Het Verscholen Dorp

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20160517 Het verscholen dorp2 Vierhouten.jpg
20160517 Het verscholen dorp1 Vierhouten.jpg
Faithfully recreated huts of the Verscholen Dorp (2016)
Memorial stone for Aunt Cor and Grandpa Bakker (2017)

Het Verscholen Dorp ( German  Das Versteckte Dorf ), also Pas-op-kamp , was an area with underground houses near Vierhouten , in which up to 120 people were hidden during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II . Today the Verscholen Dorp from replica huts is an open-air museum .

history

Plant of the village

Youth hostel De Paasheuvel (2009)

In the course of the occupation by the Germans, the number of people in hiding in the Netherlands grew. For example, the hiding places in the Ermelo area , Nunspeet , Epe , Doornspijk and Vierhouten reached the limits of their capacity . In addition, the risk of exposure increased steadily.

In collaboration with Cornelia Johanna Bakker-van Rheenen (1900–1989) and Dionisius Dirk Bakker (1879–1945) - called Aunt Cor and Grandpa Bakker - Edouard Henri von Baumhauer (1890–1950) left it in the dense forests near Vierhouten today build so-called Verscholen Dorp . Von Baumhauer (De Boem) came from a respected family of German descent and was a lawyer by profession. He had numerous international contacts and was well informed about the fate of the Jews in Germany. He was arrested in May 1942 and spent more than six months in Sint-Michielsgestel prison . Bakker was a member of the Nederlandse Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (NBS), an association of Dutch resistance groups led by Prince Bernhard .

Von Baumhauer initially planned to use a forester's house behind the Pas Op farm as a hiding place; however, the forester advised against it, as the house was too close to walking paths. You have to hide the people who have gone into hiding deeper in the forest, since you are safer from patrols there . From May 1943 the first people were housed in a sheepfold and in a tent, but then a total of twelve simple huts were built, some of them halfway, others completely underground; the camp was called Pas-op-kamp .

Life in hiding

At times 120 people lived in this camp, most of them Jews, plus a German deserter named Peter , three Dutch police officers who did not want to work under the National Socialists , shot down Allied pilots from the USA and Great Britain , one Pole, one Russian and one Italian. Aunt Cor and Grandpa Bakker organized the care of the hidden people. Since the camp did not have access to drinking water, it had to be fetched from the surrounding houses in the evening until resistance fighters installed a water pump near the camp. Medical care was provided by two doctors who also lived hidden in Verscholen Dorp . The children were tutored by students from the camp to keep them busy and calm. The individual huts were given names such as AM-hut (Anti- Moffen -Hütte) , BIM-hut ( Beatrix - Irene - Margriet ) or Oranjehaven . They were equipped with beds, heaters, butane cylinders, bandage drums and a stretcher. Every day a group of volunteers from Nunspeet brought groceries, toys, clean laundry and the latest news.

Because of the cramped and dangerous situation, there was tension among the residents, some of them suffered from "boskolder" ("forest fever"). There were strict rules of conduct: the camp was divided into four sections by firebreaks , and the residents were only allowed to move very quietly in their own section in the evening. One of the resistance fighters made the mistake of filming the village and the film was found by the Germans during a house search. The Dorp was then immediately evacuated for a few days until it turned out that the film had been rendered unusable - whether through the carelessness of the occupiers or, at the instigation of Edouard von Baumhauer, deliberately by a Dutch employee of the laboratory, is unclear.

discovery

On October 29, 1944, the village was accidentally discovered by two members of the SS Volunteer Grenadier Regiment "Landstorm Nederland" , a Dutchman and a German, who were on the hunt and observed a boy fetching water for the hiding people . They fired warning shots and shouted, "Come out," which is why most people were able to flee. The SS men had a hundred reinforcements fetched from the nearby youth hostel of the socialist youth workers De Paasheuvel and the school in Vierhouten , where they were staying .

Eight Jewish people, including six-year-old John Roelof Meijers and the German deserter Peter , were captured in the hours that followed, and the village was destroyed. Peter told the men from the Landstorm that he had been held captive in the camp, which he was not believed. The boy's father, Arend Samuel Meijers, tried to escape with another man, but returned when he heard his son scream. The 66-year-old diabetic Kaatje Gompes-Schoonhoed died on the night of October 31st due to exhaustion and a lack of insulin ; her husband was killed with a hand grenade; the two bodies were thrown into a pit together. The remaining people are said to have been shot the following day; the later statements of the Landstorm men about the course of the events are contradictory. Some of these witnesses stated, for example, that the Gompes couple only appeared exhausted and sick in Paasheuvel after the execution of the other six people and that Kaatje Gompes then died. At least 83 people, including the wife and daughter of Arend Samuel Meijers, escaped and were hidden again by the resistance; most of them survived the occupation.

The German soldier Peter was supposed to be taken to Harderwijk on foot under the watchful eye of a man , but managed to escape on the way. He was given false papers by the resistance and found shelter with a family in Oldebroek . There was a secret shooting cellar, where Peter made himself useful to the resistance as a weapons maker and shooting instructor. Peter experienced the liberation of the place on April 15, 1945; his full name and further fate are unknown.

Opa Bakker was executed by the Germans in Varsseveld on March 2, 1945 as part of a retaliatory measure, together with 47 other resistance fighters , after he had been arrested by chance on the street. Until the end of the war , Edouard von Baumhauer and his wife Hermen von Baumhauer-Ribbink (1895–1986) hid Jewish people in their villa, which had seven bedrooms with 25 beds.

Honors

In 1947 Grandpa Bakker was posthumously honored with the US Medal of Freedom , because US soldiers were hidden in Verscholen Dorp and had survived. On June 16, 1964, the Bakkers were honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations . In 1984 Cor Bakker and Edouard von Baumhauer's widow received the Verzetsherdenkingskruis (Resistance Memorial Cross), as did their husbands, who had died in the meantime. Hermina and Edouard von Baumhauer were accepted into the circle of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem on July 20, 1999 . Other supporters of the Verscholen Dorp were also honored with the Verzetsherdenkingskruis .

memory

The so-called AM hut survived the end of the war and burned down in 1952. A true-to-original replica was created in its place in 1970 and a memorial stone for Aunt Cor and Grandpa Bakker was unveiled. In 1991 the Stichting Het Verscholen Dorp was founded. In 1995 two more huts were built that can be viewed. An exhibition on the Verscholen Dorp has been set up in the lobby of the nearby Hotel De Vossenberg . Every year, the foundation organizes a memorial event on the Nationale Dodenherdenking , May 4th, at the Verscholen Dorp .

Blackboard with a poem by Ida Vos (2016).

At Verscholen Dorp there is also a memorial to the people killed Arnold de Leeuw, Louisa Mathilda de Leeuw-Weijl, Johan de Leeuw, Arend Samuel Meijers, John Roelof Meijers, Hartog Spijer, Max Gompes and Kaatje Gompes-Schoonhoed. It was placed in the place where they were executed. Nearby is a plaque with a poem by Ida Vos .

literature

  • Imogen Matthews: The Hidden Village: A Story of Survival in WW2 Holland . Amsterdam Publishers, 2017, ISBN 978-94-92371-25-6 (English). (Novel)
  • Henrica Judith van Nijnatten-Doffegnies: Het secret dorp . Kok ten Have, 1976, ISBN 978-90-266-2672-2 (Dutch). (Novel)
  • Aart Visser: Het Verscholen Dorp . 8th edition. Bredewold, 2014, ISBN 978-90-821664-0-8 (Dutch).
  • Janet Wees: De jongen in de schaduw. Walter duikt onder in het verscholen dorp . Callenbach, 2018, ISBN 978-90-266-2266-3 (Dutch). (Novel)

Web links

Commons : Verscholen Dorp  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Verscholen Dorp in Vierhouten. In: go2war2.nl. Retrieved October 21, 2018 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ The family originally came from the Coesfeld area and had been a merchant in the Netherlands since the 18th century. One of the family's ancestors was the Monschau cloth manufacturer Bernhard Georg von Scheibler . Edouard Henri Baumhauer's grandfather was the chemist Eduard Heinrich von Baumhauer (1820–1885), his brother the aviation pioneer Albert Gillis von Baumhauer (1891–1939). His son Eduard Mari von Baumhauer (1920-1941) was also active in the resistance and drowned in February 1941 together with his friend Arnold Cohen on the way to England with a self-made boat in the North Sea. Inventory of the archief van de Baumhauer family, 1513–2005. Accessed October 25, 2018.
  3. ↑ Bakker, Dionisius Dirk. In: tracesofwar.com. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c Vierhouten, Het Verscholen Dorp. In: 4en5mei.nl. September 4, 2017, accessed October 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  5. ^ The Secret Village. In: Exciting History. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Visser, Het Verscholen Dorp , p. 177.
  7. ↑ a b Visser, Het Verscholen Dorp , p. 179.
  8. ↑ a b c "Raus du Jude, raus": de toevallige ontdekking van het Verscholen Dorp. In: omroepgelderland.nl. Retrieved October 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  9. ↑ Visser, Het Verscholen Dorp , p. 182.
  10. ↑ Visser, Het Verscholen Dorp , p. 187.
  11. ↑ a b Baumhauer von Family. In: The Righteous Among The Nations. Retrieved October 23, 2018 .
  12. ^ Bakker family. In: The Righteous Among The Nations. Retrieved October 23, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Verzetsherdenkingskruis. In: go2war2.nl. April 23, 1915, accessed October 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  14. ^ Verscholendorp> De stichting> Oprichting stichting. In: verscholendorp.eu. Retrieved October 23, 2018 (Dutch).
  15. ↑ Verscholendorp> Het onderduikerskamp> Het verhaal van het Verscholen Dorp. In: verscholendorp.eu. Retrieved October 23, 2018 (Dutch).
  16. ^ Verscholendorp> Expositie. In: verscholendorp.eu. Retrieved October 24, 2018 (Dutch).
  17. ↑ Home. In: verscholendorp.eu. Retrieved October 29, 2018 (Dutch).

Coordinates: 52 ° 20 ′ 9.6 "  N , 5 ° 52 ′ 20.4"  E