and every period has to come to an
end
Even the events at Baginton in England are in the past now.
So much happened at the time, we shared life’s joys and sorrows,
Sometimes we were kind to each other, sometimes we bored each
other
Perhaps we even drove each other crazy ???
At the time, taking notes and keeping a diary was impossible
How naïve even to think of it
So in exchange for all these illusions
We’re going to become poets just for one evening
And in the style of a telegram, we’re going to give you
Some short, sharp impressions of life in the camp.
On the February 8th we set out from various locations
There was no need to hurry
We had to linger in Tilburg for thirty hours
Sheltered by the factory walls
We took the night train to Ostende, then got onto a boat which
came from Biarritz.
We were so seasick we thought we were going to die
The crew looked after us as best they could.
We could hear the muffled groaning of depth bombs discharging.
Our arrival at Tilbury was announced by Radio Oranje
Several committees and other officials met us.
At around seven we arrived at the camp. It was like a dream
Ma Mouton scooped out two helpings of food for everybody.
The other great exodus in 400 Bc had nothing on this one,
The amount of beds, bed linen and other equipment which had to
be lugged about.
Ma Mouton vanished as swiftly as she had appeared.
But the fun was only just beginning , as the poor starving Dutch
children
Were very precious to both the English and the Americans.
Immediately, the WVS, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors
appeared
A huge influx of people.
The WVS, the doctors and other helpers worked so hard for three
weeks
It seemed that they hardly had time to change their clothes.
The reason was…they were measuring us, gathering statistics and
taking samples,
All matters which had to be dealt with in the interest of
science.
With all these things going on, the children soon became
difficult to handle.
Order and discipline went out of the window.
No group was fully registered.
We could be reproached for our behaviour, but do not forget the
reasons why these things happened.
With discipline the way it was, a minister’s car got wrecked and
he had to go back to Coventry on foot.
The doctors were alarmed at the state of us, we had gone so long
without vitamins.
For fear of giving us too much food, they erred on the side of
too little.
The meagre rations seemed like an abuse to us.
This oversight led to a hungry uproar.
Although short on authority, the boy scouts became our saviours
It was an unstoppable invasion, more scouts than children.
Outings, presents, visits were all noted down by Lilly.
A real gentleman invited 500 children out
Oh heaven had decided against somebody else, oh scandal, it was
in the newspaper,
Somebody else was number one, how can I make amends for that.
I am so sorry.
Too bad that the telephone didn’t have a television attached.
Minister Gerbrandie, when is he coming, he’s coming, he’s
definitely coming, no he’s not coming. Maybe you’ll see him on
the way back.
Despite supervision, and rooms with doors, it came about that
Once the staff had disappeared, people went outside.
Blakey made a protest in front of everybody
The pull-switches were taken off the lights
And the darkness annoyed us all.
Vandals with accurate aim, broke about 108 windows, and water
containers were ruined.
This was a terrible example. Even Tobie had a go and showed us
that she could also start a fire. Then Pat set a haystack
alight.
In broad daylight you could hear the yelling across the rooftops
As the mischievous scoundrels climbed out of windows and broke
washbasins
While those indoors laughed because of what they were doing.
A second group of leaders came and changed the work plan, New
rosters, tables, playing- field supervisors, but they still left
a lot to be desired.
The leaders wanted to bring in endless rosters and systems
But did we learn our lesson ? were we satisfied ?
The BBC wanted to know about our life in the camp
But England was not interested in our emotional well-being
Only our physical status was of any concern, at least according
to the BBC man.
There was a great big band of thieves whose activities were only
brought to an end by a visit from the Red Cross.
The gang leaders organised pillaging raids on suitcases, chests
and drawers, taking possessions away with them.
There was quarantine : against mumps, diphtheria and jaundice
Only the lady supervisor of the camp felt cheated, as many
visitors stayed away,
But for us it really wasn’t too bad. Not everybody could cope
with an excess of excursions and tea-parties.
Thousands of letters came, and there was no way of stopping them
They were from people who wanted to adopt children.
Care within the family, that was a slogan we heard frequently.
It gave us nightmares and caused a commotion
We vowed to keep a strict eye on the committees
In the end, the bishop spoke out and we stopped our protest.
No equipment, what a scandal
Jacob von Hemskerk worked day and night
He arrived with a whole cargo of toys, but many of them got
broken.
The committee gave out pocket money to the children for three
months..
But then something happened which we could not have anticipated
in our worst nightmares :
Sickness in the camp, what a disaster.
The priest and doctor never seemed to sit down.
I still don’t know what it is we had.
An uprising in the Young Netherlands camp
Kemps rampaged through F with a potty on a pole
The lady supervisor in C was doused with water
G tied Lies to a post, and the miscreants pulled tight, then she
was dragged into C
That wasn’t the end of the drama for two boys and one girl.
No 1 wanted to hang himself in a noose and was admitted to the
sick bay
G swigged the contents of the WC instead of water
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