No products in the cart.
Eyewitness Story: Tiny Geldof
Tiny Geldof was six years old when the war broke out. She lived in Domburg with her parents, older sister Leuntje, and her little brother. Her first memories of the war were filled with wonder and confusion. The beach and dunes, where her family often spent time because of her mother’s work as a bathing attendant, suddenly became off-limits. “You weren’t allowed to go into the dunes or onto the beach anymore. Well, that was something for the people of Domburg,” says Tiny, still indignant about the strict rules imposed by the occupiers.
The Atlantikwall and the Shop
The Geldof family had to adapt to the changes. Tiny’s mother, who lost her job as a bathing attendant due to the war, opened a grocery shop on Heerenstraat. The family carried on as best as they could, but the threat of war became more and more palpable when the Germans began building the Atlantikwall. Bunkers, artillery, and barbed wire filled the coastline, transforming the once familiar landscape into something unrecognizable.
Fearful Moments
The war drew ever closer, and Tiny recalls a frightening moment when she and her family were hiding flat on the ground in her uncle’s orchard while English planes flew overhead. “My mother was terribly afraid. Whether she had a premonition, I don’t know,” says Tiny. This fear would soon be tragically realized.
A Fateful Day
On November 1, 1944, the Geldof family was hit hard by the Allied bombings aimed at weakening the Germans by targeting the dikes of Walcheren. “I was sitting in the living room eating. My mother was outside doing the laundry, my brother was playing in the garden, and my father and sister were behind the house. I walked into the hallway, and suddenly there was a loud bang,” Tiny recalls. The room shook, vases fell from the shelf, and where her mother had just been standing, there was now a large crater. “You step outside, and your mother is gone…”
What Tiny saw was too horrific to put into words. The loss of her mother, Tine, is a memory she still carries with her 80 years later. Her father, in shock, took the children without even closing the door behind them. Along the way, they encountered family, and she heard her father cry out, “Tine is dead, Tine is dead.”
Tiny Geldof
Read below the story of Tiny Geldof, a young girl from Domburg who experienced the war at the age of six and lost her mother in a bombing. Her village was overwhelmed by the threat of the German occupation and the construction of the Atlantikwall. Despite the fear and devastating loss, Tiny and her family continued to fight for survival. Her story is a testament to loss, resilience, and the enduring memories the war left behind.
