por ESTEBAN VILLARREAL
THE BAJA POST
SOURCE: PR Newswire
The Canada Post choose this year to immortalize Mona Parsons´s life with the Remembrance Day stamp. Recognizing her actions in World War II by helping downed airmen that crashed on the Netherlands, aiding them to return to England. Mona Parsons is known to be the only female Canadian citizen imprisoned by the German army during WWII.
Born in 1901 in Middleton, N.S. – and raised in Wolfville – Parsons had been living in the Netherlands with her Dutch husband before the war. When the Nazi occupation began in May 1940, Parsons and her husband assisted what would become known as the Dutch Resistance.
They helped hide Allied airmen whose planes had been shot down over the Netherlands, their home serving as a stopping point in the resistance network. But in 1941, an informer betrayed the couple to the Nazis and they were arrested. Parsons was sentenced to death by firing squad. She appealed the ruling, and successfully got it commuted to life with hard labour.
Transported to Germany, Parsons spent the next three years in prison – until 1945, when, during an Allied bombardment, she escaped. She then embarked on a dangerous journey out of Germany, walking 125 kilometres over three weeks to the Dutch border. By the time she arrived, her feet had become badly infected and she was emaciated, weighing just 87 pounds.
Safely back in the Netherlands, Parsons sought help from an Allied soldier. Incredibly, he was also from Nova Scotia. He was part of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders unit that had advanced into the country.
Eventually, Parsons returned to Nova Scotia, where she remarried and lived until her death in 1976.
