Corrie Gutsman Cruijs

Corrie was just five when war broke out. She remembers the bombing of Rotterdam, as her family fled toward nearby fields to take cover during air raids. During the Hunger Winter, weakened by starvation, she was sent to Wieringermeer to recover on a farm, separated from her parents for months. She was there when the war ended but saw no liberators, just the stillness of peace. Returning to a devastated Rotterdam, she walked over rubble where homes once stood. Now, 80 years later, Corrie cannot bear to watch war footage. “When I see today’s conflicts,” she says, “I relive my own.”

–

Rotterdam