Published in issue the Windmill Herald, July 23, 2002, by Albert Vanderheide
Boers' decades of volunteer work recognized by Queen Beatrix.

Linking up liberation children with biological fathers earns pensioner Dutch knighthood
GUELPH, Ontario - For hundreds of Dutch people the last chapter on World War Two and related matters still need to be finalized. For as many Canadian war veterans the story is not quite finished either. Dutch Canadian metal industry worker John Boers of Guelph, Ontario, for the past twenty years has been busy helping people on both sides of the Atlantic to complete and finalize such matters. Now approaching 70, Boers pretty well works fulltime linking up so-called Dutch ‘liberation children' with their Canadian biological fathers and families. While attending a meeting in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, an unsuspecting Boers was startled when Mayor De Graaf inducted him as a Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau. Boers while on holidays visiting family attended the annual meeting of the Dutch chapter of the Association of Liberation Children (ALC), an organization that helps individuals fathered by Allied soldiers find their relatives. He was called up front to meet the mayor who then proceeded with the induction ceremony. Present also were the new knight's sisters and their husbands who until then had kept out of sight to avoid giving away the plot. Boers' wife Harmina kept the secret for almost a year after she learned of her husband's impending knighthood.
The Guelph resident who arrived in Canada in 1957 from Ruinen, began his volunteer work with ALC in 1982 when a Dutch woman asked him to do some investigating for her in south-western Ontario. Boers found the woman's biological father in London. The excitement and joy proved to be contagious. This initial success with 400 more solved puzzles became routine while begging for still more as other requests came down the pipeline. At the moment there are still about 100 requests for information.
The final result of linking Dutch children with 'unknown' Canadian fathers may prompt emotional responses, the work itself is very tedious, laborious and often frustrating because of literal dead ends. Boers' search tools include the Internet, archives, libraries, regimental lists, incomplete records, and newspaper clippings, which he documents on his computer database. He once found a veteran while reading an obituary in the local daily, the Guelph Mercury.
Boers' first contact with a veteran’s family regarding a liberation child at times is met with total disbelief. In one instance, he contacted a local veteran's family who only accepted the news of the existence of a half brother after they were shown a picture of their father out of the Dutch family’s album which was identical to one in their own collection. The veteran had passed away fourteen years earlier but it did not stop a budding, often emotional transatlantic relationship between siblings who never knew of each other before. Like many others, they now are visiting back and forth. Only three cases were dropped by Boers when he noticed there was discomfort from the veteran's side. Even those he does not rate a failure. "They may need more time," Boers reasons. Building relationships takes time, particularly those with such huge gaps in their life. Gaps Dutch "children" love to fill with Canadian family - and identity - so they can turn the page on a finished chapter.