The babies of Limburg 

From September 1944, the Allied armies advanced ever further in the Netherlands, resulting in large groups of people from the south of the Netherlands having to flee the violence of war. They were moved to relatively safe places in the countryside. From January 1945 onwards, some twenty thousand inhabitants of the province of Limburg ended up in Friesland. Their journey was largely by train through occupied territory and was fraught with dangers, such as bombings. Conditions on the road were bad. There was snow and it was freezing cold. Transport was by cattle car. Many children were weak, malnourished and sick.  

In the spring of 1945, eighteen children, aged from four weeks to eight months, died in the hospital in Heerenveen. Attending physician Bonne Dijkstra had these children buried in the RC cemetery. Deeply touched by their fate, he wrote the poem 'De poppen fan Limboarch' (the babies of Limburg). In 2012, at the initiative of the Rura Roermond foundation, a monument was unveiled at the Roman Catholic cemetery in Heerenveen, supplemented one year later with an information column.  

During the Second World War, large-scale evacuations of civilians were organised by the government. Sheltering these large groups of people required tight planning and organisation. The Municipal Evacuation Services were responsible for this. Sheltering evacuees was mandatory. Only the mayor could grant an exemption from this obligation. The compensation for an evacuee was two guilders per week, the necessary distribution coupons were brought by the evacuees themselves.  

Family members were accommodated at one address as much as possible, but this was not always possible due to the size of the families. Differences in custom, language and religion caused friction here and there, but often these problems quickly solved themselves. From May 1945, the evacuees were able to return in groups, with many returning to villages and towns that were severely damaged by the fighting.