Dutch exhibit shows strong point in Valley mosaic

By Wendy Elliott The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com ‘From Holland to Canada: the Dutch Presence in Canada’ has filled a room at the Old Kings Courthouse Museum with valuable memorabilia. This summer the exhibit was mounted to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the start of Dutch emigration to Kings County following the Second World War. The first section looks at life in prewar Holland. Then the journey to Canada is the focus of documentation that has been saved for decades. History Prof. Gerry Gerrits, who aided and abetted this exhibition for the museum, has also started a binder that he hopes to fill with many more than the 16 first-hand family accounts already collected. Two Annapolis Valley soldiers, Gordon Hansford of Kentville and the late Dawson Illsley of Waterville, contributed artifacts from the perspective of Liberators. Dutch cap badges are also a feature. The harsh reality of living in post-war Europe began to make emigration look attractive. Thus, many treasures were carried across the Atlantic and have been collected together. Gerrits noted that, in 1945, “the Dutch economy was ruined to the point where as much as one-third of the population was thinking of emigrating.” In the two decades after the Second World War, some 152,000 Dutch immigrants made their way to all parts of Canada. Canada, he says, was attractive due to a shortage of farmers and farm workers. The result was agrarian immigrants coming to Nova Scotia from the southern and eastern areas of Holland. After 1948, the numbers increased annually until 1953. By 1960, Gerrits noted, the stream had virtually dried up due to a reviving Dutch economy. Most of the newcomers stayed in this province. Many aimed to own their own farm “and that was relatively easy to achieve in Nova Scotia,” with aid from the N.S. Land Settlement Board. Gerrits said, with financial support and help from their neighbours, “the vast majority of them built up successful farms.” He arrived in Canning, Kings County, in 1953 at age 10 and chuckles saying, “I haven’t moved far since.” The family farm is in Sheffield Mills. There is a marvelous scale model of the Gerrits home in Hardenberg, Holland, where Gerrits and all of his nine siblings were born. The original was built in 1928 and is still inhabited. Museum assistant Katharina Gale, who was born in Germany and went to the NATO school in Holland, finds the exhibition fascinating. “I read the stories and learn about the Liberation. It’s pretty interesting,” she said. “These stories should be shared.” Gerrits has published two books about Dutch immigrants, They Farmed Well and The Dutch.