On Saturday , February 24, 1945, bombs fell on and around the intersection of Kruisstraat (now Prinsenstraat) and Bredevoortsestraatweg, in the center of Aalten. The consequences of the bombing were disastrous: eight people died, including three children, some were injured and the devastation was enormous.
Addie Steenbergen, dochter van bakker Steenbergen, woonde bijna op de hoek van de Kruisstraat en de Prinsenstraat. Een echtpaar was net uit de winkel vertrokken, toen het luchtalarm afging. Het echtpaar wilde niet mee de schuilkelder in, maar bleef schuilen in het portiek. Addie moest van haar moeder naar de overkant om haar zusje Netty op te halen, die daar aan het spelen was. Vrouw Helmink stond nog buiten en riep dat Netty al bij haar thuis in de schuilkelder zat. Addie ging terug naar huis de schuilkelder in. Moeder, oma Meijnen en zusje Bea, zaten er al.
Father and Toon Lammers, the servant, were still outside at the entrance to the shelter when the bomb hit. The bomb landed on the Steenbergen bakery. When they see a huge blowtorch, Addie’s mother tells them to sit close to her: “If we burn, at least they will see that we were sitting together.”
There was a huge cloud of dust and then a total silence…
Victims and havoc
Toen Addie, haar moeder en zusje weer buiten kwamen, was er niets meer van het huis over, alleen nog maar puin. Toon Lammers, de 18-jarige bakkersknecht, kreeg een ladder op z’n nek en was direct dood. Vader Steenbergen was door de luchtdrukverplaatsing voorover de kelder van de bakkerij in gevallen. Hij had een schedelbasisfractuur en was in coma. Het echtpaar (Reijer van den Berg en Aleida Jacobs) dat in het portiek schuilde is ook omgekomen. Netty kwam om in de schuilkelder van de familie Helmink, evenals Hansje Houwers en een dochtertje van Helmink, haar speelkameraadjes. Deze drie kinderen kwamen om door overdruk op de longen. Verder kwamen ook twee Duitsers om. Addie vond later nog een stuk been van één van hen tussen het puin.
Gerrit en Bernard Buesink waren die zaterdagmiddag, even na het middaguur buiten bezig. Ze woonden op de hoek van het kruispunt Prinsenstraat/Kruisstraat. Vader Beusink had er een smederij. Het huis kreeg een voltreffer, maar wonder boven wonder overleefden ze het.
Eyewitness report
Eyewitness account of Cindy Weeber’s father about the tragedy on February 24, 1945, written down in 2006:
“Mijn broer moest brood halen bij bakkerij Wikkerink, aan de Bredevoortsestraat, en ik wou een tol halen bij de Coöperatie. We gingen met de fiets van mijn vader, mijn broer Henk fietste en ik ging achterop de ‘pakkiesdrager’ zitten, en zo gingen we naar Aalten. Eerst gingen we brood halen bij Albert Wikkerink en toen fietsten we verder naar de Coöperatie om voor mij een tol te halen.
Suddenly the siren sounded, a warning for air raid sirens. My brother Henk threw the bicycle with bread against the façade of the Buesink forge and hid from the bombs there and I went to shelter at bakery Steenbergen. What followed was a deafening noise of bombs whizzing down. All this took about 10 minutes. After about fifteen minutes I dared to get up. My hands, arms and head were full of wounds but I had nothing else. Afterwards I realized that I could have been dead, but when you lie there like that, you don’t think about it. When I got up and went outside, everything was one big mess and I was full of dust from top to bottom.
As I was scurrying over the rubble, I heard my brother shouting, “Jan, Jan, here I am.” I recognized his voice and shouted, “Where are you?” “Here”, it sounded and I saw a gray figure coming towards me. It was my brother Henk who was also covered in small wounds, but otherwise he was fine. The bike and the bag of bread were totally crushed.
My brother said to me , “Go home quickly, and tell them that everything is all right,” and I ran home and told father and mother what had happened. They both panicked and thought the worst, but I said that Henk was also fine. Father then went with me to pick up the bicycle and the bread, but everything was covered in rubble.
Later I heard that there were seven deaths. We did have a guardian angel then because we were both practically unharmed.
What I have noticed now, after all these years, is that my brother never talked to me about this incident again. This is becoming more and more apparent in me. I don’t know why, but every now and then I wake up at night, wet with sweat, and I see the weather in front of me. Maybe it can be explained as you get older, but it comes back more and more often.
Unfortunately, my brother passed away. How I would have liked to have talked to him about it, but alas. After a good 60 years, there comes a time when you start thinking about why we were spared and those seven others were not.”