Dries Riphagen

Dries Riphagen

Bernardus Andreas "Dries" Riphagen (born September 7, 1909 in Amsterdam , † May 13, 1973 in Montreux ) was a Dutch criminal who collaborated with the German occupation authorities during the Second World War .

biography

Youth and the road to crime

Dries Riphagen was born the eighth child of an Amsterdam family, his father worked for the Navy . Riphagen's mother died when he was six, and his father married a second time but hardly cared for the children since he was an alcoholic . At the age of 14, Dries Riphagen came to the notorious training center for merchant shipping in Pollux and went to sea as an ordinary seaman from 1923 to 1924 . He then stayed for two years in the United States , where he worked for Standard Oil , came into contact with the criminal circles there and learned their methods. His later nickname Al Capone goes back to this time .

After his return from the USA, Riphagen joined the Nationaal-Socialistische Nederlandsche Arbeiderspartij (NSNAP), an extremely anti-Semitic small party whose goal was for the Netherlands to become a province of the German Reich . He became one of the leading figures of the Amsterdam underworld, pimp on the Rembrandtplein , developed a fondness for jewelry, jewels and gambling and traded in - partly stolen - used cars.

During the occupation

During the Second World War, Riphagen not only continued his criminal activities, but expanded them, in profitable cooperation with the German occupiers as a confidante of the German SD and later as an employee of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam . It was his job, together with his “colleagues” from the Amsterdam underworld, to uncover black market trafficking and to track down Jewish property that was supposed to be smuggled past the German currency regulations. As a bonus, the men received five to ten percent of the confiscated goods, but they also put a lot of valuables in their own pockets.

Dries Riphagen soon took part in the “Jewish hunt” himself, together with members of the Olij family, who were considered to be the feared “Jodenkloppers”. From 1943 he belonged to the Henneicke column , a group of investigators who looked for Jews in hiding. This group of around fifty was founded in 1942 by Wim Henneicke , the stateless son of a German immigrant; From March 4 to March 31, 1943 alone, the column, which consisted for the most part of professional criminals, delivered 3,190 Jewish people to the German authorities who were deported to the extermination camps. There was a bounty of 7.50 to 40 guilders per person . By the end of 1943, Riphagen had collected a small fortune, which he deposited in accounts in Belgium and Switzerland . The column also blackmailed Jewish people with the threat of deportation so that they would betray other people in hiding. Eventually the Henneicke column was disbanded because of corruption . In the last year of the war, Riphagen worked for the Hoffmann group of the SD in Assen , which specialized in tracking down Allied pilots and dropping weapons by the Allies .

After the end of the war

After the war, Dries Riphagen was wanted for treason against Jews and was held by the public prosecutor as responsible for the deaths of at least 200 people. Riphagen contacted the former resistance fighter and police chief of Enschede , Willem Evert Sanders , who wanted to make a deal with him. Riphagen was not handed over to the official authorities, but instead placed under house arrest as a "private prisoner" in exchange of information about collaborators and German-minded networks. He escaped in February 1946; Rumor has it that he was taken across the border in a hearse by his underworld friends. According to more recent information, the escape with the hearse was organized by two employees of the Dutch secret service Bureau Nationale Veiligheid , Frits and Piet Kerkhoven. From Belgium, according to later statements by his son Rob, he was cycling to Spain in three months .

In May 1946, Riphagen was stopped in Huesca , Spain , because he lacked the necessary personal papers. He was imprisoned in the local prison, but released on bail through the mediation of a Jesuit priest , with the condition that his papers be tidied up. He then got himself a Nansen pass , and Frits Kerkhoven provided him with clothes and shoes in which were hidden diamonds that Riphagen had left behind at Kerkhoven. When the Dutch judiciary found him - he was now in Madrid - he flew to Argentina on March 21, 1948 with a friend . His contact address there was also that of a Jesuit father; However, nothing is known of a possible connection with the so-called " rat lines ". The Dutch ambassador in Buenos Aires , Floris Carcilius Anne Baron van Pallandt, submitted an extradition request , which was based only on crimes such as car theft and robbery, which, in the opinion of the Argentine judiciary, had already expired and for which the evidence presented was too little.

The fact that Riphagen was not extradited to the Netherlands was most likely due to his good relationships. He was friends with a member of the Argentine Supreme Court, Rodolfo Valenzuela , who also worked as secretary to President Juan Perón . Through this he became acquainted with the presidential couple and stayed in contact with Perón until his death. He settled in Belgrano , a district of Buenos Aires, where he ran a photo press office and worked for the Perón secret service. He also organized boxing competitions in Luna Park for Jan Olij , his old friend from Amsterdam .

After Perón's fall, Riphagen returned to Europe and traveled around, mainly in Spain, Germany and Switzerland. He preferred to surround himself with wealthy women who also entertained him. His last known address was in Madrid. In 1973 Dries Riphagen, the "worst war criminal in Amsterdam", died of cancer in Montreux .

Work-up

In 2010 the two Dutch journalists and employees of the newspaper Het Parool , Bart Middelburg and René ter Steege published the book Riphagen, 'Al Capone', één van Nederlands largest oorlogsmisdadigers . The book is based, among other things, on interviews with Dries Riphagen's son, Rob, and Betje Wery , who had worked with the Germans.

In 2013, the broadcaster VPRO broadcast a television series about Dries Riphagen, in which the main character was portrayed by the actor Jeroen van Koningsbrugge . The script of the series is based on the book by Middelburg and ter Steege.

In 2016 the film Riphagen was released in the Netherlands by director Pieter Kuijpers based on a script by Thomas van der Ree and Paul Jan Nelisse; Jeroen van Koningsbrugge played the main role again.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Dries Riphagen (1909–1973). (No longer available online.) In: www.panorama.nl. December 15, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 5, 2015 (Dutch).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ Barbara Beuys: Life with the enemy . Amsterdam under German occupation 1940–1945. Munich 2012, p. o. p . ( google.de [accessed on January 5, 2015]).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Bart Middelburg / René ter Stege: Secret service smokkelde Jodenjager in Lijkkist land uit. Het Parool, April 17, 2010, accessed January 5, 2015 (Dutch).  Dries Riphagen's wife was later Frits Kerkhoven's partner.
4. ^ Jochem Botmann: Dries Riphagen (1909-1973). Go2War2.nl, February 13, 2006, accessed January 5, 2015 (Dutch). 
5. ↑ Riphagen (2016). Retrieved October 22, 2016 .