Hiding Address Café Timmer

Bergum, 23 Dec. 1945

Dear Tim family,

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It's all very different from last year at this time. It is so easy to say that we have not made much progress. But if we start to compare then the difference is very big. The business is slowly coming back to full speed with us and it's starting to get quite busy. Every now and then I meet an old camp comrade and then the conversation is of course always about Ide and the people of Ide. Everyone is always full of praise for the kind treatment we always received from them. We will always keep this in pleasant memory. My wife is also now over the worries and is starting to look much better while my son is growing and is already taller than his father. Now dear people, with the very best wishes and may we look forward to a blessed 1946.

Many warm regards from your friends Dijkstra, Wife and Son.

Above is a transcription of a significant letter that grandfather Eelke Dijkstra wrote to the Timmer family. It is only one of many letters that have survived. These letters of thanks show how important the role was of a group of Yden residents, in particular Mettien Timmer, the manageress of the café, dating from 1881, opposite the prison camp. In addition to the café, she and her husband Egbert also owned a grocery store and a hairdresser's shop. Together they had two daughters.

Mettien Timmer was a modest and hard-working woman. She regularly visited the penal camp and then, together with her daughters, brought the prisoners bread and medicines. The visit for the prisoners was also received in the cafe and she offered shelter for the visitors who came from far away and could not return the same day. The letters also showed that she had helped prisoners escape from the prison camp. This was certainly not without danger, because the German soldiers also often visited the café and they had quarters at night in Egbert Timmer's shaving salon. The assistance consisted of borrowing one or more bicycles and sending the property of the refugees. It is very likely that she had ties with the Frisian and Drenthe resistance and that she organized herself with a small group of Yden residents to offer help and also provide temporary shelter.

During the preparations for the exhibition about the Yde penal camp in 2013, a daughter of a former prisoner was contacted, who said that there must still be 'a few' letters written during the war. The surprise was particularly great when a can with about 70 letters surfaced. The letters contain a wealth of information.

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Source

• Text: Bert Deelman
• Photos: Bert Deelman
• Cafe Timmer