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Grolloo experienced poverty in the crisis years. The story of the NSB was a story full of promise. Many people were attracted by this, including in Grolloo. The NSB was a political group. There were some bad NSB members, but certainly also some good ones. That also played a role in the liberation. Thanks to the resistance, the Canadians and French paratroopers knew who they could and could not turn to. It becomes clear through the eyes of Bé van der Wal how this was handled in the village.
The Van der Wal family lived between the dairy factory and the village on Schoonloërstraat during the war. From there, there was a clear view to Grollerholt where the Canadian liberators arrived from, as well as towards Westerbork camp, where searchlights were used to look for the dropped French paratroopers.
Bé van der Wal reported after the war on what he had seen and heard. A summary: Due to the prevailing poverty, the village had many NSB members. That was also the case in many more villages in Drenthe. In Grolloo, contacts with most NSB members were never ‘adversarial'. Walking around after curfew (20:00), the headmaster of the school and his family were not stopped by the Landwacht (national guard) - who were members of the NSB. People showed respect and a headmaster had authority. The Landwacht (national guard) shot - blanks - into the air had some sense of authority about them, but that would later wear off.
A farmer, a friend of the headmaster, had a sign hung on an outside wall that read "Beware, English Disease". The farmer was known to be fiercely anti-NSB. Upon seeing this, the farmer's wife asked passing NSB members to alert the doctor as soon as possible, because of this contagious disease.
By the afternoon of 12 April 1945, Grolloo was liberated for the most part. After the liberation, a number of NSB members from the village were put on a farm wagon to be taken away to the Westerbork camp, which had since also been liberated.
When 10-year freedom was commemorated in 1955, one of the former NSB members asked: "So we'll have to get back on the wagon tomorrow, won't we?" The latter did not happen, but those born in the village - let's say the first 25 years after the war - are still aware which families were members of the NSB.