Collaborators – History of Sorts

The “Trawniki Men”

The history of the Trawniki Men stands as a chilling testament to the banality of evil and the role that ordinary individuals can play in perpetrating atrocities on a massive scale. While their actions may have faded into obscurity for many, it is essential to remember their complicity in the Holocaust and to honor the memory of their countless victims. By confronting this dark chapter of history, we reaffirm our commitment—never forget the horrors of the past and strive for a future built on justice, compassion, and human dignity.

Trawniki Men refers to a group of men primarily from the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. During World War II, the Nazis recruited them. They received their name after the Trawniki Training Camp, located in Poland. It was where they received their indoctrination and military training.

The recruitment of the Trawniki Men began in 1941 as the Nazi regime sought to bolster its forces for the implementation of their genocidal policies, particularly in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. These men were often former prisoners of war, volunteers, or coerced individuals who were promised better treatment or privileges in exchange for their collaboration.

The primary role of the Trawniki Men was to assist the SS Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads tasked with exterminating Jews, Roma, and other targeted groups. They were involved in a range of activities, including rounding up victims, guarding ghettos and concentration camps, and actively participating in mass shootings and deportations. Their knowledge of local languages and terrain made them valuable assets to the Nazi regime in carrying out its murderous campaigns with ruthless efficiency.

The Trawniki Men were directly complicit in some of the most heinous crimes committed during the Holocaust. They played a key role in the systematic murder of millions of innocent civilians, often showing little hesitation or remorse in carrying out their orders. Their participation in mass shootings, deportations to death camps, and other acts of brutality left an indelible mark on the annals of history.

One infamous example of their involvement in the massacre was at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kiev, Ukraine. There more than 33,000 Jews were slaughtered in two days in September 1941. Trawniki men were among those responsible for carrying out the executions, demonstrating the extent of their culpability in the Holocaust.

With the end of World War II and the collapse of the Nazi regime, many Trawniki Men attempted to evade justice by blending back into civilian life or fleeing to other countries. However, in the ensuing years, efforts were made to identify and prosecute those who had participated in Nazi crimes.

One significant legal case involving the Trawniki Men was the 1961 trial of Ivan Demjanjuk in Israel. Demjanjuk, a former Trawniki guard, was accused of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka Extermination Camp known as “Ivan the Terrible.” Although he denied the charges, he was ultimately convicted in 1988, highlighting the ongoing pursuit of justice for those complicit in the Holocaust.

The legacy of the Trawniki Men serves as a grim reminder of the depths of human depravity and the ease with which ordinary individuals can be drawn into committing acts of unspeakable evil under the influence of authoritarian regimes. Their collaboration with the Nazis underscores the importance of vigilance in the face of tyranny and the necessity of holding perpetrators of genocide accountable for their actions.

Sources

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/trawniki

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/01/23/how-department-justice-team-exposed-nazis-hiding-america

https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/25/1/1/674673

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The Evil of Colonne Henneicke

The Evil of Colonne Henneicke

Colonne Henneicke

These Dutchmen were the most despicable breed of men. They were not driven by any political ideology—but purely by greed.

Wim Henneicke was part of a group of bounty hunters called Colonne Henneicke. He betrayed and robbed Jews; between 8,000 and 9,000 Jews were betrayed by the group in 1943. Towards the end of the war, he began to pass on the names of other collaborators and infiltrators within the resistance to resistance members, most likely with hopes of building friendly contacts with the resistance. Wim Henneicke was a 33-year-old former car mechanic with shady contacts in the underworld.

Dutch Jew hunters started to track down and arrest their Jewish fellow citizens in the spring of 1943. The arrested Jews were then deported to the Auschwitz and Sobibor extermination camps, where most of them were murdered. Colonne Henneicke was a group of more than fifty Dutch people led by Wim Henneicke.

To track down Jews—a bounty of 7.50 guilders was paid for each reported Jew in the spring of 1943. In the autumn of 1944, this rose to 40 guilders.

Compared to other rewards, this amount was small but still led to the deportation of many Jewish people in hiding. On top of the other anti-Jewish measures, which led to the isolation and robbery of Dutch Jews, this bounty made hiding even more difficult and dangerous. In some cases, people in hiding were betrayed by the very people hiding them.

You can get a good idea of Colonne Henneicke’s working method because much of the administration has been preserved. In 1947, numerous documents were found in boxes in the basement of the Main Synagogue at Tulpstraat 19 in Amsterdam. However, it is unknown how they ended up here. Among other things, the payment forms for handing in Jews, as well as short reports about the arrests, were found here. These reports indicate who is arrested, where, with whom the person is hiding and whether the people providing shelter know that the people in hiding are Jewish.

This is an example of one of those reports

dated February 24, 1943, states:

“Subject: Jewish refugees Vos.

We have been informed confidentially that Aryan Jan Overduijn has an apartment in Amsterdam, Haarlemmerstraat 62 IV, and has hidden furniture belonging to Jews there. Upon investigation of the said apartment, we found that 4 Jews were also hidden there. We then called the Dutch police, and they arrested the Jews and handed them over to the SD branch in Amsterdam, department IV B.

The Jews are:

Salomon Vos was born 07-09-1914 in Amsterdam—a professional tailor, married, last lived in Amsterdam, Burmanstraat 15 I.

Sophia Vos nee Gold was born 10-08-1917 in Amsterdam, wife of the first mentioned.

Announcement of Salomon’s (Sal) and Sofia’s (Fie) engagement

Reason: The above-mentioned Jews hid with the Aryan Jan Overduijn, born on November 15, 1915, in Amsterdam, living in Amsterdam, Haarlemmerstraat 62 IV. The Jews did not wear a star and were also in possession of false IDs. A special arrest report has been drawn up against the Aryan Jan Overduijn.

Amsterdam, February 24, 1943. Employees of the Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration, Amsterdam, Criminal Investigation Department. FA. from Tol. and H. Klinkenbijl.”

The employees of Colonne Henneicke had different ways to track down their victims, the largest source of information was tips from the population. Sometimes people in hiding were betrayed by their fellow citizens, as can be read in the messages. Sometimes people in hiding were even betrayed by the people who gave them shelter, for fear of being discovered and punished or of receiving part of the bounty.

If there was one consolation Wim Henneicke did get what he deserved.

December 8, 1944, at 9 a.m., Wim Henneicke left his home at Linneausparkweg 79 and fetched on his bicycle. He greeted his neighbour Wim Vlaanderen and cycled towards the Hogeweg. A little later, near number 25, a few shots sounded from a porch. Henneicke fell to his death, and the perpetrator ran away.

Sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/193952/sophia-vos-goud

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/artikel/premiejagers-en-collaborateurs-de-colonne-henneicke

https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/2620/Column-Henneicke.htm

Liquidatie van een Jodenjager

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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I think that not enough is actually told about the revolt. Those who resisted knew they didn’t really stand a chance. Yet they fought valiantly.

The ŻOB(Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa-Jewish Combat Organization) fighters were armed with only pistols, grenades, many of which were homemade, and a few automatic weapons and rifles. There were only a few hundred of them. Marek Edelman, the only ŻOB commander who survived, said their inspiration to fight was “not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths”

On April 19, 1943, Himmler sent in SS forces and their collaborators with tanks and heavy artillery to liquidate the Warsaw ghetto. The collaborators were the so-called ‘Trawniki’ men, Soviet prisoners of war who were offered a way out of captivity by cooperating with the SS as Hilfswilligen (relief troops). The ones who accepted the offer were mainly anti-communist and antisemitic Ukrainians, Latvians, and Lithuanians. They were trained in Trawniki and deployed from September 1941 onwards. As the war with the Soviet Union became less successful and the number of prisoners of war dwindled, regular civilians were recruited as well.

Trawniki men look down at the bodies of several murdered Jews lying in a doorway.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, the uprising would take nearly a month to be suppressed. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties were probably fewer than 150.

SS and Police Leader, Jürgen Stroop, led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. His internal SS daily report for Friedrich Krüger, written on 16 May 1943, stated:

“180 Jews, bandits and sub-humans, were destroyed. The former Jewish quarter of Warsaw is no longer in existence. The large-scale action was terminated at 20:15 hours by blowing up the Warsaw Synagogue. … Total number of Jews dealt with was 56,065, including both Jews caught and Jews whose extermination can be proved. Apart from 8 buildings (police barracks, hospital, and accommodations for housing working parties), the former Ghetto is completely destroyed. Only the dividing walls are left standing where no explosions were carried out”

To symbolize the German victory, Stroop ordered the destruction of the Great Synagogue View This Term in the Glossary on Tłomackie Street on May 16, 1943. The ghetto itself lay in ruins.

There are many images of the uprising, but in my opinion, there is none such powerful as the one below.

A Jewish man leaps to his death from the top-story window of a burning apartment block rather than face capture on April 22.

The original German caption said, “The bandits escape arrest by jumping.”

It amazes me that the Nazis were so boastful. They had several thousand troops, including tanks and heavy artillery, and it took them nearly a month to claim victory. Victory over a few hundred resistance fighters, armed with only some rifles and self-made grenades.

Stroop’s report also backfired on him because it was used as evidence after the war.

sources

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw-ghetto-uprising

https://www.history.com/news/holocaust-warsaw-ghetto-uprising-ringelblum-archive

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising

https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/154/trawniki-training-camp-for-camp-guards/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/warsaw-ghetto-uprising#1

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/trawniki

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1 in 3

The one thing I always fear when I do these blogs about World War II and the Holocaust is what I will discover about my family. Thus far, there is no indication that any of them collaborated with the Nazis, but I have a big family, and even now, in 2023, there is still new information surfacing from World War II.

A most extensive and yet, at the same time—the most kept hidden archive of the Netherlands is the Central Archive for Special Judicial Safety (CABR). This archive covers four linear kilometres and holds 540,000+ files from Dutch people who were wrong during the Second World War. The estimate is that one in three Dutch citizens had a family member who worked for or collaborated with the Nazis.

The perpetrators usually kept silent after the war against their children about what they—exactly—had done. The children and grandchildren often only heard from other sources that their parents or grandparents had collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation. Today, we can shatter their ignorance because we can now consult the National Archive. There are four kilometres of archive material about the many thousands arrested after the war because of their questionable role in the war.

I want to focus on one of the half a million wrong Dutch citizens, mainly because there is a link with Ireland, where I now live.

Pieter Menten
Born in 1899, Pieter Menten was a wealthy Dutch businessman and prominent art collector who bought the secluded Comeragh House in Waterford in 1964.

He was well-known among the local community, but he held a secret.

Menten built up much of his business empire trading between his native Netherlands and Poland. For example, he was a significant importer of lumber. He lived in Eastern Poland from 1923 until 1939, when the Soviet Union invaded.

Two years later, he returned to Poland after the Nazi counter-occupation, this time as a member of the SS.

Menten was involved in the massacre of Polish professors in Lviv and the robbery of their property. According to witnesses, he helped shoot as many members of the offending family in Galicia, then turned on other Jews in the area. It is believed that Menten personally oversaw the execution of as many as 200 Jews.

While travelling on his personal train with his prized art collection, Menten was recognized by Dutch Resistance fighters and arrested. They brought him to trial. His chief defence lawyer was Rad Kortenhorst, President of the Dutch House of Representatives. The controversial trial concluded in 1949, with the prosecution unable to prove most allegations and sentenced to an eight-month term for having worked in uniform as a Nazi interpreter. In 1951, the Dutch government refused a Polish request for his extradition.

Menten would go on to become a successful art collector and businessman. His 20-room mansion contained valuable artwork (Nicolaes Maes, Francisco Goya, Jan Sluyters, etc.), and he held vast areas of real estate.

Menten’s background was kept hidden while he lived much of his time in Ireland. It all became public in 1976 when they arrested him for his crimes in Holland. He claimed a case of mistaken identity but was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

A 2011 article about the Comeragh House property in the Irish Times claims that the estate was damaged by arson attacks during his imprisonment, which some believe were orchestrated by Mossad, the Israeli security service. The property was known to have been raided by hopeful art thieves. They had gambled on the truth to the rumours that the art collection was still somewhere in the house.

In 1976, they reopened the Menten case. During the trial, his mansion was set ablaze after a survivor of Dachau Concentration Camp threw a petrol bomb onto its thatched roof. The building suffered extensive damage, including part of the art collection.^[3] In 1980 Menten was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was fined 100,000 guilders for war crimes, including being an accessory to the murder of 20 Jewish villagers in 1941 Poland.

Upon his release in 1985, he believed he would settle in his County Waterford mansion in Ireland, only to find out Garret FitzGerald, Taoiseach (prime minister) at the time, had barred him from the country. The exclusion order was later signed by Justice Minister Michael Noonan, from Limerick. Menten died at a seniors‘ home in Loosdrecht, Netherlands. He was 88 years old.

Finding Comeragh House isn’t easy. The house, as claimed, is indeed “hidden from all eyes and cannot be seen from any of the surrounding roads.” The approach is along a private 1km-long tarmac drive flanked by mature rhododendrons and laurels, which passes a lake with an island. It continues via a tree-lined avenue facing sloping parkland with cedars, oak and horse chestnut trees before reaching the gravelled front entrance to the main house. This secluded location presumably appealed to the previous owner, Pieter Menten, who bought the estate in 1964.

Sources

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/03/21/Ireland-bans-return-of-war-criminal/9240293920078/

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/true-brits-sell-nazi-s-former-home-in-waterford-1.565850

https://www.thejournal.ie/pieter-menten-2500370-Jan2016/

https://regioonline.nl/binnenland/dossiers-300000-foute-nederlanders/

https://decorrespondent.nl/1118/wat-het-archief-van-foute-nederlanders-ons-leert-over-ons-oorlogsverleden/95837305564-b627e06b

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The Evil of Colonne Henneicke

The photograph above is of Wim Henneicke, a bounty hunter and collaborator. His wasn’t driven by hate or by a warped sense of nationalism but by greed. Wim Henneicke was part of a group called “Colonne Henneicke.” The Colonne Henneicke, officially the Hausraterfassungsstelle, was a group of Dutch collaborators who were active as bounty hunters in the period between March and October 1943. The group consisted of more than fifty Dutch people who were paid to hunt Jewish people in hiding and was led by Wim Henneicke. In the six months that the organization existed, it was responsible for the deportation of eight to nine thousand people.

They were paid 7,50 Dutch guilders (the 2023 equivalent would be $62 or €58) for each Jew that was caught, regardless if it was a man, woman or child.

One of their victims was Charles Salomon Viskoop, born on 17 February 1943. In December 1943, two members of the Kolonne Henneicke found Charles Salomon at his hiding place. He was ten months old at the time. He was murdered on 28 January 1944, in Auschwitz just over a month before his first birthday.

However, Henneicke did not live to see the end of the war. On December 8, 1944, he left his home in Amsterdam in the morning and was shot dead by an unknown member of the Amsterdam resistance.

I want to focus on 2 more members of the Colonne Henneicke.

Dries Riphagen

Bernardus Andries Riphagen, known as “the Dutch Al Capone,” was even more unscrupulous than his American gangster counterpart. The man was a criminal through and through. Riphagen’s fingers were in a lot of pies in the Dutch criminal underworld, from prostitution to extortion to murder. He spent two years in the United States, first working for Standard Oil and then getting in touch with local criminal groups.

During the war, Riphagen continued with trading and expanded his business by working with the Germans as an intermediary agent of the intelligence agency of the SS, the Sicherheitsdienst (or SD), in The Hague. As more anti-Jewish policies were introduced, the collaboration between Riphagen and the Germans became more and more lucrative. When Jewish people were arrested, their property, stocks, jewellery and cash were taken before the arrestees, and the remaining household items were handed over to the Germans.

Riphagen ran clandestine roulette houses, offered “ladies of pleasure” to accommodate high German officials and traded in currency, gold and diamonds on the black market with his old friends from the Rembrandt Square such as Joop Out, ‘Manke’ (Criple) Toon Kuijper, Harry Rond and Gerrit Verbeek. Having climbed the ladder from an undercover agent to a bona fide employee, Riphagen decided to join the Devisenschutzkommando (DSK), part of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. The most important function of the DSK was to counteract the increasing instances of black market trading in shares. Another function was to gather the Jewish possessions that had escaped the German currency regulations. Members of the DSK received 5 to 10% of the possessions gathered in return for their work. In reality, however, most of the goods discovered ended up in the hands of individual members. From 1943 onwards Riphagen was part of the ‘Column Henneicke’

It is believed that Riphagen personally executed Wim Baggers and John Even, two resistant fighters. Baggers and Even were arrested in September 1944 and handcuffed to each other on the Amsteldijk with a shot to the neck they were executed.

The commemoration took place three weeks after the liberation.

He managed to flee the Netherlands after the war.

Always as slippery as an eel, in February 1946 Riphagen escaped, leaving his wife and son behind without a second thought. Rumour has it that his underworld friends smuggled him across the border in a hearse. Another theory is that two Dutch secret service men, Frits and Piet Kerkhoven, organized his escape to Belgium with a hearse. From Belgium, he spent three months travelling to Spain by bicycle.

When Riphagen reached Spain in May 1946, the authorities in Huesca stopped him due to a lack of necessary identification. He was imprisoned, but again luck never left him. He was released on bail with the help of a Jesuit priest. Shortly after that, Frits Kerkhoven gave him clothes and shoes, which were hidden in the necessary papers as well as diamonds that Riphagen had previously left with Kerkhoven.

When Justice finally discovered his location in Madrid, Riphagen flew to Argentina with a friend on March 21, 1948. The Dutch ambassador to Buenos Aires at the time, Floris Carcilius Anne Baron van Pallandt, filed an extradition request. However, it was denied by the Argentina Judicial Authorities due to a lack of evidence–again, the crime against humanity got away scot-free.

Riphagen was never extradited to the Netherlands. Always gregariously silver-tongued, he maintained friends in high places. One was a member of the Argentine Supreme Court, Rodolfo Valenzuela, who also served as secretary to President Juan Perón.

Thanks to Valenzuela, Riphagen soon befriended the presidential couple. He kept in close contact with Perón until his death. Belgrano, a district of Buenos Aires, soon became his home where he ran a photo-press business. Also, he supported the Perón secret service whenever he could.

When Perón was removed from power, Riphagen returned to Europe where he spent his time travelling, especially in Spain, Switzerland, and Germany. He kept the company of wealthy women who could support his expensive tastes and continued to talk his way through life. His last known address was in Madrid.

Finally, in 1973 Dries Riphagen, probably the worst Dutch war criminal, died of cancer in Montreux, Switzerland.

Netflix released a movie about Riphagen a few years ago

https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/80106138

Sera de Croon

De Croon was known to be particularly fanatical and sadistic, he mistreated Jews and even personally brought Jewish babies to the Germans. At parties, he liked to show a captured pre-war holiday film of a Jewish family that he had reported. After the Colonne Henneicke was disbanded because the work was done, De Croon moved to the east of the country. He was especially good at infiltrating various resistance groups and was behind the arrest of several resistance members. In Nijverdal, for example, the resistance member Herman Kampman was arrested and later shot. De Croon abused many of his victims.

After the liberation, De Croon couldn’t be found at first. He was finally arrested in 1948 and sentenced to death in 1949. However, this sentence was not carried out after Queen Juliana pardoned him. First, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, later this sentence was commuted to 21 years, of which he only had to serve two-thirds. As a result, he was released again in the early 1960s. De Croon was traced to Alicante in Spain in 1983, where he died in 1990 from lung cancer.

It was Sera de Croon who delivered 10-month-old Charles Salomon Viskoop to the Nazis.

Sources

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/d53a7ac2-0259-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464/media/756fa92b-6824-02e1-7027-a30c92de89d8?mode=detail&view=horizontal&q=Henneicke&rows=1&page=1

https://www.maxvandam.info/humo-gen/family/1/F48400?main_person=I128467

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/dries-riphagen-dutch-criminal.html?chrome=1

https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/2624/Riphagen-Dries.htm

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Dries-Riphagen/03/0004

https://wiesjekuijpers.nl/projecten/het-was-oorlog

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Sera-de-Croon/03/0004

Click to access Handleiding%20docenten_%20WOII%20%28VO%29_DEF.pdf

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/603/kolonne-henneicke

Nederlandse Landwacht— Dutch Collaborators

In general, I have some level, albeit low, of sympathy for those who chose to collaborate with the Nazi regime in the Netherlands because maybe they felt it was the only way to survive.

However, I have no sympathy for the Nederlandse Landwacht. They were in it for their own greed and hungered for power. Their aim was to terrorize Dutch citizens, including their neighbours, and to protect members of the Dutch Nazi party, the NSB. None of these men had to join and never forced to do so. They joined because they wanted to join.

The Nederlandse Landwacht was a Dutch paramilitary organization founded by the Nazi occupiers in the Netherlands on 12 November 1943. It should not be confused with the military volunteer corps ‘Landwacht Nederland’, which was established in March 1943 and renamed Landstorm Nederland in October and that became part of the Waffen-SS.

The Landwacht was first seen on the street in March 1944. The Landwacht mostly was made up of Dutch National Socialist Movement (NSB) members equipped with shotguns. The populace nicknamed them the “Jan-Hagel,” Dutch slang for a rabble but also related to the Dutch word for a shotgun (hagelgeweer). The Landwacht was mainly used to guard buildings, check identity cards, and carry out arrests, house searches, and raids. They did not wear a uniform initially but were identified by a red bracelet.

In one case of bullying by the Landwacht on 13 June 1944, the ‘heroes of the Landwacht’ took food from successful HBS students in Apeldoorn. Reinier Hardonk wrote in his diary, “Young people, who had passed the Christian HBS, went out per Jan Enjoyment. They had collected some butter, eggs, sugar, etc. as presents for the teachers. They were along the way by Heroes of The Land Guard and were arrested. The food was taken and the boys were taken to Arnhem as prisoners. What a heroic act!”

The Landwacht was feared and hated by the population, among other things because during the Hongerwinter, the Dutch famine in the winter of 1944–45, the Landwacht confiscated food parcels from Dutch civilians. Many thousands of Dutch people had travelled hundreds of kilometres to obtain bread or some potatoes. On 27 March 1945, the illegal Het Parool newspaper devoted an article to the Landwacht’s many arrests and executions. Het Parool voiced its opinion saying, “…Landwachters should be shot after the war.”

Members of the Landwacht generally wore the black NSB party uniforms: black shirts, black trousers or riding breeches, black leather motorcycle or riding boots, and a black leather belt with a matching carrying strap. Depending on the weather, a black tunic or black overcoat could be worn. Though the Landwacht were poorly armed, black pistol holsters were sometimes carried.

The Landwacht were so cruel that sometimes the Germans had to intervene. For example, the Ugchel diarist Willem van Houtum writes on April 8, 1944, “German soldiers beat Landwachters from the platform in Deventer. They checked the citizens there for clandestine goods. They threw everything on the ground. For example, bottles of milk and precious eggs were smashed. Another member wants to ride the bus for free in Epe. This is only allowed for members of the German Wehrmacht. After many words, the conductor calls the head office in Apeldoorn and this in turn calls the Ortskommandant. Apeldoorn was met by two sturdy mechanics. They take him to the Ortskommandant. He suddenly wants to pay at that moment, but that is no longer the point. The mechanics literally grab him by the collar and bring the criminal to the intended address. After some scolding The Ortskommandant notices that the Landwachter is carrying a revolver under his coat, which is why he is handed over to the SD, who put him in jail. The villains eventually end up in jail. According to rumours, there are already more Landwachters in prison than can be checked.”

At the end of August 1944, the Winterswijk Landwacht got a hold of a farmer’s daughter, the mayor of Wisch and Terborg describes, “At farmer Rougoor, they tied a cloth over Leyda’s eyes, they would count to ten; if she did not say where the Jews were, she would be shot. When she said nothing, they shot into the ground, but the girl persisted. Shame on those bastards. The cross of merit to Leyda!”

During the famine winter, the Landwacht became deeply hated for confiscating food so laboriously gathered by civilians during food scavenges.

Eventually, only three members received the death penalty after the war, Gerard Rollema, Gerrit Sanner and Dirk Eijkelboom.

sources

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/ae665e24-025a-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464/media/ab5e7fca-199b-7824-2bf2-582eaa4bd559?mode=detail&view=horizontal&q=27%20augustus&rows=1&page=38

https://books.google.ie/books?id=3KHbuxsxjtIC&dq=Landwacht++uniforms&pg=PA139&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Landwacht%20%20uniforms&f=false

https://www.gld.nl/nieuws/2147922/hoe-de-beruchte-landwacht-nsbers-moest-beschermen

They had a choice- They chose evil.

In this blog I will be addressing the issue of some of the so called Jewhunters, in the Netherlands. The main reason why they did what they did, wasn’t really because of some political ideology, their motive was much more simpler then that, it was greed.

Johannes Hendrik Feldmeijer was a Dutch Nazi politician, a member of the NSB. He was tasked with establishing and commanding the Nederlandsche SS.

The picture above is of a meeting of the Germanic SS in the Netherlands ,aka the Nederlandsche SS. Feldmeijer, sitting at the far left on the front row, and some of the members are listening to a speech by Rauter,the highest SS and Police Leader in the Netherlands,.To his right: Jan jansonius, Peter Kooymans, Jan van Efferen and Leo Broersen. In the second row, next to Wim Heubel, a number of notorious Jew hunters, namely Kees Kaptein, an unknown individual , Johan Meijer and Abraham Kaper, Head of the Jewish Affairs Bureau in Amsterdam.

This man may have a comedic appearance (ironically he has a similar hairstyle as a current Dutch politician), but make no mistake about it. This man was pure evil only driven by greed.

Wim Henneicke was part of the group of bounty hunters called Colonne Henneicke. He betrayed and robbed Jews; between 8,000 and 9,000 Jews were betrayed by the group in 1943. Towards the end of the war, he began to pass the names of other collaborators and infiltrators within the resistance to members of the resistance, probably in the hope of building friendly contacts with the resistance. Henneicke, however, did not live to see the end of the war. On December 8, 1944, he left his home in Amsterdam in the morning and was shot dead by an unknown member of the Amsterdam resistance .

He and his team would received a reward of 7.5 Dutch guilder, which translates into €42 or $50in today’s currency. The receipt below is for the reward of betraying 5 Dutch Jews.

I came across this film which was made by Harry Swaab. The film is about the daily life of fourteen Jewish people in hiding (the Swaab, Robinski and Hess families) on the third floor above nightclub Alcazar at 5 Thorbeckeplein in Amsterdam. They received help from Dirk Vreeswijk, owner of Alcazar, and his family. The movie was made in 1942-1943. Harry Swaab, one of the people in hiding and initiator for making the film, later said that the people in hiding made the film to combat boredom. The film shows the daily life of the people in hiding. That daily life included hiding oneself in case of danger. The hiding period lasted from mid-1942 to April 1943. They were betrayed and the Nazis raided the building with the help of Dutch Jew hunters from the Kolonne Henneicke at the end of April 1943. All those in hiding were arrested except for Leo Hess and Harry Swaab. It is fascinating to see how they dealt with daily life, even how to deal with intimacies.

Just after the war, Harry Swaab made a version with intertitles that explain the film. A “prologue” was also made with exterior shots of Rembrandtplein. These films are in the possession of the Jewish Historical Museum.

The following people appear in the film:
Greenheart, Bep (1922)
Gunther, Klara (1912-2005)
Hess, ..
Hess, Gerda
Hess, Leo
Robinski, Henric
Robinski, Jacob (1881-1943)
Robinski, Katjac
Robinski-Joseph, Ida Hedwig (1884-1943)
Swaab, Harry (1914-2005)
Swaab, Milly (1912-1994)
Swaab, Sophia (1908-1974)
Swaab, Truus (1912-1971)
Vreeswijk, Dirk (1891-1965)
Vreeswijk-van Schaik, Marie (1898-1979)
Period
mid 1942 – April 1943

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/923c7791-922b-b218-340f-d01c30377148/media/8d3ee2da-0244-5e76-3528-7ae03bf54f4c?mode=detail&view=horizontal&q=jodenjagers&rows=1&page=3

sources

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/bron/https:%2F%2Fbeeldbankwo2.nl%2Fnl%2Fbeelden%2Fdetail%2Fd53a7ac2-0259-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464%2Fmedia%2F756fa92b-6824-02e1-7027-a30c92de89d8

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/thema/Jodenjagers?Foto%27s=1

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=jodenjagers&rows=1&page=1

When you come back to school, and your classmates are gone.

The last few years have been a strange year for a great number of countries across the world, especially when it comes to education. There is no doubt that the Covid 19 pandemic will have consequences down the line for many students.

However most of them when they go back to school, they will still see their fellow school friend and students.

During the Holocaust a great number Jewish children were killed. In the Netherlands 75 % of all Jews were murdered. Yet the Nazis still created the illusion, that life was reasonably ‘normal’ for the Jews. Jewish children were still going to school, although their curriculum was greatly reduced. Even extra curricular activities were still encouraged.

This to me is one of the more sickening of the Nazi occupation, they gave people false hope. I have said this before that the Nazis had never been abled to succeed with their final solution plans without the help of other. The bureaucrats, the civil servants, the public transport staff and also other citizens who thought they could benefit from the removal of their Jewish neighbours, this wasn’t only the case in the Netherlands but all of occupied Europe. The one main difference with the Netherlands compared to many of the other countries, the Dutch had an extremely efficient public service, which was used to its full capacity by the Nazis.

I sometimes wonder how distressing it must have been for those poor children to see that every time they came back to school from a break, or after the weekend, some of their classmates were gone. What questions would have gone through their minds?

Any nation that kills their children, kills its own future. Most of the children in the pictures in this blog would have been murdered during the Holocaust. I don’t know their names, where they lived, what age they were. But that is not important, all I know that none of them deserved to be treated like subhuman, none of them deserved the be murdered, none of their futures should have been stolen from them. What they deserve now is to be remembered and for all is us to work hard to avoid something like the Holocaust happening again.

Source

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Joodse%20Kinderen&rows=25&page=2

37.50 Guilders for betraying a family.

This looks like a fairly standard receipt and although it is hard to make out the names on the document, it does tell a very dark tale.

The document is a receipt issued by the SS to a Dutch citizen. The receipt is an acknowledgement of a payment of 37.50 Dutch guilders to this man (or woman but I believe it is a man)

The payment was for the delivery of 5 people to the SS. Although it doesn’t say they are Jewish , it is safe to presume they were. In fact we can say this with a 100% certainty. I discovered the document on the NIOD website, which is the Dutch organisation dealing with all things WW2.

When it says delivery it really reads betrayal because that is what it was, The betrayal of fellow citizens for money.

The names are very unclear because the document is handwritten and it is hard to make out the names . But the family name of those who were betrayed looks like it ‘Vos,.

I would love to say that this was a rarity in the Netherlands during WWII, but it wasn’t. Even though there were many who risked their own lives to help their Jewish neighbours, there were unfortunately also a great number of Dutch men and women who were willing participants of the Nazi policies.

Source

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/4e955f9a-025a-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464/media/14529835-d888-9afd-0619-b755ad3d7085?mode=detail&view=horizontal&q=Joden&rows=1&page=21

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Dries Riphagen

Sera de Croon

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