Kate ter Horst

Kate ter HorstMBE (6 July 1906, Amsterdam – 21 February 1992, Oosterbeek) was a Dutch housewife and mother who tended wounded and dying Allied soldiers during the Battle of Arnhem.^[1] Her British patients nicknamed her the Angel of Arnhem.^[2]

Ter Horst was born Kate Anna Arriëns, daughter of Pieter Albert Arriëns and Catharina Maingay. She married Jan ter Horst, a lawyer from Rotterdam, with whom she had six children.

Kate ter Horst witnessed the landings by the British 1st Airborne Division at the beginning of Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944, noting the event in her diary.^[3]

The goal of the operation was for the paratroopers to seize the bridges in and around Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem. The plan called for the British XXX Corps to advance across these bridges and then push into the Ruhr Valley industrial area of Germany. However, the advance on Arnhem fell behind schedule, and the troops there were forced into a defensive pocket at Oosterbeek.^[4]

Captain Randall Martin asked the ter Horsts permission to set up a Regimental Aid Post in their house at the Benedendorpsweg in Oosterbeek.

During the eight days of fighting, ter Horst tended to about 250 wounded British paratroopers herself. Some of her most famous actions in looking after the British troops included walking around her home reading the Bible to dying soldiers^[2] and finding water in the most unlikely places (such as the boiler and toilet) when, due to the large concentration of British troops, the house became a target.

Ter Horst wrote about these experiences in a book called Cloud Over Arnhem. Writing the foreword for the book, Arnhem veteran General Sir Frank King noted:

I noticed how the whole room brightened up at her arrival, he recalled. ‘One badly wounded soldier summed it up before he died. After a few words from her, he said: “She’s wonderful. Just like my Mum!” ’

En noviembre de 1947, su hijo mayor, Pieter Albert, murió a causa de una mina antitanque que quedó sin explotar en una pradera a orillas del Rin. ^{[ 5 ]}

Protagonizó Theirs is the Glory , una película realizada inmediatamente después de la guerra sobre la batalla de Arnhem en la que se pidió a los supervivientes que recrearan los papeles que desempeñaron en la batalla. ^{[ 6 ]}

En 1980, el embajador británico en los Países Bajos condecoró a Kate y a su esposo como Miembros Honorarios de la Muy Excelente Orden del Imperio Británico . ^{[ 2 ]}

En 1992, Kate ter Horst murió tras ser atropellada por un coche frente a su casa. Jan murió el 1 de agosto de 2003 a la edad de 98 años. ^{[ 2 ]}

Tras su muerte, la Cámara de los Comunes británica aprobó una moción en su momento para rendir homenaje a Kate ter Horst. ^{[ 7 ]}

En la película de 1977, Un puente demasiado lejos, el papel lo interpreta Liv Ullmann .