Birth announcement card for Gerdien's sister, Marleentje, 23 August 1945, front [image 1 of 2]
Item Reference : cny02953

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Birth announcement card for Gerdien's sister, Marleentje, 23 August 1945, inside [image 2 of 2]

Description

A card made by Gerdien's mother to announce the arrival of her baby girl, Marleentje. The children pictured are Gerdien and her siblings, one of whom can be seen playing a drum. This drum was made from a large tin which was dropped by Operation Manna, and had contained biscuits. Gerdien recalls they were very hard, and she and her siblings referred to them as 'ship's biscuits'. Gerdien Versteeg and her family were on the brink of starvation, along with millions of other Dutch civilians, in the spring of 1945. Four years of German occupation and a bitter winter had used up all the food and fuel supplies; many had resorted to eating tulip bulbs. In April and May 1945, Operation Manna began to drop thousands of tons of food to the starving Dutch. Allied aircraft, which had once carried bombs over Gerdien's house, now dropped life-saving food parcels.

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