Mr Ouderland’s Letter
Dear Mr Faridi
Thank you for your letter of January 24, 1997 advising your effort to
gather and preserve for the future generations of Bangladesh,
relevant and vital information and facts about the struggle of the Bengali
people for Freedom and independence commencing in 1971.
As one who was intimately involved in this struggle. I am writing to
give you the information you requested. Firstly concerning my self
and then to share with you some recollections of the 1971 struggle.
I was born on December 1917 in Amsterdam. Holland while Europe was
in the grip of the third year of the First World War. I was
conscripted for National service in 1936 shortly after I had commenced my employment with the Bata Shoe Company. Shortly before my mother land was
invaded by Germany, I was called up to serve as a sergeant in the Dutch Royal
Signals Corp. IN the face of the might of Adolf Hitlar's German Junta,
equipped with sophisticated Tank and other massive weapons my platoon
of 36 men then were simply armed with short rifles and twelve rounds of
ammunitions each. As we went out to face this enemy, flying overhead
was the huge fleet of Germen warplanes headed for Rotterdam where, in the
space of half an hour, 30,000 innocent Dutch citizen died as result of their
massive air attack. Following this blitzkrieg of Rotterdam the germen Junta
issued and ultimatum to the other cities of Holland, Belgium and France.
Within week the Dutch, Belgium and the France people were under the
domination of Germen Junta.
Having escape form the POW camp after short internment, I joined the
Dutch underground assistance movement. As I spoke fluent Germen and
several Dutch dialects. I befriended the germen high command and was
thus able to help the Dutch underground movement as well as the allied
forces with the vital information. Therefore, when the even of March 1971
started with Tanks of Pakistani forces rolling in to Dhaka, I was reliving my
experience of my younger days in Europe. I could fully appreciate
and predicament of the Bengali people and this motivated me to spring in
to action on their behalf. As a result of indiscriminate and cruel actions of this invading Pakistani Junta, thousands of Bangali died in the ensuing week. I felt that
some one had made the world aware of what was happening since I was able to
move freely. I was able to photograph the atrocities committed by
Pakistanis against the innocent people which including young children. I was
able to pass these photos to the world press to high light the plight of the
Bengali people.
Deeply touched and move by the almost unbearable sufferings and atrocities I
witness of the cruel and oppressive occupying force. I secretly began Guerrilla movement with the brave Bengalis at Bata Tongi and all around sectors 1 and 2. In addition, and as an expatriate CEO of an international company, I had the company of the occupying Pakistani high command. This enables me to help the Bengali freedom fighters. I trained and worked with in relation to their Guerilla activities. All these
action were taken as a result of my deep love and affection I felt for the Bengali
people.
There is much more I could say in details but it is near impossible
because I am now retired and almost blind.
I have enclosed an album of Photograph cataloguing the atrocities of
the occupying Pakistani army and the untold suffering of the Bengali
people. Also include are photos of some of the brave freedom fighters
whom I consider as my sons.
I hope this will be some help to your worth while endeavour and I
wish you every success.
Your sincerely
W. A S Ouderland
Perth, Australia
22 February 1997
Note:
This letter was send
by Mr Ouderland to one of our freedom fighters Mr
with Photograph.
This document was
provided by one of our friends and member of our
group Mr Nehal Bari of
Sydney. We have received few mails requesting more
information about
him. We hope this letter will help a bit towards that end.
Since the objective of
this group is to collect and share information
about Mr Ouderland Bir
Protik, we request our members and our friends
round the world to
post any information you have about him to this
e-mail group.