By GILLIAN SLADE on September 7, 2019.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
A special project to honour Canadian Second World War soldiers buried in a cemetery in Holland will include some from Medicine Hat.
For the 75th anniversary of the country’s liberation from the Nazis, a documentary will be made – The Holten Project.
Of the 1,300 Canadian soldiers buried in the Holten War Cemetery, five were identified as having been from this region.
The film crew coming to Canada to make the documentary did not initially have plans to come to Medicine Hat until local resident and member of the Medicine Hat Genealogical Society, Bill Anhorn, tracked down family members of two soldiers.
“They had no plans to go beyond Regina,” said Anhorn.
When Jan Braakman, working on The Holten Project, heard that Anhorn had spoken with Ken Forbes, son of soldier Frederick Forbes, there was an instant connection. Each year the names of the 1,300 Canadians are read aloud in a ceremony and Braakman was familiar with the name.
“It struck a personal chord,” said Anhorn.
The crew will now come to Medicine Hat toward the end of September.
Ken was only eight years old, his twin brothers were four, and living in Redcliff when his father died in the Second World War.
He clearly remembers the day his dad came home from work in 1943 after receiving the news that his brother had been killed in action in the war.
“It bothered him so bad that I will never forget. He said to my mother, ‘Rita I’ve got to go over there and do my part or we’re all going to be speaking German’,” said Ken.
He died a month before the end of the war.
“He was killed in April. At that time he was an orderly stretcher bearer on the field … a sniper fired at everything that moved,” said Ken, who was not with his mother when the telegram arrived but was with his grandmother when she was told.
“I will never forget her screaming,” said Ken.
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 to visit The Holten War Cemetery where his father is buried. He was impressed by how large it was and then he was standing beside his father’s grave. It was emotional.
“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. Anhorn managed to connect with her, too.
The day the news of Stromsmoe’s 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 also near the end of the war, April 12, 1945, said Penner.
There is a touching memory she has of her father home on leave – the last time she saw him.
“In his uniform, down on all four like a horse, and my sister that was a year younger than me on his back getting a horse ride,” said Penner. “That is really all the memories I have (of him).”
The family was living in Etzikom and her mother ran the post office.
“That’s how she made a living and of course the government was very good. She received money for all of us as long as we stayed in school – so right through Grade 12,” said Penner.
She and her husband, along with older sister Doris and her husband, went to Holland in 2002 to see their father’s grave.
“I felt quite honoured to be there,” said Penner.
Penner and other family members are coming to Medicine Hat to meet the film crew.
Both Ken and Penner say they feel privileged to have this opportunity for their fathers to be honoured and remembered in this documentary.