NEWS FILE PHOTO You can now view a documentary online about Second World War soldiers buried in a cemetery in Holland with a connection to Medicine Hat. Local resident Ken Forbes, son on Frederick Forbes, holds a photo of his father together with his war medals.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
A documentary about Second World War soldiers buried in a cemetery in Holland – including some with a Medicine Hat connection – can now be viewed online.
The documentary, The Holten Project, was made for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the country from the Nazis.
Of the 1,300 Canadian soldiers buried in the Holten War cemetery five were identified as having been from this area, and filming took place in Medicine Hat last September.
Local resident Ken Forbes, son of soldier Frederick Forbes, was included in the documentary. He was only eight years old and his twin brothers were four at the time. The family was living in Redcliff when his father died in the Second World War.
Many years later Ken was to marry a young Dutch woman and in 1961 they went to Holland on honeymoon. That was the first opportunity Ken had had to visit The Holten War cemetery where he father is buried. He was impressed by how large it was and then he was standing beside his father’s grave feeling rather emotional. He had a few words for his father.
“Dad I found you,” said Ken.
Waldo Rueben Stromsmoe of Etzikom died in Holland during the Second World War when his daughter, Beverly Penner, now living in B.C., was just six years old.
The day the news of his death reached the family, Penner wandered around town on her own.
“I remember going to different places and everybody being very sympathetic of course,” said Penner.
Stromsmoe’s death was near the end of the war, April 12, 1945. The family was living in Etzikom and her mother ran the Post Office. Penner came to Medicine Hat to participate the filming of the documentary.
https://www.rtvoost.nl/tv/programma/1039/Lest-we-forget/aflevering/532293
