Cor Wals

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Cor Wals with his first wife Antonetta in 1934

Cornelis Dirk "Cor" Wals (born February 26, 1911 in The Hague ; † April 5, 1994 in Veldhoven ) was a Dutch cyclist .

Athletic career

Cor Wals was the son of Jakob Wals, a wholesaler in cheese, eggs and poultry. Against the will of his parents, the son decided to pursue a career as a cyclist; However, they initially supported him financially in the hope that he would change his mind after failure. However, Wals made a "lightning career" as a cyclist.

As early as 1931 Cor Wals got contracts for the six-day races in Chicago and New York and in the following years made a name for himself as a six-day driver; because of his unparalleled sense of balance, which saved him from falling, he was nicknamed "Slingerplant" (Dutch: creeper). He took part in 39 races, of which he won seven, five of them with Jan Pijnenburg . He was also three times Dutch master of the stayers . In 1939 Wals qualified for the final of the UCI track world championships in this discipline, but this was not carried out because of the outbreak of World War II .

Role in National Socialism

On December 31, 1939, the German racing cyclist Albert Richter was arrested on a train heading for Switzerland at the border for foreign exchange smuggling; a few days later he was found dead in his cell in the prison in Loerrach . The official death reports ranged from a skiing accident to "shot while trying to escape". Cor Wals and his Dutch racing driver colleague Kees Pellenaars happened to be on the same train, witnessed the arrest and made it public in a Dutch newspaper. The Nazi sports leadership reacted to this with another version of a suicide in the prison cell. Without the testimony of the two Dutchmen, Richter's arrest might never have been made public.

A year later, in 1941, Cor Wals lost the sympathy of many of his compatriots because he appeared at the Dutch championships in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam in a shirt with the SS emblem and a Hitler salute. After winning the standing championship, he was whistled on his lap of honor and pelted with cushions. He had already been whistled by the audience at a race in Wageningen because of his well-known pro-German attitude .

Subsequently, Wals was no longer committed to racing in the Netherlands; According to other accounts, he ended his cycling career of his own accord, with the intention of resuming it after a final victory for the Germans. At this point he had been a member of the SS for a year and a little later became a member of the Dutch SS . He was driven by fanatical anti-communism and the conviction that only the National Socialists could avert the “red threat”. In 1941 he went to Klagenfurt to train . From February to November 1943 he fought on the Eastern Front against the Red Army . He then worked as a guard in various concentration camps . In 1947 Wals was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for his active role in the use of Dutch slave labor in Russia.

Pellenaars, who had also been a member of the SS, successfully portrayed himself as "seduced" by Wals in 1947 and got away without punishment. The two friends got into such an argument about this that they never spoke to each other until the end of their lives. In later years, Wals publicly apologized for his "stupidity"; he was rightly punished.

Later years

In 1952 Wals was released early from prison and lived in seclusion in Tilburg until it became public knowledge that he had married the widow of the Dutch cyclist Jan van Hout, who had died in Neuengamme concentration camp . There were even - false - rumors that Wals was supposed to have been assigned to Neuengamme to guard Van Hout. Due to public outrage, the Wals moved to Lommel in Belgium, where they lived until their return to the Netherlands in 1981. Cor Wals worked as a sales representative for textiles. In an interview from 1982 Anneke Wals-Louwers stated: "Hij was kapot, hij had zijn leed, ik had mijn leed." (Dutch = he was broken, he was suffering, I was suffering.) She is the sister of the popular Dutch football player Jan Louwers , after whom a football stadium in Eindhoven is named.

In 1992 Wals was asked to give the starting signal for the Sixdays in the Sportpaleis of Antwerp on the 65th anniversary of his six-day victory there with Pijnenburg . The Dutch historian Frans Oudejans: "Het applaus bij die habenheid raakte hem diep, als een wrange herinnering aan de glorie die hij in bezettingstijd verspeelde." (Dutch = the applause on this occasion touched him very much, as a bitter memory of fame that he gambled away during the occupation. ")

literature

  • Peter Ouwerkerk: Op de Rotterdamse latten , Rotterdam 2006, p. 28f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Frans Oudejans: Wals, Cornelis Dirk (1911-1994). In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. November 12, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Rob De Haan: De SS'er won het NK. In: nu.nl. January 5, 2011, accessed January 29, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Renate Franz: The Forgotten World Champion , Bielefeld 2007, p. 133.
  4. ↑ Vrij Nederland , Amsterdam 1979, p. 28 ff.
  5. ^ Frits Barend / Henk van Dorp: Mijn Verhaal . Interview with Anneke Wals-Louwers, newspaper article around 1982
  6. ^ Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis: "Wals, Cornelis Dirk (1911–1994)", accessed on May 12, 2010 (Dutch)
personal data
SURNAME Wals, Cor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wals, Cornelis Dirk (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH The hague
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1994
Place of death Veldhoven