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The Diary Period

Huize Elastiek (House Elastic) absorbs evermore refugees and deprivations in the final, bitterly cold winter of hunger, 1944-45. The diary (dagboek) chronicles the period from early September 1944 through early May 1945. Actual Victory in Europe (VE Day) took place a few weeks later on May 27, 1945 with the capitulation of Axis forces a few hundred miles further east on German soil. The writing of this journal itself was started in February 1, 1945 by Georg Fröhlich assisted by Willy Elders. The entries for the period prior to that date were written in early February and look back at the previous five months that comprised the war’s final autumn and winter. Note that Georg enclosed his initial description with parentheses of “Huize Elastiek” in February and then added “until the liberation” on the next line above, when he concluded the journal in May.


The House Numbering - A206 / A116

The house numbers in Bovenkarspel were changed in the final months of the war. So the old address number, A206, for the mayor’s residence became A116 in March 1945. Today the address is 116 Hoofdstraat. The photograph of the house was taken in 1990, by Willy’s husband Jos Wiegman.

 

Bovenkarspel is a village in North Holland, first settled in the fifth century AD, and remaining an agricultural center of flat, fertile farmland ever since. By 1198 AD the village had 200 residents and was aligned with the Saint Maarten (St Martin) Domkerk (Cathedral) in Utrecht. Amsterdam lies 55 kilometers (33 miles) to the south of Bovenkarspel, which has now been incorporated with its neighboring villages into the municipality of Stede Broec.

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