History · Dutch Emigration
The Netherlands and the Great Exodus
1946–1960
The circumstances that led Dutch families to leave their homeland, the challenges of starting again, and the heritage they carried with them.
About the book
What leads a family to leave the country they call home and begin again across an ocean?
In the years following the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of Dutch people left the Netherlands to build new lives in Canada, the United States, Australia and elsewhere. Behind that migration were individual decisions, family separations and hopes for the future.
The Netherlands and the Great Exodus explores the circumstances that led people to leave, the challenges they faced on arrival, and how their decisions shaped the generations that followed.
For Richard A. Kiers, this history is personal. His parents sailed from Rotterdam to Halifax, Canada, aboard the Groote Beer in March 1954. Their journey provides a connection to the wider story of families who established new homes while carrying their Dutch heritage with them.