Dutch resistance fighter. – History of Sorts

The Amazing Story of Nieuwlande

Nieuwlande is a village in the Netherlands, located in the province of Drenthe, known for its unique history during World War II. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Nieuwlande became a safe haven for Jews and others. The villagers, predominantly farmers, worked together to hide Jewish families and individuals, saving them from persecution and deportation to concentration camps. This act of resistance and compassion is known as the Nieuwlande Experiment, and it stands as a testament to the courage and humanity of the people who lived there. Today, Nieuwlande is remembered for its remarkable role during the war, and there are monuments and memorials in the village to honor the bravery of its inhabitants.

Unlike other forms of resistance, which often involved armed struggle or sabotage, the Nieuwlande Experiment was a non-violent, highly effective form of resistance. The villagers risked their own lives and livelihoods to offer sanctuary to those fleeing the horrors of the Holocaust. They provided hiding places, food, and support, all while living under the constant threat of discovery by the Nazis.

Because of this unique, collective relief action, on April 11, 1985, the entire population of Nieuwelande was presented with an honorary certificate from the Israeli institute Yad Vashem by the Israeli ambassador Yaacov Nechushtan. Johannes Post was the driving force behind the resistance in Nieuwlande. He was born on October 4, 1906, in Hollandscheveld near Hoogeveen. During the occupation, he abandoned his prosperous agricultural business in Oosterhesselen (Drenthe) to devote himself entirely to resistance work. He played an important role, especially in the national Fighting Squads. Post was the leader of the KP(fighting squad) in the north of the Netherlands and undertook many sabotage actions and robberies of distribution offices and prisons. On July 16, 1944, Post was shot in the dunes near Bloemendaal. The prominent resistance fighter was buried at the Honorary Cemetery in Overveen. Unveiling The monument was unveiled in 1985.

Johannes Post was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II, known for his leadership and bravery in resisting the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Born on October 4, 1906, in Hollandscheveld, Netherlands, Post was a devout Christian and a schoolteacher by profession.

Post became involved in the resistance movement early in the war, joining the group, “De Gereformeerde Kerken,” affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. He later became a prominent member of the resistance organization known as the Knokploegen, or “Fighting Groups,” in the Drenthe region.

Post and his resistance group were involved in various acts of sabotage against the German occupiers, including destroying railways, disrupting communication lines, and assisting in smuggling Jews and downed Allied pilots to safety. They also collected intelligence and distributed underground newspapers to counter Nazi propaganda.

In addition to his activities in the resistance, Post played a key role in the Nieuwlande Experiment, helping to organize the hiding and protection of Jews in the village of Nieuwlande, where he lived.

Post’s resistance activities eventually led to his arrest by the Gestapo in 1944. Despite being subjected to torture, he refused to divulge information about his comrades or the resistance network. On July 16, 1944, Johannes Post was executed by firing squad along with his brother, Marinus, and several other resistance members.

Post’s bravery and sacrifice have been remembered and honored in the Netherlands. He is regarded as a national hero for his role in the resistance against Nazi oppression.

Roffel, Willem & Ritske (Blaak) Willem Roffel, born in Odoorn, was the beadle of the strictly Calvinist Dutch Reformed church in Nieuwlande, Drenthe. Nieuwlande is renowned for the large number of Jews hidden there during the war, among them two youngsters known as Peter and Herman (but actually named Isidore Joseph Davids and Lou Gans). Peter and Herman were training to be graphic artists and they were both talented draftsmen. While in hiding, they made themselves useful by falsifying identity cards and food coupons. They also wrote De Duikelaar, a satirical illegal weekly publication. In addition to these activities, Peter and Herman designed cartoon postcards to be sold to Resistance sympathizers, with the proceeds being donated to the Resistance. In October 1943, Nieuwlande was subjected to regular house searches, thus, the boys’ hiding place became unsafe. They moved the handouts to a safe hideout, dug out under the church’s pulpit. In this hideout, they set up their drafting tables, and a printing press and continued their work by candlelight. Willem Roffel and his wife, Ritske, also born in Odoorn, were the only people who knew about the hiding place and supplied Peter and Herman with food and other necessities daily. Willem and Ritske also distributed the fugitives’ publications and forged documents from the hideout. Peter and Herman hid in the dugout for nine months. One night in December 1944, the Germans carried out a house search. They forcibly took Willem to the church and ordered him to show them the hiding place. By this time, the boys were no longer there. On June 9, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Willem Roffel and his wife, Ritske Roffel-Blaak, as Righteous Among the Nations.

It was certainly not the case that the entire village helped people in hiding en masse. That turns out to be a myth that was/is maintained consciously or subconsciously by some people. In short, this is because until recently the village was far too lowly estimated during the war in terms of the number of houses and inhabitants, plus the many hiding activities in surrounding villages were also wrongly attributed to the statistics that have been attributed to this village. This creates very skewed proportions and it seems as if almost every farm in this village must have had people in hiding, which is certainly not the case.

It is people like this though that make me proud to be Dutch, because many other Dutch, collaborated with the Nazis or turned a blind eye.

Sources

https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/search-results/Nieuwlande?page=1#relevant

https://www.drentheindeoorlog.nl/?aid=400

https://www.plaatsengids.nl/nieuwlande

https://www.liberationroute.com/pl/pois/1552/the-silent-village-that-has-much-to-tell

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The Great Bank Robbery

Although I have literally written hundreds of posts on World War II and the Holocaust, I hadn’t heard about the great bank robbery.

The bank robbery at Almelo 1944, is a bank robbery was committed by the Dutch resistance on November 15, in which 46.1 million guilders (value in 2023: €354 million) was taken. It concerned money moved from Arnhem to Almelo on behalf of Reich Commissioner Seyss-Inquart to end up in Germany. At the time, an NSB member worked as a director at the bank.

This robbery of thirteen cash boxes was considered the largest bank robbery in the Netherlands until well after the year 2000, and more money was involved than the well-known British train robbery. Ex-bank employee Derk Smoes, leader of the Fighting Squad in Almelo, initiated this robbery. Other members included Douwe Mik, Herman Höften, Hendrik Frielink, who survived the Neuengamme Concentration Camp, and resistance fighter Henk Bosch. It was an act of resistance for which the Dutch government had given written permission from London. The loot was intended to finance the 1944 railway strike.

The resistance had received a tip that the large sum of money was stored in the Almelo bank branch. From there, Reich Commissioner Seyss-Inquart wanted to have it brought to Germany. After the successful robbery, which was carried out with the approval of the Dutch government in London, there was no trace of the perpetrators.

“Wednesday, November 15, 1944, half past six in the afternoon. The bank building is closed. Then the doorbell rings. The youngest servant opens the door and immediately looks into the barrels of the pistols. Four K.P. members enter. The others keep watch outside and occupy the house above the building. The staff, who are completely surprised, raise their hands and the director (matte SS pin on his jacket!) is forced to lead the men downstairs and open the safe. “I don’t know the numerical code,” he said. But when he notices that it is serious and that refusal will cost him his life, the iron gate opens and so do the safe doors. The millions are up for grabs. The staff must pack everything into boxes. Thirteen boxes full! Meanwhile, the director puts away his SS pin. “I don’t want to annoy you with your work,” he says. After forty-five minutes (“It seemed like hours,” the robbers said later) everything above. The truck of Willem Meenks from Rijssen can drive up. The engine runs on wood gas and cuts out repeatedly. But he still manages to get the car in front of the door with the loading platform facing backwards. Just as loading is underway, the K.P. members get the fright of their lives. An entire column of Grime Polizei marches past. They still have to circle around the car because it is half on the road. One of the K.P. members gives them some guidance. But the Germans notice nothing and continue singing loudly (Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein). Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when it all ends well. Shortly afterwards everything was loaded. Just cut the telephone wires and then drive away. But the wrong wire is cut and the alarm system starts blaring. How could it be otherwise, a small panic arises, but everyone knows what to do. The retreat does not go entirely according to plan, but during the evening the millions arrive safely in Daarle where they are temporarily stored in a haystack. A few days later the money, a total of ƒ46,150,000, was brought to Daarlerveen in two trips by horse and cart, again in a haystack. Everything went well.”

The Germans had offered 1 million guilders for the golden tip that would lead to the arrest of the bank robbers. Ultimately, the arrest of an acquaintance of the robbers, with forged identity cards in his pocket, led the Germans on the trail of the resistance group involved.

The false identification documents led to the hiding place of Derk Smoes, the ringleader of the bank robbery. He was arrested together with others involved in the robbery. The Germans proposed a compromise to Smoes: if he told them where the money was, they would not conduct any further large-scale research in the area.

Smoes, who feared that such an investigation would reveal more to the Germans than the resistance wanted, passed on the location of the money. The SD eventually found the entire amount under the hay at a farm in Daarlerveen.

Nine people were arrested and sent to Neuengamme and Reiherhorst, Reiherhorst, a wooden barracks camp within Wöbbelin Concentration Camp. Six of them had to pay for it with their lives.

Below are a few of the biographies of those involved.

Derk Smoes (Vriezenveen, 7 December 1914–Neuengamme, 14 March 1945) was a bank clerk. From July 1944, he took over the leadership of the KP (a resistance group) Almelo together with Andries Kalter. Smoes was involved in several robberies on distribution transports and the bank robbery of the Dutch Bank in Almelo. He was arrested on 30 November 1944. Smoes died on 14 March 1945 in Camp Neuengamme.

Douwe Mik (Borger, 23 May 1917–Wöbbelin, Germany, 17 April 1945) was a police officer. Mik had to go into hiding and subsequently ended up in the Twente resistance. He was involved, among other things, in the squatting of the Dutch Bank in Almelo. Mik was arrested for this and died in Wöbbelin Concentration Camp.

Herman Höften (Wierden, February 15, 1920)was a resistance fighter and politician. During the Second World War, he was affiliated with KP Almelo. He took part in the robbery of the Detention Center in Almelo and the robbery of the Dutch Bank in Almelo. Herman died in Almelo in 2007.

Berend Bruijnes (Ermelo, 6 January 1921–11 March 1945) After being imprisoned for several months in 1943 following the May strike, Berend Bruijnes (Bruintje) took over the work of his father (Arie Bruijnes) on November 25 after he was arrested for betrayal along with Jewish people in hiding. He has been involved in, among other things, distributing distribution vouchers and identity cards in the Epe and Zwolle areas. He was also part of the RVV group Epe of the Domestic Armed Forces under the command of Johannes Daamen and also provided shooting instructions. On 29 November 1944, he was arrested in Almelo in possession of blank identity cards and, after “sharpened” interrogation, was imprisoned in the Kruisberg in Doetinchem. From there he was deported to Neuengamme on 1 February 1945, and from there to Reyerhorst Concentration Camp in Wöbbelin, where he died of dysentery on March 11.

Willem Meenks (Rijssen, 20 December 1915–15 March 1945) On 5 February 1945, Willem Meenks was transported from Doetinchem to Neuengamme, where he died on 15 March 1945.

Gerardus Hendrikus Frielink (Tubbergen, 14 January 1912–28 April 1945, Auffanglager Wöbbelin) was one of the seven young men who were transported by train from the Netherlands to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hamburg, on the night of February 1–2, 1945. Frielink and his brother Hendrik may not have been robbers but owners of the café of the same name in Harbrinkhoek, they had made their pub available to the gang to plan the robbery. However, it turned into a tragedy when the robbers were caught, and the Frielink brothers were also arrested by the Nazis.
The journey followed in appalling conditions, lasted almost a week in a closed wagon, after which the train arrived at Camp Neuengamme on 7 February.
“The men were desperate for water and food, but when they arrived at the camp, a reception committee of SS men and kapos (prisoners who were appointed as camp guards, etc.) was ready with clubs and eager sheepdogs,” says Krake. “After they had gone through this welcome, they received their camp number (70900 for Gerard Frielink). It was on a piece of fabric that they had to sew onto their camp clothes themselves.”
He died at the camp on April 28, 1945.

Gerhard Nijland The Twente resistance fighter Gerhard Nijland did not survive the Nazi camp Ahlem. He was buried ingloriously and under the wrong name, while his SS camp commander Otto ‘Thull’ Harder— an acclaimed professional football player—avoided the death penalty and was later buried by a guard of honour. “It is distressing,” says Gerhard’s niece.
Gerhard Nijland was involved in the 1944 robbery of De Nederlandsche Bank, in which 46 million guilders were stolen. Nijland hid the loot in the family’s haystack in Daarlerveen. The Germans were at their wits’ end and did everything they could to capture the resistance group. They arrested seven men, including Nijland. He was never heard from again.
Since Gerhard’s death, he was no longer talked about in the family. Gerie has been ordered since childhood never to talk about him. It was too painful. Because of that silence, no one in the family knew exactly what had happened to Gerhard. His father could not cope with his death and committed suicide in 1948.
In contradiction, Gerhard’s tormentor, Otto Fritz Harder, had been a German Footballer before World War II. In October 1932, following his football career, Harder ran an insurance agency and became a member of the NSDAP before joining the SS in May 1933. In August 1939, he was drafted into the Waffen-SS and served shortly at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, then at Neuengamme in Hamburg by the end of that year.^[10]On 30 November 1944, Harder became an SS-Hauptscharführer and a commander (Schutzhaftlagerführer) at the Ahlem camp in Hanover. On 30 January 1945, he was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer (equivalent second lieutenant). He also served as a camp commander in Uelzen, a subcamp of Neuengamme, which was evacuated under his leadership on 16–17 April due to British attacks, in which prisoners were transferred to the main camp. In May 1945, he was captured by the British military and was taken to Iserbrook. Due to health issues, he was initially released but then was arrested again.
After World War II, Harder was tried for war crimes by the British military court at the Curio house in Rotherbaum. On 6 May 1947, he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. After the trial, Hamburger SV excluded him for a short time. However, his sentence was later reduced to ten years in prison, of which he ended up serving only four years. He was released from Werl Prison before Christmas 1951. Harder later moved to Bendestorf, where he worked as an insurance agent until his death on 4 March 1956 in Hamburg.

Otto Harder as the captain of the German Football team (on the left)

In Frank Krake’s 2023 book, The Resistance Man and the Football Hero, the author contrasts the life of SS Camp Commandant Harder, who “created a living hell” (according to Henry Kissinger, one of the US 84th Division which liberated the Ahlen Concentration Camp), with the life of Gerhard Nijland, a Dutch resistance hero who became a prisoner in Harder’s camp. Nijland died in April 1945, five days after being liberated by the Americans, and was buried in an unmarked grave.
When the Football World Cup was held in Germany in 1974, the city of Hamburg even produced a brochure in which Harder was also honoured as one of their great football heroes. Frank Krake, “That ultimately went too far. The page was removed from the brochure at the very last minute.”

Sources

https://www.ad.nl/hellendoorn/onvoorstelbaar-voor-twentse-nabestaanden-verzetsstrijder-gerhard-nijland-brute-kampcommandant-bleef-een-held~a667bb0a/

https://www.tubantia.nl/hellendoorn/bankroof-duits-kamp-in-plaats-van-verloving-voor-gerhard-uit-daarlerveen~a0246f7b/

https://doetinchemherdenkt.nl/bankovervallers

https://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/2094825/document-uit-concentratiekamp-rond-grootste-bankroof-opgedoken-kreeg-er-koude-rillingen-van

https://www.oudvriezenveen.nl/dorpsgeschiedenis/bankoverval/eenstelkoelbloedigesnotneuzen

https://www.destentor.nl/binnenland/hoe-het-twentse-verzet-de-grootste-bankoverval-ooit-pleegde-zelfs-churchill-werd-op-de-hoogte-gebracht~ac408678/

https://nos.nl/75jaarbevrijding/bericht/2313050-verzetsleden-die-bankoverval-pleegden-opgepakt

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankroof_Almelo_1944

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/mensen?theme=https%3A%2F%2Fdata.niod.nl%2FWO2_Thesaurus%2Fevents%2F7528

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Waldemar Hugh Nods—Forgotten Hero

I have been doing posts about World War II and the Holocaust since 2016. When I started, I reckoned I’d have enough material to last for a year, two years tops. Seven years on, I am still finding new stories daily. Stories like that of Waldemar Hugh Nods.

Waldemar Hugh Nods was born on 1 September 1908 in Surinam, South America, a Dutch colony. His parents were some of the first Surinamese people born free from slavery. Slavery was abolished in 1863 in Surinam.

In 1928, 20-year-old Waldemar came to study in the Netherlands. His dark skin color caused attention and discrimination.

In October 1928, Waldemar met Rika van der Lans: white, 17 years his senior, and already married with four children. When they began their relationship, it caused a scandal.

Rika had already upset her Catholic parents by marrying a Protestant, Willem Hagenaar, in 1913. However, by the time she met Waldemar, she was separated from Willem and took their children to live in The Hague. She supported the children by renting out rooms, which is how she met Waldemar.

When she found herself pregnant by Waldemar, it led to alienation from her
children and their family. Their son Waldy was born on 17 November 1929. he was nicknamed “Sonny Boy,” after the Al Jolson song, popular at the time.

Rika Waldemar and their son were evicted from their home. They met an elderly Jewish man named Sam, who offered them shelter.

Waldemar completed his studies in 1931 and secured a job as an accountant. His new family moved with him to Scheveningen, a seaside district of The Hague, where they opened a guesthouse, with financial help from Sam, in 1934: Pension Walda.

Despite the Great Depression, the guesthouse was remarkably successful, especially with German tourists. This was mainly thanks to Waldemar’s perfect German, acquired by studying for his diploma in business correspondence in German.

Finally, Waldemar and Rika were married on 17 May 1937.

Right at the time, Rika’s affairs with her own children seem to normalize again when the Germans invade the country. Rika and Waldemar were forced to shelter German soldiers. After a while, the family had to leave because the area was being cleared for the Atlantic Wall. Because Rika mentions that she has five children, they are assigned a larger house. Then in November 1942, the couple began to hide Jews from the Nazis at the request of a young resistance fighter. They were seen by the Dutch resistance as ideal candidates as they were a small family with spare rooms in their home and were also free of the antisemitism that occurred among the resistance, which made Jews harder to hide than other Dutch fugitives.

Their son, Waldy, was unaware of the hidden guests until the day he was brought home by the police after getting in a fight with a boy who had racially abused him. This panicked his mother, who told him about the Jews and insisted that nobody must ever find out.

In August 1943, the family moved to a house on Pijnboomstraat where they continued to hide Jews and others. The resistance sent them fugitives others were unwilling to accommodate. Among them were Dobbe Franken, the daughter of a leading member of the Jewish Council in Rotterdam, and Gerard van Haringen, a Dutch SS deserter, who now regretted running away from home aged 17 to sign up. Just before dawn on 18 January 1944, the house was raided. Everyone, including Waldy and the hidden fugitives, was interrogated. Waldemar admitted to hiding Jews.

Rika took all the blame and was sentenced to life imprisonment. She was first imprisoned in Scheveningen, and from there, she went to Vught concentration camp (near ‘s-Hertogenbosch) and was eventually taken to Ravensbrück, where she was murdered in February 1945.

Waldemar was given a lenient sentence compared to his wife, whom he last saw at Scheveningen prison. He was deported via Vught concentration camp to Neuengamme Concentration Camp on 23 February 1944 and was given prisoner number 32180.

Waldemar’s dark skin stood out at Neuengamme. The SS guards remarked, “He was a chimpanzee who surprisingly turned out to be able to understand and perform complicated instructions to the letter in German.” Thanks to his language skills he was put to work in the camp post office and was able to communicate with his family.

Waldemar wrote his last letter to his relatives on 7 January 1945 in German as prescribed.

“[ … ] and Waldie my boy, how are you? Work hard and also do your best with football.”

He knew that the war would soon be over and hoped to return home soon:

“[ … ] back as soon as possible. [ … ] I am waiting for that now.”

In April 1945, due to the evacuation of the Neuengamme main camp, Waldemar Nods, like many other prisoners, was put on the passenger ship Cap Arcona, which was moored in the Lübecker Bay, the stretch of sea Northeast of Hamburg. On 3 May 1945, the ship was accidentally bombed by British aircraft. The vast majority of prisoners on board the Cap Arcona died.

Waldemar initially survives the attack. He jumped into the sea and swam to the coast (he was a good swimmer in Surinam—he already swam long distances in the river), made it to shore only to be gunned down by SS child soldiers, with orders to shoot any survivors.

Waldemar and Rika’s son, Waldy, grew up in a foster home. He worked as a financial and economic journalist at Het Parool and later at Bruynzeel in Suriname.

Waldemar died at the age of 85 in 2015.

Sources

https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/vorbereitung/biografie_waldemar_nods.html

https://vrijheid.scouting.nl/scouting-in-de-oorlog/database-bestanden/burgerslachtoffers/766-burgerslachtoffers-waldy-sonny-boy-nods/file

https://olc.chocochaos.com/dosn15z.htm

Click to access life_story_waldemar_nods_2.pdf

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Waldemar-Hugh-Nods/02/110382

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The Stroomenbergh Family

I am a great believer in balance. It is good to have a balanced view of life. I have written quite a bit on how the Dutch failed their Jewish-fellow citizens, and the Dutch complacency might be considered a crime.

However, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes you need to take a step back and take a balanced view of events. I don’t know what I would have done during WWII, I hope I would have done the right thing but in all sincerity, I am not sure. That’s why it is important to sometimes focus on those who did not sit idly by but took action, regardless of their safety.

Of the approximately 160,000 Jews who were registered with the general and local governments in the Netherlands at the beginning of 1941, an estimated 30,000 had gone into hiding. The need to secure hiding places was clear for many Jews when the Nazis ordered the deportations of Jews in the summer of 1942. The entire Stroomenbergh family was fiercely committed to saving the People of the Book, even if it meant putting their own lives in danger on a daily basis. In early 1943, five-year-old Arnold Bouwman, his parents, aunt and uncle from Zeist, Utrecht, were looking for a new hiding place. A local underground activist arranged to take the boy to the Stroomenberghs in Driebergen, Utrecht, where he stayed until May 1945.

Jan and Johanna Stroomenbergh had two adult children named Jan and Johanna [aka Susan, later Halpern]. They were devout Protestants, and Jan Sr. was the caretaker of the local strictly Calvinist Gereformeerde church. Despite the enormous age difference, the Stroomenberghs took in young Arnold and treated him like a member of the family. Only the immediate family and the local minister knew the real identity of the boy. To everyone else, he was a nephew evacuated from The Hague. Whenever there was a warning of an impending search, daughter Johanna would take Arnold on the back of her bicycle to friends until the danger passed. The Stroomenbergh house was a centre of Resistance activity. Johanna Jr. was a courier for the underground, delivering messages and food coupons, and accompanying Jews to hiding places. On 23 January 1945, Jan Jr., dressed in a Nazi uniform, took part in a successful raid on a police station in Zeist, freeing about 12 prisoners, most of them Jewish.

The Stroomenbergh family sheltered one of the prisoners, Ernest Stein, until liberation. The family also hid Abraham Wijnschenk and his wife, Judith, for three months, in their home. During the Hunger Winter of 1944-1945, the Stroomenbergh family managed to feed their family and all the Jews they were hiding in their home and those hiding in other places for whom they provided food. As Arnold wrote in his testimony to Yad Vashem, “All members of the Stroomenbergh family took part in keeping me out of German hands. They took enormous risks on behalf of me and many other Jewish people. Jan Stroomenbergh, Sr. and his wife took care of me and my education during the war. They treated me like their own son. After the war, they understood immediately the importance, of a Jewish child being raised by young Jewish relatives. My parents were betrayed and died in Auschwitz…I stayed in the Stroomenbergh home…this meant that all of the members of the church were aware of my presence and also of the presence of Mr and Mrs Wijnschenk. Every member of this congregation was 100 per cent reliable, and no one put us in danger.”

One day, a young Jewish man named Berthold aka Burt Halpern came to ask the Stroomenberghs for help. He needed a new safe place to live. He was born in Germany on 6 July 1926 to Rabbi Felix Halpern and Hanna Gostinsky Halpern. Burt was placed with a Christian foster family who attended the same church as the Stroomenbergh family.

Susan Stoomenbergh recalled, “The first time I saw him, the very first time, he came from my parents’ house. And I looked at that guy. And I said, hello. He walked over and said, hello, you’re Frau Susan. He called me Miss Susan. And I looked at him. I said, boy, that’s my guy. I go after him. and I made sure I saw him all the time. They took him to church every Sunday, twice. And Burt liked it. He was reading the Bible. He learned about Jesus. And that’s the way Burt became a Christian.”

The two fell in love and it led to a 71-year-long love affair and they truly were forever soulmates. Though the ravages of war took so much of their lives, together they managed to find that forever love and strong determined faith, that bonded them and carried them through anything!
Burt and Susan immigrated to America in 1954. As a skilled tailor, Burt became the Head Fitter at the prestigious Barney’s New York and became one of the most sought-after tailoring fitters of his craft. Susan created a loving home for Burt and their children. Susan was gifted with a beautiful soprano voice and performed many choral selections in their church. She directed Sunday School programs. Both Burt and Susan were always involved in local church missions.

In 1997, Susan was proud to accept a most prestigious Award. The Commission for the Designation of the Righteous, established by Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Heroes & Martyrs Remembrance Authority, based on the evidence presented before it, had decided to Honour, The Stroomenbergh Family, who during the Holocaust period in Europe, risked their lives to save persecuted Jews. The Commission, therefore, has accorded them the Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations. Their Family Name shall be forever engraved on the Honour Wall in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

Burt Halpern, 93 of White Township, NJ, passed into the arms of his Lord and Savior on February 9, 2020, at Barn Hill Care Center in Newton, NJ.

Susanna Stroomenbergh Halpern died on her 99th birthday, April 7, 2022, at Hackettstown Medical Center, Hackettstown, NJ, after surviving WWII, COVID-19, and a broken leg.

sources

Stroomenbergh Family

https://www.myheritage.com/names/jan_stroomenbergh

https://wng.org/podcasts/triumph-over-trials-1626235610

https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4044732&ind=0

Escape to Victory

I wasn’t sure what to call this post. I had considered the title “Mission Impossible” but I did go with “Escape to Victory.”

On 8 December 1944, the KP (Knok Ploeg-boxing crew) resistance group in Friesland managed to liberate 51 members of the resistance from the Blokhuispoort, the detention centre in Leeuwarden, without any escalation or any shots. The event is also known as ‘de Kraak’.(the raid The BS in Friesland had already indicated that a plan had to be made for a robbery, but there had not yet been any reason to carry it out. Piet Oberman took the lead here. The plan was well prepared with the help of intelligence from guards about the prison and information about the (reliability of) the guards themselves.

The plan was drawn up by Piet Oberman (resistance name Piet Kramer), Willem Stegenga and Egbert Bultsma. It had to be carried out in such a way that the Germans and their accomplices would not notice. The head office of the Landwacht (a Dutch Nazi paramilitary organization) was a stone’s throw away. The headquarters of the SD was quite a distance away and the Wehrmacht was stationed at Leeuwarden airfield. That is why there were no shots should be fired.

The immediate reason for the operation was the arrest of several resistance fighters in November 1944. One of them was Klaas Leijenaar, who was closely involved in the resistance newspaper De Koerier and had a large network. It was precisely because of that network that the resistance fighter was interesting to the Germans. If they got Leijenaar to talk, a large part of the Frisian resistance could be rounded up.

On the nights of 18-19 November 1944, Jurjen Dreeuws, a police inspector who played a major role in the Frisian resistance, was also arrested. It was clear to the Knokploeg (KP), the armed branch of the resistance, that something had to be done. It was known that the arrested resistance members would be tortured in the Blokhuispoort. It soon became apparent that Dreeuws had gone crazy during his first weekend in captivity and had called names. This in turn led to new arrests. The chance that more resistance members would ‘break ‘ under great pressure, which would put the occupier on the trail of other resistance members, was by no means inconceivable.

On December 8, 1944, at a quarter to six, two policemen with three prisoners and a warrant for confinement presented themselves at the prison. The guard of the House of Detention received a phone call shortly before that three black marketeers would be delivered. The policemen and the three prisoners were in reality members of the Frisian gang. Inside the gate, they overpowered the guards and let in other members of the gang. During the raid, 51 people, including many members of the resistance, were freed from their cells. Not a single shot was fired.

Remarkably the Germans were not able to find any of the escaped prisoners. Raids are held, but due to a well-organized network of resistance fighters, the liberated prisoners were never found. There were no reprisals either. Why that did not happen is unclear.

In 1962 the story was made into a movie, titled “De Overval” (the raid) which became one of the most successful movies in Dutch cinemas, with close to 1.5 million visitors.

Dutch actor Hans Culeman who played the German officer Grundmann in the movie was born in Germany and spoke fluent German. He was surprised by this movie. Till then nobody knew of his German descent. Both Hans Tiemeijer ( the doctor) and Rob de Vries (Piet Kramer) had been in the resistance in the Netherlands during World War II.

Although my Mother’s family is from Friesland, I actually was not aware of this story.

sources

https://friesland.75jaarvrijheid.nl/1944/2429566/overval-op-huis-van-bewaring-leeuwarden

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056321/?ref_=tt_mv_close

https://oorlogsverhalen.com/themas/overval-huis-van-bewaring-leeuwarden/

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=8%20december&rows=1&page=1

http://www.spanvis.nl/Bevrijding%20gevangenis%20Leeuwarden/index.html

https://www.jaarvanverzet.nl/verzetsactie/overval-op-huis-bewaring-leeuwarden/

Overval op de Blokhuispoort in Leeuwarden (1944)

Ernst Knorr—Evil for the Sake of Being Evil

I sincerely believe that some people are just born evil. If it hadn’t been for the war, their evil ways—would probably have been displayed in other ways.

Dr. Ernst Knorr was born Heiligenbeil, Germany on October 13, 1899. He died in Scheveningen, the Netherlands on 7 July 1945. He was an SS officer in the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) but was also a doctor. He led the SD. He was part of Referat IV-A (Bekämpfung Kommunismus) of the Sicherheitsdienst in The Hague and was known as the executioner at interrogations.

If prisoners were to be tortured—during interrogations—the SD would euphemistically indicate that they would call the doctor. His workplace was Binnenhof 7, which is near the Dutch parliament. Until the beginning of June 1941, the communists were only kept under surveillance and deliberately not yet arrested—partly because Knorr could be involved in other activities. He witnessed the violent interrogation of the Resistance fighter Sjaak Boezeman, a man tortured to death.

Boezeman was taken to the Binnenhof and interrogated by five SD men, including Ernst Knorr, at 03:15 a.m. Sjaak was taken back unconscious to the Oranjehotel, where he was in bad shape. The SD’ers claimed that Sjaak tried to cut his wrist arteries with a razor. When he regained consciousness, Sjaak told the guards that the Germans slit his wrists. That morning Sjaak Boezeman died in his cell. He is the first or one of the first Dutch resistance fighters to be murdered by the Nazis.

Albert Schaap was a prisonguard at the Oranjehotel prison and later testified, “I then saw that his back was all wounded. He was completely covered with bruises, and his whole back was covered with blood. He could not speak properly—as his whole face was shattered and the blood was running out of his mouth.”

From the beginning of June 1941, Ernst Knorr was involved in the violent interrogation of communists in The Hague. On September 2, 1941, he was the leader of a team of 3-5 people that interrogated the communist Herman Holstege in the prison of Scheveningen (Oranjehotel) so cruelly that it was expected that he would die. The intention was to learn from Holstege, who had remained silent for a month, the names of his contacts at the communist party leadership in Amsterdam. Knorr penetrated Holstege’s anus with a rubber bat, after which the intestines were tamped. Holstege, however, gave little information and not the names of the leadership in Amsterdam. Holstege died the next day. In view of the preparations in the Oranjehotel, torture was planned. In a post-war report, this was referred to as stupidity, because it lost the opportunity to track down the party leadership in Amsterdam.

In the course of 1942, Knorr was sidetracked and replaced by Hans Munt. In post-war reports, Munt indicated that these acts of violence were the reason for the changes in position, but in practice, they did not mean the end of the torture of communists.

On 19 February 1943, a trap was set in Delft for the communist resistance fighter Gerrit Kastein. Three SD men were waiting for Kastein at a cafe as Knorr waited outside in the car. Kastein arrested, was taken to the car. Near the car, Kastein managed to pull out a pistol and shoot. He injured Knorr quite badly; after the cars drove away, a pool of blood remained on the street. Gerrit Willem Kastein jumped out of the window at Binnenhof on 21 February 1943 but did not survive the fall.

The extremely violent interrogations not only caused the deaths of Sjaak and Gerrit Willem but the valuable secrets they knew were also lost. It went too far for Ernst’s superiors. As a punishment, he was transferred to the Scholtenhuis in Groningen. There Ernst continues his violent practices.

There, too, Knorr stood out for his cruelty. He murdered the resistance fighter Esmée van Eeghen. Her body was riddled with bullets and dumped in the Van Starkenborgh Canal. Van Eeghen is controversial because she fell in love with a German officer. Their love affair played a significant role in the resistance. It proved invaluable—her role, especially in Friesland—that was ultimately fatal for her due to that turbulent love life. The character of Rachel Stein from the 2006 film Black Book was based on the life of van Eeghen.

Although van Eeghen was financially independent, she worked as a nurse at the Amsterdam civil hospital. In the spring of 1943, she entered into a love affair with the medical student Henk Kluvers.[1] When he was supposed to sign the declaration of loyalty for students in the spring, he decided instead to go to Leeuwarden to evade this signature. Van Eeghen followed him and supported him and his friend Pieter Meersburg in hiding Jewish children on behalf of the Landelijke Organisatie voor Hulp aan Onderduikers (LO) in the Northern part of the country. They saved the lives of at least 100 children.

Klaas Carel Faber, execution command member and escaped war criminal, said about the execution, “I saw Miss Esmee get out of the car. She had only just gotten out of the car when I saw Knorr firing at Miss Esmee. After the first shot, I saw her fall to the ground. I heard she was still screaming. I saw Knorr shoot her ten more times.”

On 16 April 1945, Knorr withdrew to Schiermonnikoog with several German soldiers. The intention was to pick up people by boat from Borkum and take them to Germany. It was not until 27 May, that a Dutch officer went to the island to demand they surrender. The group was transferred to the mainland on 30 May and locked up in a prison in Groningen. Knorr was transferred on 27 June by Canadian Field Security to the so-called Kings Prison in Scheveningen, located in the penal prison.

On 7 July 1945, Knorr was found dead in his cell. He had a piece of rope around his neck. In the cell, however, there was no high fulcrum to hang oneself from. According to statements from other Germans in prison, Knorr had been severely beaten, which resulted in death. There wasn’t an autopsy performed. Later, a prison doctor stated that it was technically possible that Knorr committed suicide by attaching the rope low to the wall and strangling himself by hanging over.

sources

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/artikel/de-gewelddadige-praktijken-van-folteraar-ernst-knorr

https://peoplepill.com/people/ernst-knorr-1

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Ernst%20Knorr&rows=1&page=1

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/thema/Arrestatie%20Gerrit%20Willem%20Kastein

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Esmee-van-Eeghen/03/0004

The Executions on 9 July 1942

On 9th July 1942, nine members of the resistance group De Oranjewacht, [The Orange Guard], (Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands and the name of the Royal family) were shot in the Fort near Rijnauwen, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Two trials were conducted against the resistance group, and nine members were sentenced to death. On the same day, two so-called Engelandvaarders, (England sailors) Jan Stam and Petrus Antonius Ravelli, were also executed.

The group, De Oranjewacht consisted of nine members. It was one of the first resistance groups captured by the Nazis during World War II (in December 1940). They were imprisoned until that terrible day, 9 July 1942—they were executed. One of the members of this group was Arnhemmer Piet Hoefsloot.

After Arnhemmer Piet Hoefsloot was arrested, tried, convicted and executed at age 49—he left behind his wife and eleven children. The youngest was so small that she never knew her father. Only now, decades later, is she learning and understanding him through stories. Several of his children at the time of this writing are still alive, all well into their eighties and nineties. Nevertheless, they were all in attendance at Fort bij Rijnauwen to commemorate their father with family members. The youngest daughter and two of the other daughters spoke. One read the farewell letter that Father Piet wrote to his wife and children a few hours before his execution from his cell in the prison on Gansstraat. The other daughter read (the poem), “Saying Goodbye.” A beautiful flower arrangement was laid (see photo), and this intimate ceremony was concluded with a moment of silence and the common prayer of the Our Father aloud. A photograph of the eleven children was left on the memorial stone as if Father had been reunited with his children. Piet Hoefsloot is buried at Moscowa Cemetery in Arnhem.

The Other Victims

Frans Heinekamp was born on 13 October 1898 in Arnhem. He was executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

Johan Dons was born on 26 February 1915 in Utrecht and executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

Evert van den Berg was born on 20 September 1915 in Hengelo. He was executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen

Hendrik Marinus Emanuel Pieter Maertens was born on 20 July 1908 in Rotterdam. They executed him on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

Leonardus Lambertus Twijnstra was born on 18 March 1904 in Leeuwarderadeel. He was executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

Petrus Walter Gerardus van de Weijer was born on 9 October 1889 in Utrecht. He was executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

George Hendrik van der Ploeg was born on 26 October 1889 in Vlissingen. He was executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

Johan Herman Jacobus Boerrigter was born on 13 February 1906, in Djokjakarta, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and executed on 9 July 1942 in Utrecht, Fort Rijnauwen.

During the war, approximately 1700 Dutch men and women who tried to reach freedom in England, over land or by sea, were given the honorary name, Engelandvaarders (Lit. England-farers).

Jan Stam, born in 1916 in the Dutch East Indies, had been a 2nd lieutenant in the artillery during May 1940. He was married and father of one child. In March 1942, the Ravelli couple moved in with them. Peter Antonius Ravelli (1918) was a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army. For unknown reasons, he was in the Netherlands.

Together, the men decided to make an attempt to go to England. They reached France and were arrested to be brought back to the Netherlands. First, they were imprisoned in the House of Detention in Scheveningen and then in the prison in Utrecht.

They were tried by the Feldgericht des Kommandierenden Generals und Befehlshabers im Luftgau VI (Field court of the commanding general and commander in the air district VI) in Holland, and sentenced to death. The death penalty by shooting was carried out on 9 July 1942 in Fort Rijnauwen. Ravelli’s widow gave birth to their child a few months later.

These men make me proud to be Dutch. Many looked away and did nothing, yet these men decided to stand up against an evil regime and paid the ultimate price.

sources

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/thema/Fusillade%20in%20Fort%20bij%20Rijnauwen%20op%209%20juli%201942

Stam, Jan

Semmy and Joop Woortman-Forgotten Heroes

In the past I have been very critical of my fellow Dutch men and women, in relation to the role they played during World War 2. While most opposed the Nazi occupation, they did very little to resist. Of course it is very easy to be critical looking back. In all honesty if I would have been put in that position I would not know how I would have reacted.

I have also written many pieces about the Dutch who collaborated with the Nazis and even joined the SS, for them there is no excuse.

However there were brave Dutch citizens who did resist. Sometimes by just spreading around leaflets, other times in more militant actions. When captured there was a big chance that the death penalty would follow.

Semmy and Joop Woortman were active members of the resistance, they were part of the NV group.

The NV (Naamlose Vennootschap or the Limited) group, was one of several Dutch underground cells involved in rescue efforts to find shelter for Jewish children living in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Between 1942 and 1943 approximately 4,000 Jewish children were funneled through an assembly center located in the former Jewish daycare center known as the Creche.

The Creche was situated across the street from the Hollandse Schouwburg, the Jewish theater that served as the main holding area for the Jews of Amsterdam prior to their transfer to the Westerbork concentration camp. When Jewish families reported to the theater, children were separated from their parents and sent to the Creche to await deportation. The NV group under the leadership of Jaap Musch and Joop Woortman, focused its efforts on rescuing these children. Since the Creche was not guarded, it was possible for members of the Dutch underground to pick up small groups of children who had been prepared by Jewish staff members inside, and wisk them away by streetcar or other means. The children were then taken to private homes in Amsterdam until they could be transferred to host families elsewhere. Alternatively, the children were taken directly to the railway station and escorted by couriers to their new homes outside the city. They were sent to homes as far north as Friesland and as far south as Limburg. After depositing their charges, the couriers made a point of visiting them periodically to check on their situation. The attitudes exhibited by the host families to the Jewish children ranged from loving to indifferent, and many children had to be moved repeatedly. It is estimated that as many as 1000 Jewish children in the capital were rescued by the combined efforts of all of the underground cells. The NV group is credited with having saved about 250. Sixteen members of the group were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

Joop and Semmy became increasingly involved in the underground resistance movement. Joop would often go to the train station to look for Jews to take into hiding. When they learned that the Germans had plans to deport all Jewish children to concentration camps, Joop and Semmy concentrated their efforts on saving the Dutch children. They organized a network of people who were willing to hide Jewish children in their homes. Semmy remembered a day in 1943, when the German’s launched a surprise raid of homes in Amsterdam in an attempt to capture Jewish children. Semmy and Joop quickly instructed the children to go to safety at a local day care center, which was run by a German born Jewish nab , Walter Suskind. On the day of the raid, a terrified little boy came to Semmy’s home and she offered to hide him in one of the cupboards in her kitchen. When the Germans searched her house, she pretended to be virulently anti-Semitic and even invited the Germans to share coffee with her. The deception worked and the Germans never found the boy.

Joop Woortman used the pseudonym Theo de Bruin. He was betrayed in 1944 and via Kamp Amersfoort ended up in Bergen-Belsen, where he died on March 13, 1945. Following Joop’s arrest, Semmy carried on his mission. Using the register he kept of the 300 children he placed in hiding, she made sure all of his charges received their monthly stipends and ration coupons. A year after the war the Red Cross confirmed Woortman’s death in Bergen-Belsen. He was posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1981.

After the war Semmy recalled
“It was difficult to just walk out of the nursery with children because on the other side of the street there were soldiers on guard in front of the Hollandse Schouwburg. But the head nurse at the nursery, Virrie Cohen, would stand in front of the door and tell us if tram 9 was coming.

We’d walk out of the door each carrying a baby under our arm. We’d run alongside the tram down the Plantage Middenlaan and at the next tram stop we’d get in, huffing and puffing. And all the people in the tram would start laughing because naturally they’d seen us, but they never said anything. Well, that’s typically Amsterdam for you…”

Semmy Woortman walks along a street in Amsterdam with her stepdaughter Hetty (left, Joop’s daughter) and her Jewish foster child, Rachel (right).

Semmy married again after the war. She died on February 22,2004 aged 87.

When I come across stories like this, it makes me proud to be a Dutchman.

sources

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Joodse%20kinderen&rows=1&page=1&record=69705626-025a-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464

Semmy Riekerk, The Netherlands

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa21486

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/dutch-rescuer-semmy-woortman-glasoog

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/b74502b6-025a-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464/media/aa3b9ede-39e8-a597-2322-6eb18810f5c5?mode=detail&view=horizontal&q=Joop%20Woortman&rows=1&page=2

https://www.verzetsmuseum.org/en/kennisbank/help-1

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Paying the ultimate price for helping others.

Maastricht is one of my favourite cities. I grew up only about 10 miles away from it and would have visited it numerous times. It is, the most south eastern city in the Netherlands and is well known for its close proximity to Belgium and Germany. It is also the the home of violin virtuoso Andre Rieu and his Strauss Orchestra.

In Europe it is known for the treaty which was signed there on February 7,1992. It shaped the future of the EU.

But I am not going to talk about any of that. I want to add a name to the Maastricht narrative and would love it if in years to come people would say “Maastricht, oh yes that is the place where Derk van Assen and his wife Berendje are from”

Derk and Berendje van Assen were heroes in every sense of the word. They paid the ultimate price for helping their neighbours.

Derk was active in the underground resistance from the beginning of
the war, in May 1940. Initially without being part of an organised group, but later he joined the Versleyen group, a group of tax officials
within the L.O (National Organisation for help to those in hiding); he
was also a member of the Trouw group, the national Christian
resistance group.

In Derk’s Christian believes and humanist principles, all people were equal and he was prepared to risk everything to save the lives of Jews and others. Using his many talents Derk contributed during the war to illegal newspapers, organized national information networks and offered professional document forgers a place to work in his home. Derk and Berendje were friendly with Isidore and Frederika Schaap, who had come to Maastricht in 1939, together with their daughter Hetty. Isidore headed a branch of a Ladies fashion firm that was based in Rotterdam and Berendje was one of his customers.

The Shaap family had totally integrated; in the ways of the more the more Burgundian lifestyle of the southern Netherlands and sometimes they even went with Derk and Berendje to the Reformed Church on Sunday mornings.

In the summer of 1942, the Schaaps received orders to report for deportation ,Derk helped them find a place to hide. They spent their first couple of nights hiding with a family who owned an optician’s shop in Maastricht. During this time their identity cards were altered and the “J” removed, which gave them the freedom to travel with less risk. The next following day, the Schaap family took a train to Utrecht, to the home of one of Derk’s cousins. They soon moved to a family in Hillegom, South Holland, also relations of the van Assens. The Schaap family then had to split up Isidore and Frederika moved to Amsterdam, where they were later arrested.

The Police Commissioner of Maastricht had requested that Isidore Schaap and Frederika Roza Schaap-Kamerling, both residents of Maastricht, be located, detained and brought to trial. They were suspected of having changed their place of residence without the required authorization. This description referred to Jews who had gone into hiding.

On 26 July 1943 Derk was arrested in Maastricht after having been
under surveillance shadowed for some time by the SD (Sicherheitsdienst). The SD had recruited “Blonde Mien”, a resistance activist. Mien was tasked to gather information about Derk’s contacts, but before she could do so Derk was apprehended and incarcerated in the local prison. In this prison, Oberscharfuehrer Richard Nitsch interrogated Derk for seven weeks, during which time Derk’s colleagues were planning his escape. However, the authorities discovered the plot and to abort it Nitsch and two other SD men executed Derk in Horst, Limburg, on September 14, 1943.

In the meantime, Berendje was also arrested and imprisoned, first in
Maastricht, then in Haaren and finally in Vught. From there she was
deported to Camp Ravensbruck in Germany where she died on 2
February 1945.

Two heroes who gave their lives for others. After the war Derk and Berendje were decorated by the Air Chief
Marshall and Vice Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces for
“assistance to officers of the marine, land and air forces to escape
from imprisonment, or to avoid being taken prisoner by the enemy”.
On 6 September 1989 Derk van Assen and Berendina van Assen –
Grolleman were awarded the honorary title of Righteous among the
Nations by Yad Vashem.

Frederika Roza Schaap-Kamerling born Wildervank, 28 February 1894 – Murdered in Auschwitz, 28 January 1944.Reached the age of 49 years.

Isidore Schaap ,born Rotterdam, 24 April 1894 – murdered in Auschwitz, 8 April 1944. Reached the age of 49 years.

I could not find out what happened to their daughter Hetty.

sources

https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=all&language=en&itemId=4013739&ind=66

Click to access b11884_att-van-assen-biography-eng.pdf

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/130959/isidore-schaap

https://www.tracesofwar.nl/sights/67272/Monument-Derk-van-Assen.htm

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“Dear all, I have to tell you the worst – today I and my friends got the death sentence”

ShowImage

Hitler expected very little resistance from the Dutch because he saw them as kindred spirits and fellow aryans. When he decided to invade the Netherlands he expected a similar reception as he got in Austria, but he was wrong.

Although the invasion only took 3 days the Germans suffered heavy losses.

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As in the other occupied countries there were some who embraced the German occupation and were more then willing to comply to the laws imposed by the Nazi regime.

However there were many who did not and were willing to give their lives for it.

On March 9, 1943, Dutch policeman Hendrik “Henk” Drogt refused to comply with an order to arrest seven Jews in Grootegast.Drogt and 11 fellow Dutch police officers refused to participate in the round-up of Jews.

The Nazis gave the local Marechaussee(-the Marechaussee is a police force with Policing the military and also with border control as well as other civilian police matters-) officers orders to bring the Jews to the nearby city of Groningen, but the 12 officers tasked with the duty refused. At first they gave excuses, saying the Jews in the area were sick, and they even brought a doctor to authenticate the story on their behalf .

Failing to convince their superiors, the higher command started pressuring them one-on-one and even threatened them with deportation to concentration camps.

The officers wouldn’t give in , however. All of them refused and were taken to the Kamp Vught concentration camp.

All except one. After abandoning the police unit, Drogt managed to escape and subsequently joined the Dutch resistance. During his time on the Nazi regime’s wanted list, he helped smuggle downed Allied pilots to the Belgian border where they could escape to Britain. Additionally , working at night around the towns of Grijpskerk, Kommerzijl and Pieterzijl – in between the main northern cities of Groningen and Leeuwarden – Drogt helped move Jews to safety by taking them from hiding place to hiding place.

Map-Hiking-Trails-Province-Drenthe
Not long after, however, the Nazis tracked down Drogt and other resistance members in August 1943. After being held up in the Oranjehotel prison in Scheveningen, the 24-year-old was put on trial and sentenced to death.

Before his execution on April 14, 1944, he wrote to his family:

“Dear all, I have to tell you the worst – today I and my friends got the death sentence. It is terrible that we have to part from all those who are dear to us in this way… I always had hope that I could be with you for one more time, but the Lord wanted differently…”

Decades after the war, in 1988 Yad Vashem recognized the officers as Righteous Among the Nations, but because Drogt had managed to escape he wasn’t on the list submitted to the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous.

Twenty years later, El Al pilot Mark Bergman met Drogt’s son, Henk Brink, on a flight to South Africa. Brink told Bergman the stories that he had heard from his mother about the father whom he had never met, and Bergman in turn advised Yad Vashem of the former military police officer’s courageous deeds.

Finally, on Monday September 22, 2008, Yad Vashem posthumously named Drogt as a Righteous Among the Nations, recognizing the brave acts he had done to save members of the Jewish faith.

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It’s because of men like Hendrik Drogt I feel immensely proud to be a Dutch man. I know there were plenty of fellow Dutch country men who were just too eager to please their Nazi masters and did evil things, but the majority of the Dutch did not subscribe to the Nazi point of view.

Many thanks to Norman Stone for drawing my attention to the story.

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Source

Jerusalem Post

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