Geef een of meerdere zoektermen op.
Gebruik dubbele aanhalingstekens om in de exacte woordvolgorde te zoeken.
Gebruik dubbele aanhalingstekens om in de exacte woordvolgorde te zoeken.
On the authority of Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart, more than 450 Dutch nationals were taken hostage by the German occupation forces on 4 May 1942. Most of these hostages held prominent positions in the Dutch community. The Dutch Union as well as the trade union movement were strongly represented among the first group of hostages. All the detainees were housed in the Roman Catholic minor seminary Beekvliet in the North Brabant municipality of Sint-Michielsgestel. A second action took place in July 1942. Then, on the orders of the Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber in the Netherlands, General Christiansen, nearly 800 hostages were arrested. They were housed in the major seminary at Haaren, also located in North Brabant. The hostages were to be punished for acts of sabotage. They stood surety with their lives.
There were hostages in Haaren camp before that. They had been interned there in July and October 1940 in retaliation for Germans interned in the Dutch East Indies by the Dutch authorities at the outbreak of war. The group of these so-called Indian hostages consisted of people born in the East, and Dutch nationals who had their jobs there. All spent their leave in the Netherlands, but they were unable to return to their country of origin or field of work due to the outbreak of war. Having first moved from Haaren to Beekvliet in May 1942, they were transferred to the boys’ boarding school De Ruwenberg in Sint-Michielsgestel on 29 October 1942.
To distinguish them from the Indonesian hostages, who were also referred to as reprisal hostages, the Dutch hostages were called preventive hostages. In addition to these internees, groups of hostages were also brought to Beekvliet who had previously been held hostage or arrested elsewhere, such as in the Schoorl, Amersfoort and Buchenwald camps. Usually these were named after the camp of origin.
Taking Dutch nationals hostage was also sometimes a reaction by the German occupying forces to local events and was then seen as retaliation. For example, during disturbances between colporteurs of the Dutch Union and members of the WA of the NSB in Heerlen, 30 residents of that place were taken hostage. Of these, 26 were Dutch Union members.
On 12 August 1942, all permits and visiting arrangements on behalf of the hostages were revoked. Personal papers had to be handed in and 25 hostages were photographed with a no on their chest. The following 15 August, because of acts of sabotage in Rotterdam, five hostages were put to death on the De Rovert estate in Goirle. On 16 October 1942, three hostages were murdered by the Germans with 12 other Dutch people in the woods near Woudenberg.
In November 1942 and January 1943, the hostages from Haaren were transferred to Beekvliet and the Harineezen were united with the Gestel people. Some hostages who were discharged and allowed to go home were given reporting duties. They had to report to the local police or another authority daily or several times a week. The turnover was very high. Hostages were regularly released and new ones replaced them.
On 5 September 1944, the Beekvliet hostage camp ceased to exist. The remaining hostages were transported to the Vught concentration camp. During the transport to Vught, eight hostages managed to escape. The remaining hostages were released after several days.
Audio interviews hostages
Saskia Janssens
