Roy Waisberg (Primary Source)

Transcript

I enlisted because a friend of mine, a very close friend of mine enlisted. I wanted to do the same as he. My friend lived in Montreal. I was in France, Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland and I was in Normandy. That’s a war zone in Normandy. I was an electrician on the ground crew. I serviced the aircraft, checked the lighting on the wings and on the tail, and underneath. That was my duties and look after the batteries that the aircraft used. In Holland, I used to see the people scrubbing the sidewalks every morning. They used to keep the sidewalks absolutely spotless, scrubbing them. I wasn’t involved in the freedom of Holland, but I was stationed in Holland. I was in Amsterdam; I was in Nijmegen. I was in Hilversum; and when I was in Hilversum, there were a lot of dead cows around there. And the stench was unbearable. So these are memories I’d like to forget. I met a girl. Her mother came over from Germany to England as a domestic. Her name was Hilda. It’s actually Hildegard. I met her at a dance. There was a dance there for Canadian soldiers. She was sitting there, minding her own business; and I went up to her and asked her if she wanted to dance. And, of course, she said yes. And so we did the great, fantastic dance. I got married in London, England. She came over with a group of war brides on a ship that zig-zagged its way through. When the war was over, I remember they marched us back in uniform in the Union Station. And my mother and father were waiting out there and I could see them, and I waved to them. And I was glad to be home.