Pasco woman wins contest for Holland stories

PASCO — A chance meeting and the winning essay about it will be sending a Pasco woman back to visit the homeland she left in 1956.

Marja Henderson immigrated to the United States from Rotterdam, Holland, 11 years after her father was released from the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.

He had been captured and almost killed as he was getting ready to blow up the shipyards in Rotterdam to prevent the Nazis from using them, Henderson wrote in an essay for Holland America's Transatlantic Essay Writing Contest.

He spent almost five years doing hard labor at Buchenwald before the camp was liberated in April 1945 by American GIs, she wrote. He wanted to become a U.S. citizen, but it wasn't until "11 years and five daughters later, our immigration number came up," Henderson wrote.

The family of seven sailed on the SS Groote Beer -- the Big Bear -- a Holland America line ship then used to transport immigrants, Henderson wrote. Just 15 months old, Henderson slept in a buggy the family brought from Holland. All their other belongings were stowed in a 6-foot-square crate in the ship's hold.

They landed in New York City and took a train trip across the country to Salem, Ore., where Henderson's parents would live for the rest of their lives, raising their five daughters and a son born in America.

Her parents, Dominicus and Suzanna van Lith, would sail again on the Holland America lines several times after her father retired as a machinist, Henderson said. But those cruises were far more comfortable than the nine-day voyage to the U.S. when the family slept on bunk beds, ate cafeteria meals and had few activities to enjoy.

And in 2010, Henderson also chose a Holland America cruise to celebrate the 37th anniversary of her marriage to her husband, Mark.

On the last dinner of the cruise, the crew brought out a birthday cake for the elderly matriarch of a family eating at a nearby table. Then they sang a Dutch tune familiar to Henderson, "Lang zal je leven."

Next the crew sang the same song to the Hendersons in honor of their anniversary, and a woman at a nearby table saw Henderson singing along and came over to introduce herself.

"What happened next was extraordinary," Henderson wrote in her essay.

Both turned out to be emigrants from Holland. Then they discovered they both had sailed in April 1956 and were on the Groote Beer.

"We both began to shake and hugged each other," Henderson wrote.

Henderson and Johanna Burrows since have looked up a passenger list and found their names on the registry.

Both lost their mothers last year, and Henderson thinks their mothers had a part in their meeting each other, she wrote.

Henderson and Burrows were emailing back and forth about a dream of together retracing their first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, when Henderson's husband saw the notice of the Holland America essay contest. The winner would receive a free cruise.

On April 13, 55 years to the day that Henderson arrived in America, Holland America notified her that she had won the essay contest.

Unfortunately, Burrows already had plans and won't be able to accompany Henderson.

But the Hendersons, and as many of her siblings as are available, plan to sail to Holland. Cousins there already are telling her they will be there to greet her when the ship docks.

The family took their mother, Suzanna van Lith, on a cruise several years after their father died. Now Henderson wants to use this cruise to honor her mother.

Dominicus and Suzanna van Lith didn't want future generations to forget the Nazi Holocaust and used to share their memories with schoolchildren in Oregon. Dominicus van Lith was a war hero and received the national Medal of Freedom Award and the Resistance Cross from the queen of Holland.

When the family was cleaning out their parents' home in Salem, Henderson came across a suitcase with her father's notes from the concentration camp and her mother's notes about what life was like in Holland during World War II.

She has used that material to give a talk at a class at Chief Joseph Middle School in Richland. Now she would like to honor her parents, not only with the family cruise to Holland, but also by talking about their experiences to more classes.

This story was originally published April 21, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Pasco woman wins contest for Holland stories."