Lea Holtkamp born Enschede, Netherlands 1933.
Lived through WW2, she was 5 when the war started & she lived 5 klm from the border of Germany. Her house was bombed 4 times! Sometimes from their own allies as they mixed up where the border ended.
The worst bombing was when Lea was 10 years old on the 10th October 1943. She said it was only herself & her sister home at the time. They heard the sirens outside, & her sister went out to take a look. They could hear the bombs coming towards them. Lea ran & laid in the hallway as there was no time to be to their cellar. The next thing Lea remembers is her sister being thrown on top of her from the force of the bomb hitting their home. It blew out all the windows, & the ceilings collapsed.
Her parents returned to the home absolutely distraught as they didn't know if their daughters had survived.
They missed a year of school as the Germans claimed it as a base. Their teachers would try to arrange meetups to give them school work. Lea said the Jewish had to wear a yellow star on them, & that she wore a shoelace and tag around her neck with her personal details.
Each house had papers hanging from the door with a list of the occupants in case it was bombed & they were trying to to recover the injured/ dead.
Met her Husband when she was about 18. He was from the same town, only child. He wanted to immigrate to New Zealand. Lea's parents allowed her to join him on the condition she married him there on arrival. She flew by herself at 19 years old, taking a week due to how often the plane needed to stop to refuel. to get to New Zealand.
Their first child Brigitte was born in Christchurch. They decided to move back to Enschede. Gwendolyn was born there 3 years later. Lea's marriage to Ferdie ended in 1960 & Ferdie remarried.
Within a year this marriage failed, & Ferdie convinced Lea to take him back. So they remarried in 1963.
Their daughter Gwen developed psoriasis and it was deemed that sun and salt water best treatment. So back to New Zealand they went.
They ended up moving to the North island. Ferdie became a pilot. He was never satisfied with where he was, so soon he convinced Lea to travel via Netherlands to Nigeria to work there for several years. Lea told me she moved 27 times to try & keep up with Ferdie.
In 1965 Lea was in a car accident which left her face damaged & needing 30 stitches.
Lea worked in Nigeria during their time there. Working for the Belgian embassy. From here they moved to Australia as Gwen had married and settled there. The marriage to Ferdie broke up again but Lea stayed in Budgewoi.
She worked in Sydney at AMP and happily settled into life here in Australia.
Lea did meet a lovely man called Doug in 1995 who she spent many years with before he passed away in 2008.
They had settled in Jilliby during his final years.
Lea is still quite active & plays competition golf.
