The first time I heard about Volendam was when I was visiting Holland one summer and heard a song on the radio from Jantje Smit. I wasn’t too impressed with his music but do remember my aunt telling me the name of the Dutch village he was from. I had no idea where that village was located on the Dutch map – this Island girl still has trouble naming all the Dutch provinces. But a couple of summers later, once again, we were visiting family in the Netherlands, I learned my ancestors from my mother’s side are from Volendam. Time to learn more about my Volendam roots.
Volendam is a small village in North Holland. It is centered around a beautiful, picturesque harbor. Volendam has a little over 22.000 habitants and is famous for said harbor, the fish it brings in, their cheese factory and traditional dress. For a vegan girl from an Island in the Caribbean this doesn’t really sound like #theplacetobe. But I can’t ignore my roots.
The area around Volendam is very popular with tourists because of all the picturesque and traditional villages. The Amsterdam Windmill Tour takes you through the Zaanse Schans, with all its iconic Dutch windmills, original factories and artisanal workshops. After the hustle and bustle of the city, the peace and calm of the water and the step back in time must be such a refreshing experience. You can also visit Marken Village, which is actually a tiny island in the Markermeer and a point of fascination for anthropologists, due to its links to traditional Dutch culture. Beautiful wooden houses surround cobble stone streets that surely will remind me of my visit to the Zuiderzee museum. I will surely enjoy what I see way more than what these villages have to offer in the way of food. But if you are into the Dutch obsession with cheese and haring, you will surely appreciate the tour food as well.
I was ready to discover more about my Volendam roots, so I talked to my mom and this is what I learned.
My mother’s grandmother – so my great grandmother was born in Volendam at the end of the 19thcentury. Her father was a Volendammer fisherman and he and his sons roamed the Markermeer and IJsselmeer for a living. When my great grandmother was eleven years old she moved to Amsterdam to work, as a live-in maid, for a Catholic family. She did this until she got married at 24. She had 11 (!) children, two of which unfortunately died and one of which was my grandmother – my mother’s mother. My great grandmother fed and clothed her big family with only 30 guilders a week. When the War broke out and the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940 things got very tough in the city. Rotterdam had just been bombed and it was said Amsterdam was next. Trying to stay safe, my great grandmother had to flee back to Volendam with her children. During the Dutch famine of 1944 (the “Hunger winter”) they went back to Volendam a second time. By this time, she was no longer as fit as she used to be and my grandmother had to wheel her there, in a wheelbarrow, for 25 kilometers. During their journey, they heard ware vessels fly over, shots were being fired and they had to take shelter in the ditches by the side of the roads.
I can’t imagine the horror, the pain, the hunger, the fear and the trauma of having to go through all this with your family. Not being able to keep your children safe, to feed them and give them a life that isn’t under constant threat. That this leaves scars, for years and generations, is a given. And it makes me want to learn more about the landscape this all took place in. Obviously, I know Amsterdam very well. But I have never set foot in Volendam or the neighboring villages. But now it is definitely next on my list of places I want to visit in the Netherlands.
