Dutch Provinces: North Brabant Villages--Zijtaart


Figure 1.-- Here are the Bakel children in Zijtaart during 1944. Notice the fancy hair styles on the boys. The photograph is captioned, "De twee linkse meisjes zijn onbekend, en vermoedelijk nichtjes van de andere kinderen. Het groepje rechts zijn kinderen van Frans van Bakel, staande op een boomstronk van links naar rechts: Theo, Nico en Jan. Zittend Martien en Marinus." This translates as, "The two girls on the left are not known, presumably cousins of the other children. The group at the right are the Bakel children, standing on the tree stump from left to right: Theo, Nico and Jan. Sitting: Martien." They forgot to mention the fifth boy in the photograph.

A typical rural village in North Brabant is Zijtaart. It was located close to 's Hertogenbosch, the capital of the province. Noord Brabant and Limburg are the only Dutch provinces with a Catholic majority. When I saw the picture of the boys' school I suspected that it must have been a Catholic school, because the Protestant and public schools did not separate the genders. The girls went to a girls' school in the convent near the village. The rural location and Catholic orientation may explain why so many children in the village wore long stockings. North Brabant was located south of the great rivers (Rhine, Maas/Meuse, Waal and Lek) were liberated in the late summer/fall (September-October 1944). The same as neighboring Belgium (which also has a province called Brabant). Thus they did not suffer the famine of 1944-45 resulting from the Germans cutting off food supplies.

North Brabant

There are two southern provinces, North Brabant and Limburg, bordering on Belgium, where the population speaks a dialect similar to Flemish and where the majority is Catholic. Barbant was a medieval duchy. That duchy today is divided between the Netherlands and Belgium which is why the Dutch portion is called Noord Brabant. Barbant was extremely prosperous in the lare medieval period (14th and 15th centuries). The major cities were Leuven (Louvain), Antwerp (both now in Belgium), Breda and 's-Hertogenbosch. After the Union of Utrecht (1579), Brabant became a battlefield in the Dutch War for Independence against Catholic Spain (1588-1648). Spain prevailed in the southern Netherlands which is basically modern Belgium. The War was ended by the Peace of Westphalia, the northern part of Brabant became a part of the Netherlands. North Brabant was located south of the great rivers (Rhine, Maas/Meuse, Waal and Lek).

Location

A typical rural village in North Brabant is Zijtaart. It was located close to 's Hertogenbosch, the capital of the province.

School

When I saw the picture of the boys' school I suspected that it must have been a Catholic school, because the Protestant and public schools did not separate the genders. The girls went to a girls' school in the convent near the village. The name of the school is rather strange--16 Jongens School. Using a number was not that unusual. But why would it be called "Jongens". Dutch is similar to German and thih looks like Jugend. What we do not understand is why a school would be called a youth school, perhaps it means a boys' school. The boys look to be about 10 years old. They mostly wear long stockings with short trousers. This was not all that common in the Netherlands at this time. Long stockings were still worn in the Netherlands, but not that commonly. The stockings are mostly black although we see a few boys with dark brown stockings and one boy wearing knee socks. Many boys wear suit jackets although some wear sweaters. They are standing outside their school. Notice the large numbers of boys wearing wooden shoes. The photograph was taken during the German World War II occupation.

Families

We note portraits of several families in Zjitaart illustrating popular fashions for adults and children. Families tended to be large, bith becauseofv the rural demogrphic and the fact that the village was Catholic. Here wecsee the Bakel family (figure 1). We see the van de Ven family in 1944. Another portrait was the Raaijmaker family.

Children's Clothing

Virtually all the boys in Zijtaart wear short pants for both school and play. Short pants in the voillage school were nearly universal. The shorts seem cut unusually long for the 1940s. We note boys wearing suit jackets and sweaters. There were several different types of suits. Some boys for chores around the house seem to have worn long trousers. The rural location and Catholic orientation may explain why so many children in the village wore long stockings. During the summer we see the children wearing knee socks, but on cools the children seem to have mostly worn lon stockings. A reader writes, "I agree that these considerations are important. I think Catholic and rural families in the Netherlands insisted on long stockings for their children more often rgan Protestant and urban families. The situation here may have been similar to Quebec, where long stockings were much more common than in Western Canada. In Germany class seems also to have been a factor, but not the only one. The van der Vens, for instance, seem to have been fairly upper class (but also rural and farming families)." We also note many boys wearing wooden shoes. This was much more common in rural areas than in the cities. Wooden shoes were practical for farm work. Wooden shoes were particuilsrly common for children during the War when leather shoes were rationed and even then difficult to obtain.

World War II (1939-45)

The Netherlands remained neutral during World War I and popular sentiments were to an extent pro-German, despite the German invasion of neutral Belgium. After the War, the Dutch aided starving children in Germany and Austria. The Netherlands attempted to remain neutral again when World War II broke out (September 1939). This time popular sentiment was decidedly anti-German. This time when the Germans struck west, they attacked the Netherlands (May 1940). The Germans defeated the Dutch Army and occupied the ciuntry in only 3 days. And the Allied drive north to help the Dutch resulted in a military disaster. The resultuing fall of France shocked the Duch even more than the defeat of their small army. The German made a pretense of treating the Dutch lightly, but from an early point moved against the country's Jews. The NAZI Holocaust in the Netherlands was particulrly devestating. One of the Zijtaart villagers took in a "little undergrounder, a Jewish girl named Irma. As the War continued, rationing became more severe. Zihtaart as a rural village had ampel food supplied, but clothing became hard to obtain, especially laether shoes. We see mpst of the boys at school wearing leather shoes. The village was liberated in the late summer/fall (September-October 1944). The same as neighboring Belgium (which also has a province called Brabant). Thus they did not suffer the famine of 1944-45 resulting from the Germans cutting off food supplies.

Jonge Wacht

The Jonge Wacht was a Catholic youth organization. It was comparable to the Scouts which in the Netherlands were dominated by the majority Protestants. We do not know a great deal anout the group because most internt sites are in Dutch. We have managed to collect a little information, although wev are a little uncertain about the translation. Jonge Wacht means someting like Young Watch or Youth Guard. It was founded in 1928. It seems to have grown out of an earlier Catholic group--Patronage. The group did not operate in the Diocese of Haarlem. There a separate Catholic group was active--Kruisvaart (the Crusade). Jonge Wacht was very similar to the Scouts, but could make their own program and was not bound strict to Baden Powell's program. The Jonge Wacht boys were called Pioneers. The boys were 12-15 years old. We do not know if there was an associated Cub-age group. There was ab older group--De Jonge Werkman for youth 16 to 21 years. This actially was a group organized earlier in 1917. It was essentially an appretince group for the Roman Catholic Workers' Association. The NAZI occupation authorities banned the group (1941). There was some attempt for the leaders to operate cladetinely, but this was discontinued in 1942 when it became to dangerous. After World War II, Jonge Wacht was reconstituted, but gradually evolved into Jonge Netherlands.

Reader Comments

This is a wonderful discovery of Dutch photos. The photos struck a strong note of recognition in me because of the dress of two of the boys seated in a 1946 family grouping and another one in 1944. These boys are very formally dressed in short trousers suits with brown long stockings very tautly held up, obviously by hose supporters (probably attached to a Strapsleibchen as would be the case in Germany). The interesting point here, I think, is that in the more informal photos of the same period (mid 1940s), boys of this age (about 12 or 13) are wearing knee socks. But the more dressy circumstances required suits and ties and long stockings. I gather that the families are Catholic. This may account for the greater conservatism in the formal dress code. These boys in long stockings and short trousers remind me a great deal of the way I was dressed in the late 1930s in Pennsylvania and New England. And I wonder now whether my parents, who travelled in Europe quite a lot, were influenced strongly by the customs and styles in the Netherlands, Germany, or other northern continental countries (since most of my American contemporaries were wearing knickers and knee socks when I was still in short trousers suits and long stockings at age 12 or 13). [HBC note: I think that in Zijtaart, seasonality was a major factor. We have, however, noted European boys wearing long stockings for formality.]






HBC





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Created: 5:48 PM 11/25/2008
Last updated: 4:09 PM 11/26/2008