This morning there was nothing for me to do at first. I used the opportunity of the morning sun and early fog to take some pictures at the war cemetery. These got even better. Afterwards I went to the information center that belongs to the Ysselsteyn War Cemetery. It was just finished last year and is ultra modern. You can scroll interactively through the history of the Second World War in the Netherlands on large screens. Until then, I had not known that one of the fiercest battles for the liberation of the Netherlands had raged here in the neighboring town of Overloon, where the war museum is located.
I then combed through the cemetery's name book for surnames of my family. But I didn't find anyone.
At 10 a.m. I met the team leader, who told me that the walls that we had grouted yesterday should now be painted with a primer. Rudi and I got two more people to support us. It turned out that not only should a primer be applied to the exposed masonry, but that all the masonry of the cemetery complex should also be painted white. It was a surprise. With this knowledge we could of course have filled the joints far less cleanly, but much more densely with finer joint material. So there are now many small holes in the joints that we all have to smear with paint. This turns out to be more tedious than expected, although the German intern is there to support us. We only managed to paint the front of one wall in the entrance area with an hour of overtime by 5 p.m. The cemetery employees will have to put up with the other areas for a while.
Tomorrow we will take an excursion to Amsterdam and take a boat trip on the canals. I had completely forgotten to look at the excursion program of this voluntary work assignment of the Volksbund War Graves Commission. We will have four more free hours in the city after the boat tour and I plan to visit the Anne Frank House. I remember from school that it is on the Prinsengracht and already back then I had made up my mind to visit Anne and her family's hiding place when I come to Amsterdam. Tomorrow will be the day.
