Tony Rommens: A Piece of War History

• Tony Rommens lived through WWII in Holland, being only a teenager at the time, and grew up to immigrate to the County of Newell.  

• Tony was born in 1925, the second of twelve children, in the lowlands of Holland, or the Netherlands.  

• He was fourteen when the war broke out, and according to his biography, “I still remember some events of those first days.” (Rommens, 97) 

• During one air raid, a British plane containing two pilots was shot down near the Rommens' home. They were swiftly hidden in the barn. Not much later, the Nazis arrived asking for the location of the pilots. They held the whole family at gunpoint against the side of a building, before finally clearing off. That night, the pilots were sent south, into Belgium, and they arrived safely in England soon after.  

• Food was scarce in those times, and farmers were only allowed to keep a certain amount for themselves. The Rommens family managed to hide some, which helped tide them over. 

• The Rommens family lost everything at the end of the war, and all they had left was the clothes on their backs.  

• On July 31, 1951, Tony and his wife of three days, Cora, left Holland for Canada. They started life here working on a farm, before moving to the Rosemary area and Tony started working for the Country of Newell.  

• Eventually, they bought a dairy farm and raised their family there. 

• Tony Rommens is an example of how history is everywhere we look, and tales of heroism aren’t just for novels.

Bibliography 

Title of the biography. Rommens, Tony. Place of publishing, year. Print.