Stationsweg 8

For seven days, the Stationsweg in Oosterbeek served as the Eastern border between British and German troops. The British troops defended the Western side of the street and hid in the different houses. The German troops were located in the Dennenkampbossen (woods) on the other side of the road. The woods have been replaced by buildings now. The houses at the Stationsweg were defended by troops of the 21^st Independent Parachute Company, glider pilots and Polish troops of the 3^rd Batallion, Independent Polish Parachute Brigade.  

Mrs. Kremer-Kingma and her family used to live in the house at Stationsweg 8. On Wednesday September 20^th, British troops entered her house to defend the perimeter. The soldiers took the ground- and first floor while the family had to hide in the cellar. Apart from the four family members, another eleven civilians had to hide in the cellar. Mrs. Kremer- Kingma came out of the cellar every now and then to communicate with the troops and to take pictures of them at the same time. She photographed a group of soldiers of the 21^st Independent Parachute Company in her backyard. On the far right of this picture, Hans Rosenfeld can be seen. He was a Jewish man from Germany who fled to the United Kingdom together with his sister in 1939. He joined the British army and served under the name of John Peter Rodley.  

Rosenfeld died in his foxhole in the backyard of the Stationsweg 8 when he was hit by a ricocheted shrapnel. The word ‘ricochet’, which the British soldiers had to explain to Mrs. Kremer- Kingma, had been written on the wall of the house for over 20 years.