Chapter 7 “Everybody Was Crying” Ella Barron, Dutch War Bride in Amsterdam and Ingonish, Cape Breton, 1923–2023

Life in Holland, 1923 to 1939

Ella, the daughter of Christaan Iske and Geraldina Geel, grew up with little money. Family life was difficult, especially during the years of the Great Depression, a worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. To make matters worse, two of Ella’s siblings died in childhood. Fritz, a twin brother, died one day after he was born in 1928. Crib death, the sudden and unexplained death of an infant, is often associated with difficult living conditions. Modern medicine has reduced the incidence of crib death, but it remains a complicated health issue.6 In 1934 another brother, five-year-old Adrian, died after he fell out of his crib. The child was taken to the hospital but did not survive the subsequent operation. One can imagine the grief felt by Ella and her family, but for her parents, there was little time to express their grief over the death of the boys—after all, there were other children to feed, clothe, and comfort. To this day, ninety-nine-year-old Ella vividly recalls the death of her dear brothers, a testimony to her love of family.

Ella’s dad, Christaan, worked as a truck driver and had to be away most of the time in order to make a living. “It was hard on the whole family,” Ella recalled. She noted that her family life was difficult. Ella’s mother, Geraldina, stayed home and looked after the children. At twelve years of age, Ella went to a home economics school in Amsterdam, which she attended from 1935 to 1936 and where she learned to cook, sew, and iron clothes. Ella, however, did not like the school. “They tormented me because I was poor and I did not always dress properly. We were left out of things because we were poor.”7 Thinking back on her experience, she reflected, “Sometimes, they treated us nice, sometimes not.” Ella left the school in 1936 after completing only one year of a two-year program.

After returning home for a brief period, Ella “started out on her own.”8 In 1937, she moved to Hilversum, twenty kilometres away, to work in a home for children, a day school in which girls and a few boys came from single-parent, widowed, or divorced families with working parents. Located at Eik Bosser Wegt, the school was housed in an attractive building that was still standing in 1977 when Ella visited on one of her return trips to the Netherlands.9 The children came to the school during the day and returned to their homes at night. There were twenty-four children, mostly girls, who attended the school, twelve on each side of the house. Ella has pictures of the house with herself and sixteen of the children. The children, standing on two large wooden swing chairs, supported in the middle by a grand central pole, looked happy and carefree. Ella did not look much older than the students.

Ella and another teenager lived with twelve of the girls on one side of the duplex and helped care for the children. In the other half of the house, there were two girls who helped care for the children on their side of the duplex. Besides the caretakers such as Ella, there were teachers who taught the children their school work. The school, owned by an elderly Jewish couple, hired Kate, a middle-aged woman who lived in a nearby house, to supervise the school. Although not paid, Ella worked full time at the school in exchange for room and board. Preparing meals, doing laundry, scrubbing floors, weeding the gardens, and attending to the needs of the children were demanding chores. Every Monday Ella had to wash the clothes, and it took her all day to finish the task. Spinach was a key part of the diet at the school; Ella had to clean the greens in a big wash tub, part of cooking for the children.

Sometimes people brought in clothing for Ella and her coworkers. There was a seamstress who worked at the house, and she made two blue dresses for Ella, but they were hardly flattering. Ella felt shamed because “they looked like potato bags”; they had no shape. Throughout her life, Ella was conscious of growing up poor and her subsequent demeaning treatment: “I did not like it.”10 Children quickly become aware of their status and how they fit into the social order in any society when they are coming of age.11

Germans Invade Holland, 10 May 1940

At six o’clock in the morning of 10 May 1940, Ella came downstairs in the boarding school as usual to make a pot of porridge for the twenty-four girls who attended the day school. The morning was hardly typical because it changed Ella’s life. Kate, the school supervisor, came in and stated that Germany had invaded Holland. “I was scared,” recalled Ella. “It was something I didn’t expect. That morning, we all got together in the hallway, and it was the last day we sang the Dutch national anthem. Everybody was crying.”12 Ella remembered that hallway only too well because she had to scrub it each day. “We were looking after the children, cooking, cleaning, and washing their clothes.”

Ella was only seventeen when the expansionism of Nazi Germany transformed into a broader European conflict. After their occupation of Amsterdam, the Nazis made plans to gather all the Jewish people for slave labour and eventual transport to concentration camps as part of the Holocaust. Jewish people in Ella’s neighbourhood, as required by the Nazi Party, had to wear the Star of David, a yellow patch, symbolizing their identification as Jews.13 The wearing of the Star of David to isolate Jews had been introduced throughout Nazi-occupied Europe in August 1941.14 The Jewish owners of the day school, knowing that they were in danger, took in three young Jewish sisters into the school in late 1941. Ella has a picture of Jatte, Greejte, and Maviejtie Sevison. Sitting on the steps of the school overlooking the garden, the beautiful children, ranging in age from four to eight years, were well dressed and healthy. Jatte had a coat over her dress, whereas baby Greejte had mittens, and they all wore hats with warm-looking dresses.15 The children, however, were eventually taken by the Nazis, as were the Jewish owners of the boarding school. One day, the elderly Jewish couple were there, and then they were gone. Ella “never saw or heard of them again.”16

Amsterdam during the Holocaust

The Holocaust is well known in the Netherlands, owing in part to the experiences of another young Dutch girl in the capital city of Amsterdam.17 Anne Frank, like Ella, was a native of Amsterdam and became internationally renowned in the decades following her murder in the death camps. On 1 September 1939, when Anne Frank was ten years old, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and so World War II began. Not long after, in May 1940, the Nazis also invaded the Netherlands.18

Five days later, the Dutch army surrendered. It had little or no chance of success against the German blitzkrieg. Two of Ella’s brothers served in the Dutch army, and they fought against the Germans during the conflict. Ella’s oldest brother, Chris (1912–2008), was wounded, but her other brother, Piet, survived uninjured.19 Slowly but surely, the Nazis introduced laws and regulations that made Jewish life unbearable. Jewish residents counted for nothing under the new discriminatory laws.20 Jews could no longer go to the movies, visit parks, or buy goods at non-Jewish shops. The rules meant that more and more places became off limits. Anne’s father had to give up his company because Jews were no longer allowed to run their own businesses. Jewish children had to go to separate schools. By the spring of 1942, Anne’s father had started furnishing a hiding place in an extension to his former business quarters at Prinsengracht 263. He was helped by some friends and colleagues, and before long, four more individuals wanted protection. The hiding place was crowded, but Anne remained silent, fearful, and vigilant.21

After the Germans took over the secret annex of the Anne Frank House on 4 August 1944, the eight Jewish people in hiding were transported to the Netherlands transit camp at Westerbrok, and then the Frank family was sent by train to Auschwitz on 3 September 1944. More than one hundred thousand Jewish people from the Netherlands had already been sent to the concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor.22 The Netherlands had the greatest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe in terms of percentages and absolute numbers. Approximately 75 percent of the 140,000 Jews in the country (104,000) were sent to the concentration camps.23 Adolph Eichmann, a German high official and one of the key architects of the Holocaust, had organized the deportation of European Jews from his headquarters in Berlin.24 Such was the context when Ella met Jewish people, including children, in Amsterdam.

In 1944 Ella went back to Amsterdam and worked for the post office delivering mail, as there were few men left in Holland. Many Dutch men found themselves imprisoned, shipped off to Germany for forced labour, or in hiding. Tragedy struck Ella’s family on 24 February 1944 when Ella’s father died at forty-eight years of age. After the Germans took control of the trucking company that employed her father, he was forced to work alongside the occupying Germans. His job required him to drive a truck to pick up the remains of British airmen at night after they were shot down over Holland. A German soldier travelled with Ella’s father during the night. The soldier picked up the remains of the airmen because Ella’s father was not permitted to get out of the truck. As a result of this work, Ella’s father was seriously affected by a coal-based fuel substitute that the German military had used during the war. Before and during World War II, Germany had developed converted coal as feedstock to establish the world’s first successful synthetic liquid fuel industry.25 Ella believed it was the poisonous fumes from the fuel that contributed to her father’s heart failure. Ella, who had always been close to her dad, fondly remembered a cup and saucer that he had given her on her eighteenth birthday. She also recalled delivering mail to his house before he died.26

Ella has a striking photo of herself wearing a postal cap and cloak. The stylish cloak, one button secured at the top, is complemented by her cap jauntily tilted to the right with her beautiful smile and curly hair flowing down around her collar. Happiness, though, can be fleeting, especially in occupied countries like Holland. Before a year was over, Ella had quit delivering the mail because her shoes wore out and her feet became sore from walking the streets. Ella’s mother, meanwhile, was left with two young children, Adrian and Johanna, as well as her own elderly mother, all occupying a one-room apartment. Ella moved to live with her sister Dien in Amsterdam because she lived closer to the hospital, where Ella had started a new job. Besides, her mother had no room for Ella, even though she helped her mother as best she could with household chores and small tasks.

Working in the Hospital

After working for the postal service, Ella went to work in a hospital. Ella remembered when she started work there because it was shortly before her dad died on 23 February 1944. Ella boarded with Mrs. Lobbes for five guilders a month in her house at 74, the second Helmerstraat, near the hospital. A lady in her seventies, Mrs. Lobbes had a son who was sick. Operated by the Dutch, the hospital was a microcosm of Dutch life at the time, with one-half of the hospital serving the Germans and the other half the Dutch. The German patients were treated much better than the Dutch. Each morning at 7:00, Ella had to pass a security checkpoint to enter work. Ella worked in the kitchen cleaning vegetables, mostly beets. She also cleaned tulip bulbs, a substitute for potatoes. When cooked, Ella thought the bulbs were “not bad,” but the seeds were bitter. In 1944, Ella recalled, “We saw German boys in the hospital, soldiers fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years old who were wounded. This was an awful time to go through.”27

During the last two years of the war, people in the Netherlands were starving because there was little or no food available. After the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Allied powers began to gradually degrade the powerful German war machine in a life-and-death struggle. The Germans, in turn, made life more difficult for Dutch civilians because food resources were devoted to the German military. To survive, Ella had to smuggle food out of the hospital. As she explained, “Sometimes you have to be dishonest.” Ella and three of her friends, who worked with her in the hospital, wore skirts, and they made a small, square bag that they “each wore under their skirts so they could hide tulip bulbs, potatoes, beets, small bottles of yogurt, and other scraps of food.” Ella smuggled food to her mother, her two younger siblings, and her grandmother. She also helped Mrs. Lobbes, who had a sick son. Since Ella and her friends were paid for their work in the hospital, she was able to supplement the smuggled food with bread she purchased on the black market. On 4 May 1945, Ella and her girlfriends were caught “stealing” from the hospital, and they were promptly fired. Ella has a photo of herself and her three friends leaving the hospital and walking in the Dam Square on 4 May 1945. The four young women had broad smiles and a jaunt in their steps as they walked in the spring sunshine. The smiles were a portent of better times ahead.

The evening of the day that Ella was fired from the hospital, she and Mrs. Lobbes heard “an awful racket in the street.” There was a man saying the war would be over tomorrow. The Germans came outside immediately and started shooting. The war ended the next morning; it was Ella’s mom’s birthday. Young women who had collaborated with the Germans were marched out into the street, and their heads were shaved. Ella thought that “it was pitiful.” The Dutch civilians knew these collaborators. Ella made her feelings clear about the German occupation: “I never wanted anything to do with the Germans. They were our enemies. It was nothing strange to see dead bodies in the street.”28

The end of the war brought immediate relief in terms of psychological stress. The Allies had gained victory, but it “took an awful long time to get food.” The winter of 1944–45 was known as the “Hunger Winter” in Holland.29 Amsterdam was the last major city in Holland to be liberated: “We were issued rations and food coupons.” Ella remembered going to the store and getting canned vegetable soup as part of her rations. “I had never seen it before. I stayed with Mrs. Lobbes, and I made my own meals.” Ella became sick because she did not dilute the soup: “My stomach was [too] weak to eat something like that.”

After the war was over, the Canadians and the Americans came to the Dam Square on 7 May, the day of the formal German surrender. The Canadians arrived in their tanks. German soldiers were still hiding in buildings in the Dam Square, and they killed many people who were waiting for the Allies. “We bought flowers and presented them to one Canadian soldier. The poor fellow was so surprised, he could say nothing.” Ella recalls seeing an airplane flying in distress and on fire, then watching as it crashed into a hotel for Germans. “It did not bother me,” she related. Later, upon some reflection, Ella admitted that the plane crash had troubled her. After 7 May, life slowly came back to normal. The nine o’clock curfew was lifted.

Ella Meets Alex Barron

Before long, Ella started going to dances with her first cousin. There was a dance in Amersfoort near Amsterdam in October 1945, where Ella met Alex Barron—her future husband. She recalls going into the dance hall: for Ella, it was resplendent, almost magical: “The tables, decorated with lovely tablecloths, had dishes filled with beautiful fruit. We had not seen fresh fruit, especially in the last year of the war. The hall was full of Canadian soldiers with music and dancing.” Ella, then twenty-two, recalled, “This tall man came in, and I said to my cousin, ‘Look at that long, skinny fellow.’ He looked at me so insulted, and then he came over to sit with us. He understood what I said because he had stayed with people in the countryside, and he had learned a little Dutch.”

Alex, a member of an antitank regiment, was part of the First Canadian Army, which had helped liberate Holland from September 1944 to April 1945. The Canadians eventually captured the Scheldt estuary and freed up the port of Antwerp for the Allies. The Canadians went on to clear the Germans from the northern and western parts of the Netherlands. To this day, Canadians are regarded with special fondness in Holland.30 Ella has three photos of Alex and his antitank regiment. Alex, well over six feet tall, is shown with six of his compatriots in a farmer’s field with a roadside fence and a little girl behind them. Three of the soldiers are sitting on a fence and may be Cape Bretoners, since they are playing a fiddle, a mandolin, and a guitar. Alex is one of four soldiers sitting on the ground in front of the musicians. Another photo shows Alex, one of twenty-one soldiers standing and sitting in the same field, with a soldier/cook out in front. Yet another photo shows seven officers of the antitank regiment, six of them wearing berets and a seventh sporting a helmet with goggles.

Ella recollected, “We went home back to Amsterdam. I went to the theatre a couple of evenings later with my mother, and Alex was there. We went together for a couple of months. Then Alex got word that he was supposed to go back to his outfit. In December, Alex asked me to marry him.” Alex, who could speak some Dutch by then, explained to Ella that he was a widower with three children back in Canada. Alex’s first wife, Doris Williams, had died of a blood clot, a complication of childbirth, and they were left with three daughters, Millie, Teresa, and Mary, who lived with Alex’s parents, Mike and Priscilla (Benny) Barron at Ingonish Harbour.31

Ella and Alex were married on 24 January 1946 before a justice of the peace. Mrs. Lobbes baked their wedding cake, and they had a small reception at Ella’s relatives’ home. Ella has a picture of Mrs. Lobbes and herself together with a small child. In their wedding photo, Ella looked attractive in a pin-striped suit. Alex wore his army dress uniform with a beret, shirt, and tie. Another wedding photo shows Ella and Alex with Ella’s mom, her sister Dien, and another sister and her husband. Nobody was smiling in the photo, doubtless because the family realized that they might not see Ella again, or at least not for a long time.32

Ella Departs for Canada

Ella left the Hook of Holland on 31 May 1946, and she and other Dutch war brides went to England, where they met even more brides destined for Canada. They stayed there for a week and then boarded the liner Queen Mary for Canada. “It was a very emotional time,” noted Ella, “especially for the English war brides, many with children who were saying goodbye to their families and friends . . . very emotional.”33 Ella and the other war brides travelled in cabin class and landed in Halifax at Pier 21 on 15 June 1946. “Most of the English war brides were wearing fur coats, and I remember wondering if there was snow in Canada in June.”34 Ella still has among her prized possessions her disembarkation card from the Hook of Holland with her passport number and her landed immigrant card. Ella was supposed to stay in a Halifax hotel on the night of 15 June, but word arrived that the train for North Sydney was departing that evening. “I ended up in North Sydney, and I was not feeling well. . . . I came a day too early, and so there was nobody there to meet me.” After an eighteen-hour train ride from Halifax, Ella looked forward to arriving in North Sydney, where Alex was meant to meet her, but he was not there. “Here I was expecting our first baby. I couldn’t speak a word of English, and I thought my new husband had deserted me. I just wanted to turn around and go home.”35 Fortunately for Ella, she had the address of Frances, Alex’s sister. “I showed it to a kindly taxi driver, who drove me there, where Alex was waiting.” Frances Robinson lived in North Sydney on Lorne Street.36 Ella and Alex stayed in a hotel that night and left for Ingonish the next day.

Arriving in Ingonish and Adjusting to Village Life

Ella and Alex departed North Sydney for Ingonish over a bumpy, gravel road. There were two ferries to cross—the Ross Ferry and the Englishtown Ferry—and after a two-hour journey, they arrived at the base of Smokey Mountain. Nothing could have prepared Ella for the “cow path” over the mountain and the village world of Ingonish that waited below.

Ella and Alex stayed with Alex’s parents in Ingonish Harbour for the summer. Ella noted, “What bothered me the most [was that] we went into a strange house.”37 Some of those who greeted Ella had mixed feelings, especially Alex’s sisters, Stella and Rade (Rae). They were perhaps wary of their brother’s return from Europe with a new bride, whom they had never met and whose experiences were foreign to their own in the small Cape Breton village. This would set the tone for Ella’s life in Ingonish.

Ella and Alex lived in his parents’ house for most of the summer, and their first baby, Betty, was born in Ingonish Harbour on 22 August 1946. Isabel MacDonald, the public health nurse, delivered baby Betty and comforted Ella as best she could. Imagine Ella as a young woman, knowing little or no English, in a new country, about to deliver her first baby. On 8 November, Ella and Alex moved into their house in Ingonish Beach, two miles away. “It was the baby and all our belongings in a horse and buggy.” Ella recalled the house to her grandson Jordan Nearing, who later relayed, “When Nan first walked into the house, she wanted to turn around and go back to Amsterdam. They had no power, no water, and no heat. To make things worse, Grandfather had purchased the house from his first wife’s father. He had lived there with his first wife. This did not make Nan very happy.” Ella continued, “I went in, and I could see nothing. It was so dark. I said, ‘I am not going to live here.’ Alex said, ‘You may get used to it.’ I was scared to death because the first wife was waked in the room. I made him [Alex] take down the partition so I would not be so scared.”38 As noted earlier, Alex’s first wife, Doris Williams, had died from a blood clot, a complication of childbirth.39 When Alex married Ella, he no longer received the widow’s pension, which went to Alex’s parents, the guardians of his daughters, for support. The loss of the pension, which would have been some money in a financially deprived rural economy, added further tension to the family’s life.40

Only twenty-three years old, Ella was a young bride who had lived through desperate wartime conditions, but she now faced another daunting struggle—attempting to adjust to married, family, and village life. The transition to the new house was difficult, and the changes continued apace. Ella talked about the tensions: “I felt I was not welcome down here [Ingonish Beach]. It was a rough time for quite a few years.” Ella explained why life was difficult: “I couldn’t cook, bake bread.” Even more daunting, Ella was a Protestant. She had been married overseas before a judge. In everyday life, Ella had little or no formal religion, but that hardly mattered to the people of south Ingonish. Out of respect for her husband, Ella had started training in the sacraments and rites of the Catholic faith before she left Holland. Mrs. Lobbes, Ella’s landlady, was a Catholic, so she began to explain some of the customs of the Roman Catholic religious traditions to Ella. Ella also took a course in Catholicism, and the priest who offered the course gave Ella a letter to give to Father Joseph Day, the Ingonish parish priest. Ella was clearly trying to fit into the faith of her new neighbours. Certainly, Alex urged this transition in the letters he wrote. Alex wrote from England on 6 February 1946, a few weeks after leaving Ella for Canada: “Tell me if you are taking instructions yet to be a Catholic. I hope you are as you know it means a lot to me and my people.”41 On 9 March, Alex wrote from Ingonish Harbour: “Elly in your letter of Feb 7th you told me you were going to the priest, honey I am glad to hear that as I want you to be a Catholic.”42 On 11 March Alex wrote again, “Elly I am so happy to know that you are learning to be Catholic. You know it will be better for me and you as my people are all Catholic.”43 Canadian policy generally favoured soldiers marrying women from the same religious background.

Recovering from War

When Ella arrived in Ingonish in June 1946, the community, like most towns and villages in the northern hemisphere, was in a postwar recovery. Practically all of the young men in the village had gone to war. With Canadian participation in the War in Afghanistan, we understand that soldiers in combat develop post-traumatic stress disorder. How could it be otherwise? There were 250,000 casualties on the allied side of the conflict in the Normandy invasion, “making Normandy a more costly battle than the infamous First World War killing ground at Passchendaele.” The Canadian soldiers played a “major role” in five of the most significant battles of the Normandy campaign, resulting in 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed in action.44 Ingonish soldiers paid a heavy price in Normandy and in the push to Germany; they were killed, captured, and wounded. Those casualties were part of the context for Ella’s arrival in the postwar community.

World War II was a life-and-death struggle that affected lives throughout the world, especially in the northern hemisphere. Alex Barron knew or knew of all the Ingonish soldiers who served overseas, most on a first-name basis. Such is the nature of small village life. Approximately one hundred individuals from the Ingonishes,45 or with close Ingonish connections, served in the Canadian armed forces and merchant marine.46 Chester Dunphy, a member of a tank crew, went ashore on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Chester’s tank was disabled, but he joined another tank and continued in combat.47 Jim Donovan also landed in the Normandy invasion, but he was captured and served the rest of the war as a German prisoner of war. He suffered hardships as a prisoner, including being forced to drink boiled grass and potato peelings.48 To this day, Jim Donovan is affectionately known as “prisoner Jim,” a mark of distinction and respect for him and his descendants in the community.

There were numerous casualties, physical and mental, that affected Ingonish soldiers, but this chapter will only note a few. Joe Doucette, a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery, Nineteenth Battery, was killed in action in Italy on 4 September 1944.49 Only twenty-four years old, his family dearly grieved his loss, and they still do, recalled Joe’s brother Bert: “Dad and Mom would never accept that Joe died. They would leave the door open each night in the hope that he might come home.”50 Christie MacLeod Ross, a native of the south side of Smokey Mountain, had five sons who served in the Canadian army. They included Jack, Norman, Walter, and Murdock, who lived in North Gut, Victoria County.51 Murdock Ross (1917–44), a stretcher bearer, was killed on 25 July.52 Wilfrid MacLeod, stepbrother of Murdock, recalled that he only lived a few hours after being wounded. Wilfrid (1925–2012), the youngest of the five brothers, served overseas and was wounded in the hip defending Nijmegen Bridge on Sunday, 3 December 1944. A German bomber flew over and strafed the soldiers, killing nine and wounding twenty-eight in a matter of seconds. Wilfrid and other members of the battalion were in a field attending a church service. Wilfrid, who had seen much action since landing at Juno Beach in June 1944, was “kind of glad to get wounded to get out of there for a while.”53 Wilfrid spent five weeks in the hospital recovering and carried pieces of shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life.

The MacLeods, well liked and respected, were known for their kindness and hospitality to people travelling on foot from Ingonish to North Sydney and beyond. People took the path over the mountain at Ingonish Ferry because it was only a thirty-minute walk to the MacLeods at Cape Smokey. The MacLeods usually offered a cup of tea and tea biscuits for the travellers.54 Wilfrid MacLeod was a friend of Jim Brewer, a member of the heavy artillery who was severely wounded and sent home on the Lady Nelson, a hospital ship. Jim arrived in Halifax on 21 April 1945 and remained in Camp Hill Hospital until 4 June. Injured in October 1944, Jim had suffered three bayonet wounds to his left arm. He also developed asthma and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, and according to his wife, Molly McGean, he was never the same after the war.55

Like Jim Brewer, Ella’s husband, Alex, sustained harmful effects from the war. Over six feet tall and two hundred pounds, Alex was an able man, and he was soon placed on the front lines as a member of an antitank regiment against the German war machine.56 Due to intense shelling, explosions, dust, the smell of cordite, and diesel fumes in the tanks, Alex developed debilitating emphysema, which eventually led to his death in 1989. Alex also endured severe post-traumatic stress disorder, especially from witnessing countless injuries and deaths. He suffered terribly after the war, often waking at night “screaming and losing his breath.”57 When Alex woke up in the night, Ella was frightened, but she was always there for her husband, offering comfort and support.58

Ingonish residents were not accustomed to immigrants such as Ella coming into the community to live full time. When Ella debarked at Pier 21 from the Queen Mary on 15 June 1946, she was the only war bride on the train coming to Cape Breton. There was little formal education in the community to teach children and adults about the outside world, including war brides. Most learning was gained through practical experience, learned from life’s lessons. Lillian Devoe, a sixteen-year-old teacher from Little Bras d’Or, had come to Ingonish in 1911 to teach in Ingonish Beach. Lillian provided an overview of educational standards in the Ingonish area. Besides Lillian, there were two other teachers from Margaree in Ingonish: Rebecca Coady (a sister of Dr. Moses Coady) taught in the school at Ingonish Ferry and Christine Cameron taught in the school near a Catholic church in Ingonish Centre. Lillian had sixty students on the school register, but only ten students came to school on a regular basis.59 Educational standards gradually improved from the 1920s to the 1950s, but not markedly so. The most accomplished students went to grade 9 because that was the highest level available.60

Formal education had little value because people were employed in the fishery, farming, forestry, mining, and other primary occupations that did not require extensive schooling. Young people also had the option of moving away, and many did. The population of Ingonish had grown steadily from 176 in 1838 to 1,266 in 1891. By 1901, the Ingonish population declined to 954 as people moved to the coal towns and the steel plants in Sydney Mines and Sydney.61 The population only increased modestly for the next one hundred years.

The Pace of Village Life

After the war, Alex began to work at various jobs. “I have another job now at carpenter work,” Alex wrote to Ella on 26 May 1946. “I make more money six dollars and forty cents a day, that is the same as sixteen guilders.”62 Alex eventually got a loan of $500 from Matthew Hawley to buy a small boat and began to fish.63 Life as a fisherman, however, could be precarious. There was no unemployment insurance in those days, and thus Alex and Ella purchased groceries on credit from Bridget and Tom Shea’s store on the hill. “We remained in their books all winter,” noted Ella, “and in the spring the first earnings went to pay off the winter bill. It was very hard in those early years, you never caught up, and so much depended on a good fishing catch.”64

The Sheas, responsible merchants, were good to the postwar newlyweds, as they were to all people in the community. One witness recalled that Bridget Shea “carried everybody” on credit during the winter.65 As for the fishery, Alex was paid in cash at settlement time. Wages in the fishery were generally low and remained so for much of the twentieth century.66 Alex was paid in cash, but the payment for his work was reminiscent of the truck system in which fishermen received little or no cash after they paid off their debts, usually to the fishing proprietor. Ingonish was a remote fishing village that was largely a cashless economy, and like most of the maritime communities, it remained so until the 1960s.67

Conclusion

Ella Barron eventually overcame the discrimination that she faced as a young Dutch war bride. Her strong character, her sense of purpose, the hardships she endured during the war, and the passage of time helped protect her from the intolerance she faced as an immigrant. Ella had a voice, and she was determined to be heard. Over the past fifty years, I have interviewed more than 150 people from Ingonish, preserved as digital audio recordings at Cape Breton University.68 Of all the individuals interviewed, Ella was among the most determined to tell “her story.” She had lived through five years of Nazi occupation and the injustices of that regime. Recalling the war years, Ella noted, “It took people here a long time to realize what I went through.”69

As time passed, Ella learned how to speak English, and she received all of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic faith, including being remarried in St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Ingonish.70 Ella has lived long enough to see the sectarianism among the Catholic, Presbyterian, United, and Anglican Churches in Ingonish and beyond become petty and irrelevant. Throughout the Western world—Europe and North America above Mexico—the message of the Christian churches has fallen on hard times. Churches are closing, and buildings are being demolished or repurposed. The Christian churches have suffered because of the sexual exploitation of children, misogyny, corruption, and colonialism, especially the mistreatment of Indigenous people. Throughout her life, part of the long twentieth century, Ella has witnessed momentous change.

Ella became a member of the community and adapted to the customs of her Canadian home. Ella also learned how to cook, especially how to bake bread. She experienced indescribable heartache due to the death of a newborn child, something that women carry with them for the rest of their lives. Baby Aletta Anne, her third child, was born on 4 November 1948 at Buchanan Memorial Hospital in Neil’s Harbour, and she died on 31 December 1948.71 The baby was sick, but Ella stated, “Nobody would help me. I got the blame. I couldn’t get anybody to take her to the hospital.”72 The women of the village rallied around Ella, at least in spirit, providing empathy and emotional support, especially those who had experienced miscarriages.73

Ella stood up for and protected her children when they faced discrimination because of their Dutch ancestry. This was ironic because the Dutch were favoured officially by Canadian immigration policy, while other groups of immigrants were excluded.74 “I felt sorry for the children in the community,” recalled Ella. “It took people a long time here to realize what I went through. It was harder on the kids. They used to be beaten. They couldn’t go outside, Betty and Alex especially.” For Ella, “the hardest thing was seeing the kids suffer.”75

Ella faced constant challenges, including living with her husband, who had a troubled life. Ella recalled patching the boys’ clothing in the evenings, and she often “had regrets about getting married.” Alex was a good man, in many ways, but he suffered, like many veterans, from post-traumatic stress disorder and compromised health. Ella’s major complaint about Alex was that he drank too much and that he did not have patience with the children.76

Ella’s working-class background, her demeaning treatment at school, and her impoverished life in Amsterdam doubtlessly helped her cope with the poverty she faced as a young bride and mother in Ingonish. If it was any consolation, most people in the village faced the same difficult economic circumstances. Beginning in 1973, Ella started to work outside the home doing housekeeping duties for five employers over the next ten years. She was able to earn additional income for the family and gain independence because she now had her own money. Ella’s life embodied the subthemes of this volume, including her movement and migration from the Netherlands to Canada and the urban and rural divide between Amsterdam and Ingonish. When Ella moved to Ingonish, she recalled, “It was like living on a different planet. I was used to the city and getting used to people’s ways and them getting used to mine was hard.”77

As for the theme of culture and identities, this is perhaps the most mystifying issue, one faced by all immigrants and migrants throughout the world. When Ella’s mother died in 1965, it had been nineteen years since she had left the Netherlands. Ella felt an intense longing for home, but she would have to wait until 1977 to afford the trip. During the journey, Ella had a marvellous time seeing relatives and renewing acquaintances. Alex was afraid that she would not return. Ella had “always retained such a love of Holland,” and she returned several times and keeps in touch with family to this day. On her return voyages to Holland in 1977, 2010, and later, Ella witnessed how Amsterdam had developed into a large, cosmopolitan city.78 Holland had changed, as Ella did herself, and she recognized that her home was in Canada; she was Canadian. She had reared nine children in Ingonish, and she had gained the admiration and respect of the community. Ella persevered and ultimately prevailed, largely due to her strong character and love of family—especially her dedication to her children. She did not stray from these objectives.

Notes

The author would like to thank Sandy Balcom, Emily Burton, Austin Hawley, John Johnston, and Suzanne Morton for their very helpful comments on this chapter.

1. 1. See the website Canadian War Brides, http://www.canadianwarbrides.com. The experiences of Canadian war brides have attracted much popular attention in recent decades. See Lyster, Most Excellent Citizens; Smith, Edith’s War; Jarratt, War Brides; Jarratt, Captured Hearts; Ladouceur and Spence, Blackouts to Bright Lights; Granfield, Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes; O’Hara, From Romance to Reality; Shewchuk, If Kisses Were Roses; Wicks, Promise You’ll Take Care of My Daughter; Granfield, Pier 21; Brown, Krachun, and Stowbridge, Doors Held Ajar.

2. 2. Berthiaume Shukert and Smith Scibetta, War Brides of World War II.

3. 3. Boothby, “Displaced Children,” 106; Kuterovac, “Children in War,” 363–75.

4. 4. Ella Barron, interview by author, 2 January 2016.

5. 5. For an overview of war brides entering Canada, see Raska, “Movement of War Brides,” https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/movement-of-war-brides-and-their-children-through-pier-21.

6. 6. See Guntheroth, Crib Death; Hoffman, Damus, Hillman, and Krongrad, “Risk Factors for SIDS,” 13–30.

7. 7. Ella Barron, interview by author, 2 January 2016.

8. 8. Ella Barron, interview by author, 30 June 2008.

9. 9. Ella Barron Letters. There are thirty-eight items in the collection. Two cablegrams and thirty-six letters, all written by Alex to Ella. Ella’s letters to Alex have not survived. Alex wrote two letters to Ella when she visited Holland in August 1977. Alex to Ella, 14 August 1977; 17 August 1977, letters in possession of Ella Barron.

10. 10. Ella Barron, interview by author, 30 June 2008; Ella Barron, interview by author, 2 January 2016.

11. 11. For a brief introduction to the literature on peer status among children, see Boivin and Begin, “Peer Status and Self Perception,” 591–96; Dodge, “Behavioral Antecedents of Peer Social Status,” 1387–99; Hops and Finch, “Social Competence and Skill,” 23–39.

12. 12. Ella Barron, interview by author, 30 June 2008.

13. 13. Ella Barron, interview by author, 2 January 2016.

14. 14. Burleigh, Third Reich, 631.

15. 15. Ella had a camera that took beautiful black-and-white pictures, and she saved these pictures down to the present day.

16. 16. Jordan Nearing, “My Grandmother: A Canadian War Bride” (school project by eleven-year-old Nearing, New Waterford, 2009).

17. 17. Burleigh, Third Reich; see the chap. “Living in a Land with No Future: German Jews and Their Neighbours, 1933–1939,” 281–342.

18. 18. For the German invasion of Holland, see Amersfoort and Kamphuis, May 1940.

19. 19. Ella Barron, interview by author, 30 June 2008.

20. 20. See the critical historical work of Friedlander, Years of Extermination.

21. 21. There is extensive published work on Anne Frank. For a brief overview, see Frank, Diary of Anne Frank; Goodrich and Hackett, Diary of Anne Frank; Gies and Gold, Anne Frank Remembered; van der Rol, Verhoeven, and Quindlen, introduction; Müller, Anne Frank; Prose, Anne Frank; van Maarsen, My Name Is Anne, She Said.

22. 22. Griffioen and Zeller, “Netherlands,” 1–7; see also Griffioen and Zeller, “Comparing the Persecution”; Griffioen and Zeller, “Anti-Jewish Policy,” 437–73.

23. 23. For an overview of the Nazi treatment of Jews in Holland, see Presser, Ashes in the Wind.

24. 24. “Prosecution Documents,” in The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Record of the Proceedings of the District Court of Jerusalem, vol. 9 (Jerusalem: Ministry of Justice of the State of Israel, 1992–1995).

25. 25. See Becker, “Role of Synthetic Fuel,” 45–53; Stokes, “Oil Industry in Nazi Germany,” 254–77; Stranges, “History of the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis”; Hayward, “Hitler’s Quest for Oil,” 96.

26. 26. Ella Barron, interview by author, 30 June 2008.

27. 27. Barron, interview.

28. 28. Barron, interview.

29. 29. De Zwarte, “Coordinating Hunger,” 132–49.

30. 30. Reid, “Grateful Nation,” 40–49.

31. 31. Ella Barron, interview by author, 21 January 2020; Emmerson Barron, interview by author, 3 February 2019. Emerson believed that Doris had died of cancer. See also the obituary of Teresa Priscilla Barron, 1936–2019, https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/sydney-mines-ns/teresa-barron-8790438.

32. 32. Canadian Museum of Immigration, Pier 21, “Annette Brunton,” accessed 17 January 2024, https://pier21.ca/walls/Honour/Annette-Brunton. See statement by Annette Brunton née Van der Vegt, a Dutch war bride who came to Canada on the Queen Mary in July 1946, one month after Ella Barron. Annette stated that her parents were sad to see her leave Holland: “My mother was very sad and upset. Although we all knew I would leave some time, the time was getting so close. I don’t think I shed one tear; to me it was all wonderful.”

33. 33. Scobie, “Days of Being a War Bride.”

34. 34. Scobie.

35. 35. Scobie.

36. 36. Letter from Alex Barron to Ella Barron, North Sydney, 24 February 1946.

37. 37. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 30 June 2008.

38. 38. Barron, interview.

39. 39. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

40. 40. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 30 June 2008; Nearing, “My Grandmother,” 7; Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 3 February 2019.

41. 41. Letter from Alex Barron to Ella, England, 6 February 1946, letters in possession of Ella Barron.

42. 42. Alex Barron to Ella Barron, Ingonish Harbour, 9 March 1946.

43. 43. Alex Barron to Ella Barron, 11 March 1946.

44. 44. Copp, Cinderella Army, 7.

45. 45. The Ingonishes included five divisions: Ingonish Ferry, Ingonish Harbour, Ingonish Beach, Ingonish Centre, and Ingonish.

46. 46. See Thornhill and MacDonald, In the Morning; Barron, Ingonish Roots, 234. Ingonish Roots noted sixty-one people from South Ingonish who were veterans of World War II, but not all of these people served overseas.

47. 47. Percy Dunphy, interview by Ken Donovan, 6 March 2009. Percy, the brother of Chester Dunphy, was born in October 1923.

48. 48. Thornhill and MacDonald, In the Morning, 302.

49. 49. Thornhill and MacDonald, 306.

50. 50. Bert Doucette, interview by Ken Donovan, 4 January 2020. Bert Doucette, brother of Joe Doucette, was born on 24 October 1935.

51. 51. Obituary of Donald Ross, Cape Breton Post, 15 October 2007. Donald was the son of William and Christine (MacLeod) Ross. Wilfrid was a half brother to the four killed soldiers.

52. 52. Murdock Ross, Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Veterans Affairs Canada, Royal Canadian Medical Corps, 22 Field Ambulance, commemorated on 432 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/27833.

53. 53. Wilfrid MacLeod, interview by Ken Donovan, 28 October 2007. Wilfrid was born on 19 March 1925.

54. 54. MacLeod, interview.

55. 55. Mary (Molly) Catherine McGean, interview by Ken Donovan, 29 November 2009. Mary was born on 3 October 1923. Mary married Jim Brewer on 28 April 1942.

56. 56. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

57. 57. Nearing, “My Grandmother,” 7.

58. 58. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

59. 59. Lillian Devoe, interview by Ken Donovan, 17 January 1987. Lillian Devoe was born on 15 August 1895.

60. 60. Based on numerous interviews. See the following: Loretta Bridget Donovan MacNeil, interview by Ken Donovan, 22 September 1990. Loretta Donovan was born on 19 November 1913. Helen Cathcart, interview by Ken Donovan, 29 November 1987. Helen Cathcart was born on 22 March 1902. Sidney Sylvester Donovan, interview by Ken Donovan, 16 August 1992. Sid Donovan was born on 12 September 1906.

61. 61. Nova Scotia provincial census records, population of Ingonish for 1838 and 1861. Census of Nova Scotia, 1838, RS1, vol. 450, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS. See Federal censuses of Canada, Library and Archives Canada, https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/censuses/Pages/dominion-canada.aspx, for Ingonish in 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901. Cited in Donovan, “Mary Grace Barron,” 211–12.

62. 62. Alex Barron to Ella, Ingonish, 26 May 1946.

63. 63. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

64. 64. Scobie, “Days of Being a War Bride.”

65. 65. Percy Dunphy, interview by Ken Donovan, 6 March 2009. Percy was born on 3 October 1923.

66. 66. For evidence of the low wages paid in the fishery, see the interviews of James Barron, 28 December 2009. James was born on 29 March 1932. See also interview of Percy Dunphy, 6 March 2009.

67. 67. For background on the history of Ingonish, see Donovan, “Precontact and Settlement,” 330–87; Donovan, “Mary Grace Barron,” 177–237; Donovan, “Interview with Geoffrey S. Cornish,” 322–87; Barron, Ingonish Roots; Jackson, Cape Breton; Patterson, History of Victoria County; Donovan, “History of Ingonish”; Donovan, “History of the Trap-Net Fishery”; Williams, Keep to the Light.

68. 68. These 150 recordings have been preserved as MP3s at the Beaton Institute of Cape Breton. The three recordings of Ella will be available to the public. Thank you to Catherine Arseneau, Jane Arnold, Christie MacNeil, and Chris Jones for your efforts on my behalf.

69. 69. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

70. 70. Barron, interview. People were also remarried in the Catholic Church in eighteenth-century Louisbourg. Tens of Catholic couples had their marriages “rehabilitated” or were remarried, if they were married before by an Anglican priest in Boston or other communities. See Johnston, Religion in Life at Louisbourg.

71. 71. The ten children included were Betty, Alex, Aletta, Michael, Gerald, Frances, Patricia, Sheila, Shirley, and Sandra.

72. 72. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

73. 73. Based on conversations with several Ingonish women.

74. 74. Raska, “Movement of War Brides,” https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/movement-war-brides-and-children-pier-21.

75. 75. Ella Barron, interview by Ken Donovan, 21 January 2020.

76. 76. Barron, interview.

77. 77. Scobie, “Days of Being a War Bride.”

78. 78. Austin Hawley to Ken Donovan, email, 8 June 2020. Austin is Ella’s nephew. Austin’s mother was a sister of Alex Barron.

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