McMaster commemorative torch will be part of Dutch liberation pilgrimage in September
Seventy-seven years ago, McMaster engineering student Anna Esposito's maternal forebears were among millions of Dutch in the Netherlands who jubilantly celebrated the arrival of liberating Canadian troops during the final months of the Second World War.
While it was something that took place during the time of her grandparents and great grandparents, the story still resonates strongly today with younger generations of the Festen side of her family.
More recently, though, the liberation from Nazi control has come sharply into focus for her because of an extraordinary project she has been working on over the past several months.
Anna, 22, is helping to design and build a commemorative torch at McMaster to honour the sacrifice by Canadian troops from September 1944 to April 1945 and celebrate the close friendship the liberation has forged between the two countries. More than 7,600 Canadians died in the Netherlands campaign and the Dutch have been eternally grateful to Canada for its role in restoring their freedom.
Along with fellow engineering students Sebastian Tattersall, 21, and Yuvraj Sandhu, 20, she has been working on the beacon that will figure prominently in a pilgrimage to Holland in September. The lantern will be similar in function and design to Olympic Games torches and will be ceremoniously transported from Canada to Holland.
Once overseas, it will be part of a procession of more than 90 participants who will walk the 60-kilometre route that was taken by the Canadian liberators all those years ago.
The McMaster students will be among those making the journey starting Sept. 7. Last fall, they won a university competition to create the torch and accompany it overseas while representing the next generation" on the nine-day excursion. The students will take part in events along the way that will culminate with a ceremony with Dutch Princess Margriet at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn.
Most of the others on the In Our Father's Footsteps" pilgrimage - organized by Karen Hunter of Guelph, the daughter of a Canadian veteran - have family members who were soldiers in the liberation. That core group has been augmented by Canadian military personnel and others who have other connections to the liberation, such as family members who lived in Holland at the time.
I'm really proud to be a part of this. It melds together two important parts of my identity, the Canadian side and the Dutch side," says Anna, who was born in Holland and lived there until she was seven years old. Her family immigrated to Canada in 2007 and they have extended family members who still live in the Holland today.
It's a chance to use my education and my engineering work to do something that has direct application to my own personal family history."
And it is something that has sparked many recent overseas telephone conversations with her grandparents about their wartime experiences.
Her grandparents were children during the war, but their memories are vivid. They talked about seeing bombings and buildings down the street going up in flames," says Anna. There were some really scary moments. At times they had to hide out and they would send food packages to other family members in other regions of the Netherlands."
The grandparents also talked about the painful years of rebuilding the country but also the fond memories of Canadian soldiers giving them chocolate in the days after the liberation.
Sandhu doesn't have a family connection to the Netherlands, but he feels that honouring the soldiers who took part is the least I can do as a proud Canadian. I feel honoured to take part. To help design the torch on my computer and then go across the ocean to hand over the torch to some very important people is mind boggling to me."
Tattersall says, We need to pay homage to the soldiers who gave up their lives so not only could Dutch people have their freedom, but everyone in Europe could have their freedom."
The trip originally was scheduled for May 2020, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation. But it had to be postponed because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Three further times it was rescheduled, only to have COVID surges force further changes in plans.
Now this September, Hunter says, the focus is 75 years plus 2," and it is the last opportunity we have to go. But I am confident it will proceed barring the government issuing travel advisories."
She says it has been frustrating trying to make the trip happen through the pandemic, but the silver lining is the delays have given time to create the torch, something that was not part of the original plan.
The students are focusing attention on making the flame wind and rain resistant, safe to carry and not too heavy. It will use a candle-like device for the flame and the students are hoping to develop a LED backup system that could be switched on as a secondary illumination source. The torch will be decorated with images of maple leaves to represent Canada and tulips to highlight the Netherlands.
The students have four weeks to finish - so it is ready two weeks before the trip - and say they are confident they will be able to meet the deadline.
Hunter, a retired business consultant, says she got the idea for the pilgrimage after her father, Gilbert Hunter, wrote a memoir in 1999 for his children about his military service that included taking part in the liberation of Holland.
The memoir was a revelation because her dad rarely talked about the war. After he died in 2009 at the age of 89, she developed an idea of walking in her fathers' footsteps on a personal journey in Holland and then came to think that other Canadians with veteran fathers might want to do the same.
So, she organized an excursion calling it In Our Fathers' Footsteps," and went on a major marketing blitz to promote the project.
And now, after all the organization and postponements, she is finally set to carry a torch for her dad and all the other Canadians who fought for freedom in Netherlands 77 years ago.
In Our Fathers' Footsteps
- 20 spots are available for purchase. Registration by July 28 is required.
- Tour begins Sept. 7
- Cost is $3,195 (9 days) and $4,195 (13 days) double occupancy. Includes airfare. Taxes are extra.
- Run by the non-profit group In Our Fathers' Footsteps."
- For further information go to inourfathersfootsteps.com