Oud Aalten

Heritage belongs to everyone

Category: War & Resistance

  • Lordship of Bredevoort

    Lordship of Bredevoort

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    County of Lohn

    The former Lordship of Bredevoort was originally part of the County of Lohn, which likely originated in the 11th century. In 1152, this county included the parishes of Lohn, Winterswijk, Aalten, Varsseveld, Zelhem, and Hengelo (G). In their pursuit of independence, the Counts of Lohn came into conflict with the Bishop of Münster, whose suzerainty they eventually had to recognize in 1152. In 1246, half of the Bredevoort Castle was owned by Count Herman of Lohn, who in that year granted his share as a fief to Count Otto of Guelders.

    Upon the death of the last Count of Lohn in 1316, his territory disintegrated. The parishes of Varsseveld and Silvolde went to the Lord of Wisch; the parishes of Zelhem and Hengelo had already been sold to Guelders. In 1316, the Bishop of Münster purchased half of Bredevoort Castle, along with its share of Lohnish rights, from Otto van Ahaus, one of the heirs. The other half of the castle had already been in episcopal possession since 1284.

    County of Guelders

    This purchase led to a dispute between Münster and Guelders, resulting in a war in 1324. Count Reinald of Guelders invaded the Bishopric of Münster and was defeated at Coesfeld, though he had already conquered Bredevoort. At the peace treaty concluded in Wesel in 1326, Reinald retained Bredevoort and received the jurisdictions of the surrounding parishes of Aalten, Dinxperlo, and Winterswijk as a pledge. The Bishop of Münster was entitled to redeem this pledge at any time for 3,500 gold marks, which, however, never occurred. From 1326 onwards, the area became an independent territory administered by a ducal official.

    Gemen and Steinfurt Pledge (1388-1526)

    In 1388, William of Jülich, as Duke of Guelders, pledged his castle, town, and the District of Bredevoort with its three parishes to Lord Henry III of Gemen in exchange for a substantial loan. Successive generations of this family remained pledge-holders of the lordship until 1492, when the pledge passed to his heirs and subsequently to the Counts of Bentheim-Steinfurt. It was not until 1526 that Duke Charles of Guelders redeemed the pledge and took the lordship back under his own administration. In 1534, he entrusted Bredevoort to his commander Marten van Rossum, who received the lordship as a pledge in 1545 from Emperor Charles V, the legal successor to the Dukes of Guelders.

    Anholt Pledge (1562-1612)

    When Van Rossum died in 1555, the pledge passed via Johan van Isendoorn to Hendrik van Isendoorn à Blois, who received the pledge sum back in 1562. King Philip II of Spain, acting as Duke of Guelders, then pledged the lordship for 50,000 Flemish shields to his vassal Dietrich van Bronckhorst-Batenburg. He was the Lord of neighboring Anholt in Westphalia, who already possessed many properties and rights within the Lordship of Bredevoort.

    After the Reformation, the Lords of Anholt remained Roman Catholic and aligned with the Spanish side. Consequently, Bredevoort was besieged and conquered by Prince Maurice of Nassau in 1597. Lady Gertrud von Milendonck, the widow of Jacob van Bronckhorst-Batenburg, had the lordship returned to her by the Republic in 1602. However, the pledge was redeemed by the States of Gelderland in 1612 and subsequently taken over by Prince Maurice.

    Many archival documents concerning the period 1526-1612 are located in the Bredevoort Collection within the Fürstlich Salm-Salmsches Archiv at the Wasserburg Anholt near Isselburg (D). Older documents from before 1562 were likely transferred to their house archive at the time by order of the Anholt pledge-holders as evidence of their rights. After the termination of the

    Pledge City of the House of Orange

    In 1697, Bredevoort was granted as a free lordship to King-Stadtholder William III, whose heirs possessed it until 1795.

    In 1986, the 1726 regulations for the gatekeepers in Bredevoort were received from the National Archives in Friesland, part of the Fries Genootschap collection.

    In the house archive of the former inn De Leste Stuver in Bredevoort, held in Aalten, there is an almanac used by the Stadtholder or the Land Scribe as a pocket diary during the period 1737/38.

    In 1646, the castle at Bredevoort was destroyed due to a lightning strike on the gunpowder tower. It took over 50 years before new housing was realized. In 1699, a new chancery, the Ambthuis, was built on Landstraat in Bredevoort.

    District of Bredevoort (1795-1811)

    After the Batavian Revolution in 1795, the possessions of the House of Orange were declared forfeit; the Lordship of Bredevoort was placed under civil administration. In 1798, the lordships were officially abolished. The former municipalities of Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo, and Winterswijk were established in 1795 and abolished in 1798. Following the abolition of the lordships in 1798, the former municipality of Lichtenvoorde was added to the District of Bredevoort and separated from it again in 1802.

    In 1994, Dr. G.J.H. Krosenbrink of Winterswijk donated a report concerning the administrative organization of the old District, prepared for the new District administration in the period 1798-1802, originating from the then-district board member H. Willink Azn. of Winterswijk.

    The District of Bredevoort remained in existence as an administrative unit until the French occupation. In the years 1811 and 1812, it was divided into the Mairies of Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo, and Winterswijk.

    The archive of the District was kept at the chancery, the Ambthuis in Bredevoort. In 1795, it was seized and inventoried by order of the Provisional Government, after which it was placed under the management of the secretary of the Municipality of Aalten. After the French occupation, during the restoration of Dutch administration, documents were removed from the archive and transferred to the new municipalities of Aalten, Dinxperlo, and Winterswijk. The former steward J.B. Roelvink of the Nassau Domains also retained the chancery archive, which was unfortunately destroyed by a legal successor in 1985.

    Administration

    Bredevoort was originally a small ‘borgman’ town based on the Westphalian model. The noble defenders of the castle lived in fortified houses on the outer bailey, which consequently took on the character of a fortress. In the neighboring Bishopric of Münster, such ‘borgmannen’ exercised authority and jurisdiction over their staff and the serf inhabitants of the castle complexes they managed in Horstmar and Nienborg.

    Upon the transfer of Bredevoort in 1326, the Bishop of Münster released his Bredevoort ‘borgmannen’ from their oath so they could enter Guelders’ service. In 1503, the Bredevoort ‘borgmannen’ obtained similar privileges from the then-pledge-holder, Everwijn van Steinfurt. However, no city rights for Bredevoort have survived. The military and administrative role of the ‘borgmannen’ ended after the defense was entrusted to a garrison during the 16th century.

    The daily administration of the Lordship of Bredevoort rested with the Drost (Bailiff). Following the Münster occupation during the war years 1672-1674, a separate urban administration of a stadtholder and regents of the city of Bredevoort existed briefly within the walls. The Drost often also served as the Richter (Judge). Jurisdiction was provided by the Richter with two ‘keurnoten’ (assessors). The court was held once every two weeks in Aalten, Bredevoort, and Winterswijk. Court days for Dinxperlo were held in Aalten.

    Jurisdiction in the city of Bredevoort was exercised by the Richter of the lordship with two ‘keurnoten’, as in the other parishes. Other officials at the court were the Land Scribe (secretary) and the Advocate-Fiscal (public prosecutor). The Land Scribe also served as the secretary to the Drost. Since the latter usually did not reside in the lordship, the Land Scribe often also acted as his deputy as acting-Drost or Stadtholder. Bredevoort had a fortress commander, the “Commandeur der Forteresse”. This position was often combined with that of acting-Drost in a single person. Furthermore, there was a whole series of lower officials, including a gauger, a tool sharpener, a surveyor, and armenjagers (rural constables).

    Due to the fact that members of the noble Van Pallandt family and the related families of Van Lintelo and Van Coeverden held the position of Drost of Bredevoort for a long time, a large number of documents concerning Bredevoort matters from the period 1638-1796 are also found in the archive of House Keppel, likewise held at the Gelders Archief in Arnhem.

    The last Drost of the District of Bredevoort, since the Batavian Revolution in 1795, was the Winterswijk citizen W. Paschen Gzn. of Winterswijk. His accounts for the period August 1808 – March 1811 were audited and deposited in Winterswijk on September 4, 1812, by the joint mayors of Aalten, Bredevoort, Dinxperlo, and Winterswijk. As early as 1811, Paschen, as temporary mayor of Winterswijk, requested the former Land Scribe to transfer documents concerning Winterswijk matters. According to a letter in the archive of the Municipality of Winterswijk, a chest of archival records was transported by wheelbarrow from Aalten to Winterswijk in 1813. The selection process at the time was somewhat arbitrary, so other Bredevoort documents also ended up in Winterswijk. Steward J.B. Roelvink also transferred Bredevoort documents to the Mayor of Winterswijk in 1815. Incidentally, Lichtenvoorde was only part of the District during the years 1798-1802.

    Since 1612, officials were appointed by the Nassau Domain Council. For appointment data, see the so-called ‘Ambtboek’, held in the archive of the aforementioned Domain Council at the National Archives in The Hague. Information on appointments in the District of Bredevoort can also be found in the archive of the Drost and Geërfden, inv. nos. 22-33, and in the archival collection Local Government Winterswijk, inv. no. 14. Through the Drosten, many personnel records also ended up in the Keppel house archive, held at the Gelders Archief in Arnhem.

    Besides the city of Bredevoort, the lordship consisted of three judicial districts, which coincided with the three parishes of Aalten, Dinxperlo, and Winterswijk. In each parish, a ‘voogd’ (warden) and one or two ‘ondervoogden’ (sub-wardens) were appointed, acting as intermediaries between the inhabitants of the parishes and the administration in Bredevoort. Each parish consisted of a village and a number of rural districts, called guilds, which were divided into wards. These were headed by ward and guild masters, who were responsible for the further dissemination of messages and the execution of orders. Additionally, each rural district had a messenger, an office tied to a specific farm.

    Financial matters were handled per parish by the local ‘geërfden’ (landed stakeholders). These representatives of the population were delegated per village and rural district and were accountable to the Drost. The town of Bredevoort had its own Steward, who acted on behalf of the local ‘geërfden’. Each parish had its own collector of the ‘verponding’ (land tax). In Bredevoort, the ward masters sometimes acted collectively as collectors of the ‘verponding’. The churchwardens in each parish, responsible for managing the capital and property of the local church, were elected from the ‘geërfden’ and had to provide accounts to the Drost and their fellow ‘geërfden’. Alongside the ‘diaconie’ as a church institution, there was also a secular institution for poor relief, the ‘provisorie’. Like the churchwardens, ‘provisoren’ were elected from the ‘geërfden’ and were required to account for their management in the same manner.

    Sources

  • Fallen in the organized resistance

    Fallen in the organized resistance

    Köstersbulte, Aalten

    On the lawn of the Old Helena Church on the Markt in Aalten is a special memorial stone. The bronze plaque on the stone mentions the names of seven resistance fighters within the organized resistance in Aalten.

    The resistance during the Second World War (1940-1945) only developed in the course of the war. As the measures of the German occupying forces became stricter, small groups arose that resisted the occupation, initially with limited resources. As the war progressed, more and more people got into trouble. The small resistance groups grew in strength due to the increase in the number of members, but also due to the networks that arose between the various resistance groups.

    Within the resistance, two main currents could be distinguished. The first group was the National Organization for Help to People in Hiding (LO). This group organized hiding places for Jews, for men who refused to work for the enemy in Germany, and for resistance fighters who had to go into hiding. The LO was dependent on sufficient ration coupons for the food supply to the people in hiding . The second group, the Knokploegen (KP), took care of that. This armed group carried out raids on distribution offices, tried to sabotage the enemy at vital points and in the last phase of the war prepared to assist the Allied troops in the liberation of the Netherlands.

    In the Achterhoek, especially in the region of Aalten, Lichtenvoorde and Winterswijk, the resistance was particularly active. Some of the resistance fighters lost their lives during the war. Those who survived the harsh time did not feel like heroes. Many testified to the fear they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. The courageous acts of the resistance are recorded in several books.

    The names of the fallen (click on the links for more information):

    Memorial Fallen in the Organized Resistance, Market Aalten

    Sources

  • People in hiding

    People in hiding

    ‘Hide the outcasts; Do not betray him who escapes’. This text (Isaiah 16:3) was used by several pastors at the beginning of World War II. With this, the congregation members were called upon to contribute to helping people fleeing the Nazi regime. And with success: at one point, one in five residents of Aalten was in hiding, relatively more than anywhere else in the Netherlands.

    The inhabitants of Aalten played an important role in protecting people in hiding during the war. Their courage and determination have saved the lives of many. The church’s involvement, close family ties and rural location are seen as reasons for the great willingness to offer help. It is relatively easier to hide people in a remote farmyard than in a city. But despite that, helping people in hiding and other refugees took a lot of courage and sometimes cost lives.

    Hiding and resistance

    During the war years, there were several reasons why people chose to go into hiding. For example, Jews tried to escape deportation to concentration camps. In addition, there were people who wanted to avoid the Arbeitseinsatz or who wanted to resist the German occupier.

    Heleen Kuipers-Rietberg from Winterswijk, better known as Aunt Riek, provided hiding places for many people who refused to work and Jews. Together with Uncle Jan Wikkerink, a contractor from Aalten and leader of the local resistance organization, and with Reverend Slomp, she stood at the cradle of the National Hiding Organization (LO).

    People in hiding were often hidden in attics, in barns, in secret rooms or in remote places in the landscape. Although there was always a risk of betrayal and arrest, relatively few people in hiding in Aalten were discovered by the German occupiers. The local population had a strong mutual solidarity and the resistance was well organized. Moreover, there was an active network that helped people in hiding to cross the border to safer areas abroad.

    In 1947, former people in hiding presented the people of Aalten with a monument as a token of gratitude for their hospitality and to the resistance fighters who were the driving force in accommodating the people in hiding. The monument is located in the Stationsstraat, opposite the train station.

    Secret Door - Nationaal Onderduikmuseum, Aalten
    Secret door, Markt 12 in Aalten (Nationaal Onderduikmuseum)

    On June 9, 1945, Dagblad Trouw wrote:

    Aalten a record?

    Most probably the beautiful village in the Gelderschen Achterhoek Aalten was the place that housed proportionally the most people in hiding during the war. The village has only 11,000 inhabitants and no less than 2500 people were placed in hiding. For the time being, we will be able to assume that this is a record in the Netherlands.

    Aalten’s task is not finished with this. Above this number, there have been hundreds of children, especially from Rotterdam and the surrounding area, who have spent their summer holidays there. We are not exaggerating that thousands in the country have benefited from the hundreds of thousands of rye bread, bags of flour and oatmeal, bacon and eggs, which have been sent into the country from this village. The director of the Aalten post office bore the name among his colleagues of rye bread director.

    We will remain grateful to Aalten for this war activity. The 2500 people in hiding are too. They sent a request to H.M. the Queen and asked her to visit Aalten during a trip through the liberated Netherlands. We sincerely hope that it will happen. Aalten deserves it.

    Almost a quarter of a century after the liberation, on March 14, 1970, the newspaper Trouw wrote in an article about a planned reunion of former people in hiding and former combatants:

    In the years that the Germans occupied the Netherlands, in the small, agricultural town of Aalten, there was hardly a house in which there were no people in hiding. The people who live there are closed by nature. The Hague resident and the Amsterdammer, who went under water, had to get used to it. The Germans too, by the way, and once an SD officer spoke in anger of ‘abscheuliche Leute’ and he added: ‘Wir sind Luft, Luft!’ However, the silence of the Aaltenaar has benefited many people in hiding.

    During the war years, Rev. J. Klijn (of De Open Deur), Rev. P. Kuyper and Rev. J. van Dijken respectively as a reformed, reformed and christian-reformed minister. One evening, two farmers, who had made a long bike ride for it, arrived at one of the three rectories. It matters little which one. They told the preacher about a naober, who was unwilling to take in people in hiding. In some houses there are eight, why doesn’t he want to accommodate one? Can’t the pastor go and talk to that man and point out his responsibility? They get the promise from the pastor that he will exchange a hearty word with the brother in question. It turned out not to be necessary. On the day that the Allied tanks thunder into Aalten, the farmer, who has been complained about, stands in front of his stee, laughing and waving. He is there with his wife and his family, but also with a bunch of Jews. He accommodated them, without the nearest neighbors having any suspicion of it.

    Not all Jews who were given shelter in Aalten survived the years of occupation. A number of them were discovered, sent to Poland and liquidated there.

    Church services

    Aalten would not be Aalten if it had only provided the people in hiding with equipment. The churches held special church services for people in hiding, usually on remote farms, where people met in smaller groups. The congregation of God started to function here as a hidden church, in the summer the services were held on the deel, in the winter in the large Achterhoek kitchen. People did not ‘go’ in large numbers, but came with two or three people at a time. Guard posts were often posted to be alert to danger. There were also special catechisms for people in hiding. Even separate Jewish catechisms. A number of Jews came to believe in the Messiah.

    At the beginning of ’44, during a regular service in the Reformed Westerkerk, the Germans surrounded the church. One young man who left the church in Scheveningen women’s clothes escaped. How did that boy get that Scheveningen robe? In passing, Aalten had also hospitably welcomed a large group of Scheveningers who had to leave the coastal region. 48 people in hiding were loaded into a truck and transported to Amersfoort, and from there for a large part to Germany. The Christian Reformed Church was also attacked on a Sunday. A dozen people in hiding were caught.

    Some boys did not return. In an issue of De Open Deur, which appeared the following year, Rev. Klijn of a service that was held on Christmas Eve ’44 on a farm in Aalten. We quote a few passages: “The Christmas Gospel was read in many wonderful places last year, in that time of need and misery, of shelters and shelters. But it was robbery in order. Also here in this simple peasant kitchen with its international circle of resistance fighters, herded together from all over the world; Achterhoek farm boys, heavily wanted illegals, navy people in hiding and secretarial staff, and allied pilots from San Francisco and Florida. Brighton and Plato Sask, Canada. It was as quiet as in a church, when the familiar words of Luke 2 were read, first in Dutch and then from the Moffat translation in English. And there was a twilight of emotion over some of those tough faces, when the old Christmas message came to them in their own language, here, so far from home, Christmas after all, the Christmas message: Today you have a Saviour born in the town of David, the Lord Messiah. And in the silence of Christmas night, their hearts, filled with thoughts of war by day and by night, knocked on the door of a different peace from that for which they were fighting, the peace of which the English sang: Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth for men whom the favours! By a puzzling achievement, the underground from the Achterhoek had also collected a few English church books and so the Christmas carols were sung bilingually: Honor be to God, Now sijt wellecome and the Silent Night, Holy Night, known all over the world…”

    Nationaal Onderduikmuseum

    Markt 12, Aalten. People in hiding were hidden here during the Second World War.
    ‘Hiding house’ Markt 12, Aalten

    To record the memory of this part of history and to keep it alive, the National Hiding Museum was established in Aalten. The museum focuses on showing and documenting the stories of people in hiding and the people who helped them. It shows how ordinary people can show courage and humanity in extraordinary circumstances.

    The museum is partly housed in a building with a special history of hiding: Markt 12. At the time, this was the home of a family with children, but people in hiding were (temporarily) hidden in the attic and the basement was the hiding place for local residents during bombings. Extra remarkable: the large living room had been requisitioned by the occupying forces and was used as an ‘Ortskommandatur’.

    More information about (a visit to) the Nationaal Onderduikmuseum: nationaalonderduikmuseum.nl

    Escape Room

    The Nationaal Onderduikmuseum also has an escape room. Players are confronted with issues and dilemmas that everyone will encounter when they have to flee. If you choose to flee from your world, you have to renounce what you know and know. You will have to do everything in your power to keep yourself going in your new situation.

    It is now important that you have insight into that new situation, have a sharp vision, so that you can recognize signs, dare to make decisions and distance yourself from what you have known until now. “Can you manage to dive under the radar, become invisible, become inaudible to the enemy?”

    More information: escaperoom-aalten.nl

    Escape Room, Aalten
  • Hidden in Aalten

    Hidden in Aalten

    Text: Ad Ermstrang

    During the final years of the Second World War, many people in hiding (onderduikers) found refuge in the Achterhoek region. Aalten topped the list, with an estimated 2,400 people pursued by the Germans. “The inhabitants were not only devout, but also linked that faith to providing shelter to those who had been driven from their homes.”

    Pieter Schaap (84) now lives in a tidy apartment in the centre of Aalten, having purchased the property with his wife, who is nearly 80, several years ago. “We lived a little further away, but the house was too big, and we could no longer keep up with the garden.”

    That is not to say that the Aalten resident and his wife are not spry. The couple regularly visits their children in the west of the Netherlands and travels by plane to visit a son in Norway. Pieter’s wife regrets that they can no longer make those trips by car and boat. “You see so much more that way.”

    The Aalten resident, distinguished by a thick shock of grey hair, still drives in the Netherlands. Among other things, he delivers meals for Tafeltje Dekje (Meals on Wheels). “But the physical ailments are starting to show. I recently had cataract surgery on one eye, and my hands shake a little; I can no longer write properly. I am considering stopping with the meal deliveries this year.”

    Spoiled butter

    Sixty-five years ago, Pieter Schaap came to the Achterhoek for the first time. The native of The Hague was forced to report to Winterswijk in late 1942 following a summons from the Germans, who were coercing young men into forced labour. “I reported to Kamp Vosseveld as instructed. It was very German there, very strict. We were allowed to go to church on Sundays, at least.”

    Schaap grew up in a Reformed family but later joined the Gereformeerde church. “After the service, the minister invited us for coffee. We were regularly allowed to stay for a meal. They thought we were starving in that camp. That wasn’t true, but as a young guy, you could always manage a bit extra.”

    Photo: Jan Ruland van den Brink

    He disliked the conditions. “We repaired backroads and replaced sections of railway track. Everything was done by hand. You only had a spade and a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, you were being drilled. We had to sing all sorts of nasty songs. I didn’t like the regime. I spoke about it, and then the minister said: ‘Why don’t you go into hiding?’ He said he could arrange an address. However, we were being watched closely; there were constant roll calls, making it impossible to escape. Until the moment we were served spoiled butter. That was early 1943; I don’t remember the exact date. Almost everyone had diarrhoea, and there was no roll call. That was when I slipped away. Together with Henk Bossemeijer, a lad from the Alphen aan den Rijn area.”

    Pieter and Henk exchanged their uniforms with a family in Winterswijk, donned civilian clothes that had been laid out for them, and boarded the train to Aalten. “The minister had said we would be taken care of. And indeed, we were met by members of the resistance. Through ‘Ome Jan‘, the leader in Aalten, we were given shelter for the night. The next day, we went to ‘t Paske farm in the rural district of Dale.”

    Schaap immediately felt that their presence was too much of a burden on the farming family. “The responsibility for two people in hiding was too great. ‘Do you know of another place for one of us?’ I asked. After a few weeks, I was able to go to ‘t Heegt farm in Lintelo, another rural district. There, with the Rensink family, I stayed until the end of the war.”

    A hollow above the horse stable

    The young man from the west with a technical background was quickly retrained as a farmer. He ploughed and harrowed the land using horses, cleaned stables, and fed the cows. “I even learned to milk, thanks to the family’s eldest daughter, who had just taken a course in it.”

    At first, Schaap slept in the opkamer (parlour) of the farmhouse. Later, a group of 500 people from Scheveningen arrived in Aalten, having been driven from their village by the Germans in connection with the construction of the Atlantikwall. Schaap remembers it well. “The Gereformeerde evacuees went to Aalten, while the Hervormde evacuees from Scheveningen went to Winterswijk. That had been agreed upon with the local churches. Some of the Scheveningen evacuees were also offered shelter at ‘t Heegt.”

    For the rest of the war, he slept in a hollow above the horse stable. “Above the manger where the horses ate. If I stood on that, I could just reach a small hatch that couldn’t be seen from below. I had a bed there, and some light fell in through a glass roof tile.”

    He was not there often. Pieter spent most of his time in the fields. The man in hiding did not find it truly dangerous. “We didn’t have much trouble from the Germans. We did have to watch out for landwachters (Dutch collaborators), but they were always spotted in this area long in advance. I would usually go to a piece of land further away, somewhat hidden behind the trees. Or I would crawl away. I never stayed on the farm if there was trouble.”

    A wagon full of crispbread

    He stayed at ‘t Heegt for two and a half years, amidst many other people in hiding. Aalten was teeming with them. “There were more and more of them. The Germans also began to notice, and on 30 January 1944, the Westerkerk was surrounded by SS soldiers during a service. A number of people in hiding tried in vain to escape past the organ. The churchgoers were checked and fined if they had left their identity cards at home.”

    The story of Gerrit Hoopman (19), a person in hiding, is well-known; in the chaos, he was provided with an outer skirt, a shawl, and a traditional headpiece by a woman from Scheveningen, allowing him to escape the church. That did not apply to a large group of other people in hiding; more than forty men were arrested.

    Schaap, a faithful visitor to the Westerkerk, was not there that day. “We felt it was becoming too dangerous, so that Sunday we organised a service in a secret location for one of the first times. We called that the ‘underground church’. We did that at farms, always at different addresses. Often one of the boys would lead the service; sometimes we had a minister.”

    Later, German soldiers were billeted at the farm. “They were young boys, paratroopers who no longer had any planes and therefore had to serve in the infantry.” He had little trouble from them. “To them, I belonged to the family. When they requisitioned a horse and wagon from the farmer at one point and gave the command ‘Bauer mit!’ (Farmer, come with us!), I jumped onto the driver’s seat. We headed toward Bocholt, but during a bombing raid, my passengers quickly disappeared—they looked for cover elsewhere. I waited for a while until I saw farmers with horses and wagons driving back and forth from a large warehouse in the area. I went over and said I had been sent to pick something up. I was given a wagon full of knäckebröd (crispbread), ha ha! I drove back with that.”

    He was also part of the farming family to others. “All those years, I was ‘Piet van ‘t Heegt’. Some people still know me by that name today. We were recently at a gathering where we met an acquaintance from that time. She lives in Zeeland now. ‘Hey, there’s Piet van ‘t Heegt,’ she said.”

    He did not suffer from hunger in the Achterhoek. “Every two weeks, I even sent a large rye bread to my parents. The postman was called ‘the baker’ at their place; he helped distribute the bread.”

    Until his retirement, Schaap worked as a technician for the Royal Netherlands Army. His pre-war ideal of becoming a marine engineer did not come to fruition due to the war. In the hamlet, Pieter met his future wife. “She lived a few farms away.” The courtship did not go smoothly, as her father thought she was too young, and after the liberation, Pieter signed up as a volunteer for the Dutch East Indies. Only years later did he return to Aalten, where the farmer’s daughter was still waiting for him. “We have now been married for 56 years. We were truly destined for one another.”

    Pieter Schaap passed away on 11 October 2013.

    For more information on the period in hiding: Nationaal Onderduikmuseum, Aalten

    Sources

  • Wolf Misslich († 1639)

    Wolf Misslich († 1639)

    Military officer and governor of Bredevoort

    Captain Wolf Misslich was the commander of the States’ garrison in Bredevoort during the early 17th century. In 1629, he participated in the capture of Wesel, for which he was rewarded by the States-General. Later that same year, he was appointed governor of the Lordship of Bredevoort. His substantial legacy to the poor established him as one of the greatest benefactors in the history of the town.

    From soldier to governor

    The capture of Wesel on August 19, 1629
    The capture of Wesel on August 19, 1629

    In August 1629, during the Eighty Years’ War, Gooswijn van der Lawick and Wolf Misslich (respectively the drossaard and military commander of Bredevoort) were ordered by Prince Frederick Henry to march to Emmerich with six hundred soldiers to participate in the capture of Wesel, a major fortified city then held by the Spanish.

    Misslich and his troops captured two Spanish redoubts on the Lippe. For his services, he received a gold medal valued at one hundred rijksdaalders from the States-General.1

    Following these military successes, Misslich was appointed governor of Bredevoort, a strategically located fortified town in the east of Gelderland.

    Family, legacy, and charity

    In a deed dated June 27, 1629, Misslich is referred to as “van Paterborn” (Paderborn), indicating his place of origin.2 He was initially married to Catharina van Jeveren; from this marriage, a daughter, Anna Margaretha, was born. Anna Margaretha married Captain Robert van Giffen; they had a daughter named Catharina. Both Anna Margaretha and her daughter passed away in the summer of 1639, shortly before Misslich himself. After the death of his first wife, Misslich remarried his maidservant, Nelleke Servaes.3

    In a will dated December 26, 1628, Misslich already demonstrated his philanthropic nature. In it, he bequeathed, among other things, 500 Carolus guilders to the poor of Emmerich; he named his daughter Anna Margaretha as the heir to the rest of his estate and also left five hundred guilders to his nephew (his namesake, Sergeant Wolf Misslich), three hundred guilders to his—then—maidservant Nelleken, and twenty rijksdaalders and a cloak to his servant Jurrien. 4

    His charitable work took further shape in the following years. In 1637, he purchased a house with a barn, garden, and appurtenances within the town of Bredevoort from the Deputies of the County of Zutphen, with the provision that the property would pass to the poor after his death.5 On July 13, 1639, he bequeathed 6,000 Carolus guilders to the New Orphanage in Zutphen and 100 rijksdaalders to the poor of Lochem.6

    The house of Misslich (Agnietenhuis)
    The house of Misslich (Agnietenhuis)

    However, the most well-known part of his legacy went to the poor of Bredevoort. According to his will, he left his house, garden, and associated lands to the city’s poor relief—a donation later estimated at 15,000 guilders, an exceptionally large sum for that time. This gift gave rise to the local saying: “The poor of Bredevoort are rich.” 7

    Misslich’s house was likely located near the Ambthuis. The rental income from the property was entirely dedicated to poor relief. Until the nineteenth century, the fund resulting from his legacy was still managed by the church’s deacons and provisors. In 1808, the fund still represented a value of over 6,000 guilders.

    One of the properties that passed to the poor of Bredevoort was the Erff und Guedt Lenckhoff in Aalten, which Misslich had purchased in 1638 from Count Georg Ernst van Limburg Stirum.8 This estate was situated in the area between the current Bodenvoor, Bredevoortsestraat, and Haartsestraat (later known as Lankhaverstegge) and extended to the Smees. The Lankhofstraat is named after it.

    Death

    Saint George's Church in the 19th century, then still plastered, by P.A. Schipperus
    Saint George’s Church in the 19th century (illustrative image)

    On August 1, 1639, Misslich transferred part of his assets to his son-in-law Robert van Giffen, including an estate in Nieuw Vossemeer near Steenbergen and significant annuities in the Veluwe and Emmerich.9

    Shortly thereafter, Misslich passed away; on August 17, 1639, his will was opened.10 He was buried in Saint George’s Church in Bredevoort.11

    In 1661, he is still mentioned in the archives as “the stern and valiant governor” in connection with the sale of a house “for the benefit of the poor”.12

    Wolf Misslich was not only a capable military officer and administrator but also a man with a profound social conscience. His generous donations ensured that the poor of Bredevoort received support for generations. Nearly four centuries after his death, his name lives on in the history of the town he served.

    Sources

    1. J.P de Bordes, ‘De verdediging van Nederland in 1629’ ↩︎
    2. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 27 juni 1629 ↩︎
    3. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 18 mei 1640 ↩︎
    4. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 26 december 1628 ↩︎
    5. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 1 mei 1637 ↩︎
    6. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 13 juli 1639 ↩︎
    7. H.A. Hauer, ‘Breevoort can ick vergeten niet’, 1956 ↩︎
    8. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 20 maart 1638 ↩︎
    9. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 1 augustus 1639 ↩︎
    10. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 17 augustus 1639 ↩︎
    11. Bredevoort.nu ↩︎
    12. Volontaire Protocollen Bredevoort, 21 augustus 1661 ↩︎
  • Aron Jedwab (Willem Herfstink)

    Aron Jedwab (Willem Herfstink)

    Jewish ‘foundling’, born in hiding

    In the early morning of 21 September 1943, Piet Hoogenkamp, the assistant of the Aalten general practitioner and resistance fighter Joop der Weduwen, placed a package in front of the house with address Patrimoniumstraat 12 in Aalten. Resistance leader Hendrik Jan Wikkerink alias Uncle Jan lives at that address with his family. The doorbell rings.

    The package turns out to be a newborn baby. He is the son of Lena Jedwab-Kropveld and Yitzack Jedwab, rabbi (pastor) of the Jewish community in Aalten. From mid-1942 the couple was in hiding on the De Ronde farm of the Veldboom family in Lintelo. Resistance leader Uncle Jan and doctor Der Weduwen have agreed in advance to lay the foundling.

    Foundling

    Daughter Jo Wikkerink later told about this:

    “We knew that the delivery was coming and the baby would be brought to us. Father and mother only told the oldest three. The youngest knew nothing. They could not talk past their mouths. Father and mother waited in the dark room in the evening. It seemed to the neighborhood as if they had gone to bed. When the doorbell rang, they knew the baby was there. They got the youngest out of bed and shouted in surprise: “Come and see what is there now!”

    The Jewish child was therefore born in hiding and was registered three days later by Mrs. Dela Wikkerink-Eppink with the name ‘Willem Herfstink’ and registered as such in the birth register of the municipality of Aalten. The name was chosen symbolically. Willem refers to Queen Wilhelmina, Herfstink to the first day of autumn (21 September) and the Saxon suffix ‘ink’ means ‘belonging to the yard or family of’.

    Because only a few people – such as doctors – were allowed to be on the street at one o’clock in the morning, four o’clock in the morning was given as the time when the baby was found. This made the investigation into the origin of the child considerably more difficult. “I sometimes came home late at night with a big belly by train. Then I had ‘contraband’ with me as if I was heavily pregnant. When Wimke was put on the sidewalk, they said: “That’s what they say, but it must be one of the girls.”

    Declared Aryan

    The next day, the municipal doctor on duty, Dr. Knol, had to examine the foundling. The baby was not circumcised and therefore he issued the declaration that the child was 100% Aryan. “The next day father immediately went to Schepers, who lived diagonally across from us (he worked at Paske). Father knew: if I tell it there, everyone in Aalten will know it immediately. Behind us, next to Vossers, lived an NSB woman. She was on her knees in front of Wimke’s crib to see if he had any Aryan features.”

    Lennie and Yitzchak had meanwhile moved to another hiding place in Lintelo. In June 1944, the resistance moved them in a hay-covered wagon to the house of Bernard and Gesina Wevers in the hamlet of Dale, behind the Ring Road, just outside the village of Aalten.

    Initially, they did not want to take the Jedwab couple into their home because they were already sheltering evacuees. A minister of the Reformed Church changed the pious Calvinists’ minds: he preached that the persecuted should be helped.

    Bernard, a carpenter, built them a room behind the closet where they spent all their time. Mrs. Wevers cooked for her Jewish guests as much as possible according to kosher rules.

    In the meantime, Willem had been lovingly taken into the family of the Wikkerink family. Especially mother Dela and eldest daughter Lien Wikkerink took care of ‘Wimke’ as they called him. Dela Wikkerink regularly walked with the baby in the pram to the hiding place of the Jewish parents in Dale. She often took some fruit from the vegetable garden with her in her bag. There were people in Aalten who said: “What does Mrs. Wikker always have to do with Wevers?”

    Towards the end of the war, two German soldiers were billeted in the Wevers house. While the soldiers were in the house, Lena and Yitzack sat in chairs in their hidden room and were not allowed to move or make a sound, sometimes for days.

    After the war

    After the liberation in March 1945, the family was reunited and the little one was given his real name: Aron Jan Willem Jedwab. The name Willem remained and the second first name Jan refers to his rescuer Jan Wikkerink. Queen Wilhelmina came to Aalten soon after the war and visited the Wikkerink family to honour them for their actions in the resistance. Jo Bulsink-Wikkerink: “I can still see Wilhelmina. She slapped my grandfather on the shoulder and said: Wikkerink, you have a brave son.”

    The young child Willem hardly knew his own parents. Jo Wikkerink – the second daughter in the family – then moved in with the Jedwab family for a year, so that Willem could get used to his own parents and new environment a little easier. The Jedwab family emigrated to the US in 1947 and there they changed their surname to Jade.

    Dela Wikkerink-Eppink with Aron Jedwab alias Willem Herfstink
    Dela Wikkerink-Eppink with Aron Jedwab alias Willem Herfstink
    Patrimoniumstraat 12, Aalten
    Patrimoniumstraat 12, Aalten
    Koningsweg 2, Dale
    Koningsweg 2, Dale (source)
    Yitzchak Jedwab and Lena Kropveld – wedding photo, March 1942
    Yitzchak Jedwab and Lena Kropveld – wedding photo, March 1942
    Aron Jedwab with Dick, Jannie and Ina Wikkerink (1943)
    Aron Jedwab with Dick, Jannie and Ina Wikkerink, 1943 (source)
    Birth certificate Willem Herfstink (Aron Jan Willem Jedwab), 21-09-1943 in Aalten
    Birth certificate ‘Willem Herfstink’, 21 September 1943

    Sources

  • Aalten in wartime

    Aalten in wartime

    Blockage Bocholtsestraatweg, 1939
    Blockage Bocholtsestraatweg, 1939

    In April 1939, a border guard detachment of 36 men was stationed in Aalten, housed in farms. Sand filled tubes are placed here and there as obstacles. Around 1 September, at the beginning of the Second World War, several hundred residents of Aalten left by train for the various garrison places. On 9 May 1940, the municipal architect was instructed to install barricades on several roads.

    On 10 May, German army units thundered into Aalten. The soldiers stationed around farms offer no resistance. A few days later, Dutch prisoners of war are seen being transported to Germany in open trucks. Four people from Aalten are killed at the Grebbeberg. A group of five hundred returned prisoners of war are enthusiastically welcomed in the party building and then travel on by train.

    Two hundred and fifty Rotterdam children stayed here in the summer months. This was also the case in 1941. A lot of (young) people go to work in Germany because it earns well. There is already a lot on the coupon. Food production comes under control, for which Aalten is divided into three districts, each under a local office holder.

    People in hiding

    In the summer of 1942, the first people in hiding came to Aalten to evade the Arbeidseinsatz. Shortly before, the first group of employees of Dutch Button Works in Bredevoort had themselves photographed neatly in their suits with a view to employment in Germany. A group from the Driessen textile factory is also deployed.

    About five hundred Scheveningen evacuees found shelter here in January 1943. Almost all of them belong to the Reformed Church. In Winterswijk there are eight hundred, all Reformed. Once every three weeks a Scheveningen pastor stays here who also leads a church service.

    Hostages

    The Germans increased the pressure to get men to dig. The most intimidating thing was the detention of 12 hostages on October 18. The next day, 550 men leave for Zevenaar. Ten days later, another seven men are taken hostage and 250 people report. The pastors and R.C. clergy had made an appeal to ‘show mercy and charity towards those who are in immediate danger of death’.

    By circular, a representative group of municipal residents insists on a repayment scheme. It will come. A pastor in Zevenaar will be there at all times for support and spiritual care. But there is also a clandestine stencil circulating with the call to ask oneself ‘whether it is responsible to cooperate in the enemy’s defences, as a result of which many more than eleven human lives (…) will soon be lost.’

    The last months

    A few moments from the last three dark months: Individual food collectors keep coming, but a committee ‘Aid to the West’ also manages to collect a few cartloads of mainly grain. Doctor Der Weduwen succeeds in transferring sick people from camp Rees to the emergency hospital in Avondvrede on the Hogestraat. Serious cases go to the hospital set up in the boys’ boarding school in Harreveld. Der Weduwen is killed when his car is shot at from the air.

    There are deaths in bombing raids on the R.C. church and rectory, on farms between Grevinkweg and Elshoekweg, on the corner of Prinsenstraat/Bredevoortsestraatweg and on 24 March most heavily in a bombing raid aimed at the textile factory Gebr. Driessen and the Aalten Tricotage Factory, eighteen dead. The material damage is great every time.

    A drama is taking place around a resistance group that is hiding in the abandoned farm ‘De Bark‘. Close to the door, in ‘Somsenhuus‘, Germans were billeted while seven Allied pilots were in hiding there. The total number of soldiers in Aalten at this time is estimated at about four thousand.

    Liberation

    In the last days of March, it is clear that the denouement is near. How hard will there be fighting? Many leave the village, others seek protection in their shelter. There were still German soldiers roaming around. Then, on Good Friday, March 30, early in the morning, the English tanks rolled into Aalten from Germany. Here and there, Germans still put up fierce resistance. Ten British were killed on that day, in Barlo seven people were killed in a grenade hit in an air-raid shelter. Sadness and joy, Aalten has been liberated.

    Arrival of Scheveningen evacuees Aalten, 12 Jan 1943
    Arrival of Scheveningen evacuees in Aalten, 12 Jan 1943 (photo © Collection National Hiding Museum)
    Bombardment of Kruisstraat, Aalten (1945)
    Intersection Bredevoortsestraat/Bredevoortsestraat
    Bombardment of Dijkstraat, Aalten (1945)
    Dijkstraat
    De Bark, Gelkinkweg, De Heurne
    The Bark
    Liberation of Aalten, 1945
    The liberation of Aalten ( © Collection National Hiding Museum, photo: J.H. Bennink)

    More information

    Sources

    • ‘Aalten in Wartime’, J.G. ter Horst – Messink & Prinsen, 1985, ISBN: 9090008802
  • Stolpersteine (stumbling stones)

    Stolpersteine (stumbling stones)

    Stolpersteine at Eerste Broekdijk 51, Aalten
    Stolpersteine at Eerste Broekdijk 51, Aalten
    Gunter Demnig placing the first Stolpersteine in Aalten
    Gunter Demnig placing the first Stolpersteine in Aalten

    In Aalten, 34 Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are laid across twelve addresses. A Stolperstein is a memorial stone placed in the pavement in front of the house from which people were deported by the Nazis to extermination camps during World War II. When you see such a stone—usually unexpectedly—with the name of a victim, you are momentarily reminded of how millions became victims of systematic murder during that war.

    The stones have a surface area of 10 by 10 cm. A brass plate is affixed to the top, into which the name, year of birth, date of deportation, and the place and date of death are stamped. Each stone serves as a memorial to a single victim: a person who lived in that very spot and was deported from there, never to return.

    Originator

    The Stolpersteine project was conceived by the German artist Gunter Demnig. He deliberately kept the size of these ‘stones of offence’ small, requiring one to bow down to read the inscriptions.

    Demnig began laying the first Stolperstein in 1997 in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. Today, Stolpersteine can be found in many countries. Gunter Demnig thus gives every victim their own individual monument. His motto is: “A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten.”

    Initially, he made all the stones himself, as he felt mass production conflicted with the project’s ethos. However, forced by the project’s rapid growth, he is now assisted by an artist friend. He insists on personally laying the first stones in any given location. The remaining stones are now usually installed by municipal pavers.

    Stolpersteine in Aalten

    In Aalten, 34 Stolpersteine have been laid at the following addresses:

    • ’t Dal 1: Levi Salomon Schaap, Ella Schaap-Philips, Eliazar Hars Schaap, Frits Landau, Amalia Landau-Lorch
    • Dijkstraat 10a: Levie van Gelder, Jula van Gelder-Landau, Arnold van Gelder
    • Eerste Broekdijk 51: Roberth Fuldauer, Rozetta Fuldauer-van Gelder, Lina Sara Fuldauer, Sara Fuldauer, Meijer David Fuldauer, Cato Konijn
    • Grevinkweg 5: Sally Fuldauer, Regina Fuldauer-de Jong
    • Haartsestraat 64: Wijnand Andriesse
    • Hogestraat 3: Jacob ten Bosch en Jansje ten Bosch-Bouwman
    • Hogestraat 13: Moritz Cohen, Bernhard Cohen, Karoline Japhet-Eppstein
    • Hogestraat 55/1: Albert Lewy, Friederika Lewy-ten Bosch, Berta Mathilde Lewy
    • Hogestraat 94: Salomon Goedhart, Philippina Lea Goedhart-Rosenburg
    • Landstraat 41: Johannes der Weduwen
    • Lichtenvoordsestraatweg 17: Philip van Gelder, Elise van Gelder-Cohen, Jozef Backs
    • Stationsstraat 24: Abraham van Gelder, Reintjen van Gelder-de Jong
    • Vellegendijk 17: Hendrik Wiggers

    In one instance, the stone could not be placed in front of the victim’s residence because the building (Industriestraat 4) no longer exists, nor is there a pavement where it could be installed. Therefore, this stone was laid in front of the synagogue.

    Sources

  • War Memorial

    War Memorial

    Whemerstraat, Aalten

    War Memorial Whemerstraat Aalten
    Photo: Archmedus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

    The war memorial on the Wheme was erected in memory of all fellow citizens who died during the occupation years as a result of acts of war. The memorial also commemorates the liberation.

    The establishment of the memorial was an initiative of the Monument Foundation 1940-1945 committee. Immediately after the liberation, the population of Aalten felt the need to honour the war victims with a monument.

    The monument consists of a statue of a male figure with a woman and child. The sculpture of French limestone is placed on a terrace. The pedestal consists of masonry, concrete and natural stone. The memorial is 1 meter 31 high, 1 meter 43 wide and 90 centimeters deep.

    The monument was unveiled on 16 June 1956 by Hendrik Jan (Uncle Jan) Wikkerink, leader of the former resistance movement in Aalten.

    The text on the pedestal reads:

    OM TE DOEN
    GEDENKEN
    1940 – 1945

    (‘TO COMMEMORATE’)

    The group faces south from where the tribulation, but also the deliverance, came. Artist Bé Thoden van Velzen described the sculpture as follows: “… representing man, woman and child, as a symbol of the entire Dutch people, expectantly looking forward to liberation, unbowed and unweakened.”

    Features

    FunctionMonument
    Disclosure1956

    Sources

  • Memorial for People in Hiding

    Memorial for People in Hiding

    Stationsstraat, Aalten

    Memorial for People in Hiding, Stationsstraat, Aalten

    The memorial for people in hiding (Onderduikersmonument) on Stationsstraat is an expression of gratitude from those who were once in hiding to the people of Aalten for their hospitality, and to the members of the Resistance who were the driving force behind finding accommodation for them.

    The monument consists of a brick memorial wall with a fountain. A bronze plaque and two sculpted fragments of natural stone are set into the memorial wall.

    The monument was unveiled on 4 October 1947 by Mrs D.G. Wikkerink-Eppink, the wife of Resistance leader Hendrik Jan (Ome Jan) Wikkerink.

    The text on the plaque reads (translated from Dutch):

    PRESENTED TO THE MUNICIPALITY OF AALTEN BY PERSONS IN HIDING
    WHO DURING THE YEARS OF OCCUPATION 1940-1945
    FOUND A SAFE HAVEN HERE.

    The sculpted fragments bear the text of Psalm 91:5 and 6.

    The text of the left fragment reads:

    THOU SHALT NOT BE AFRAID FOR THE TERROR BY NIGHT,
    NOR FOR THE ARROW THAT FLIETH BY DAY;
    NOR FOR THE PESTILENCE THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS,
    NOR FOR THE DESTRUCTION THAT WASTETH AT NOONDAY.

    The text of the right fragment reads:

    FOR HE SHALL COVER THEE WITH HIS FEATHERS, AND
    UNDER HIS WINGS SHALT THOU TRUST.

    The sculpture on the left depicts three studded boots belonging to the barbarian horde, threatening to trample a young, sprouting fruit. This symbolises the overwhelming force and occupation, portraying the vulnerability of young life that continues to germinate despite the danger.
    The fragment on the right depicts a pelican with outspread wings, protecting its nest and young. The pelican is a Christian symbol of total self-sacrifice; according to legend, the bird feeds its young with its own blood. It symbolises the contribution of the resistance in the struggle against the occupier. The waning swastika in the background represents the transience of the threat.

    Sources

  • Emergency Hospital

    Emergency Hospital

    De Graafschapper, 25 July 1945

    Now that the emergency hospital in Aalten is closing its doors, it is fitting for us to pause for a few moments to reflect on the origin and work of this institution, which served as a blessed outcome for countless Dutch forced labourers and prisoners from concentration camps. As is known, the initiative for its founding was taken under the auspices of the Red Cross, by Dr J. der Weduwen and Mr Cl. Driessen.

    The necessity for its establishment became acutely apparent at the end of November, when some of the victims of the train bombardment near Bocholt had to be admitted in Aalten. When Dr J. der Weduwen arrived at the Avondvrede retirement home on 5 December 1944 with 22 liberated prisoners from Rees, the situation presented nearly insurmountable difficulties. Beds, food, and trained staff—everything was lacking.

    The residents of the home, on that memorable St. Nicholas Eve for the ex-prisoners, brotherly shared their pancakes, oliebollen (doughnuts), and chocolate (!) with the newcomers. By exerting every effort, they succeeded in providing the battered patients with proper care. Mr and Mrs Ditmarsch, deeply moved by the fate of these people, did everything possible.

    Staff of the Aalten Emergency Hospital
    Staff of the Aalten Emergency Hospital

    With emotion, many will remember Sister A. Bol, who died of diphtheria and performed true miracles for her patients during this time. After her death, it proved necessary, given the danger of contagion, to attach expert personnel to the emergency hospital. Sister Schaafsma and Sister Doesburg were entrusted with the management under the supervision of Dr P. Hogenkamp, who took over the medical work of Dr der Weduwen following the tragic passing of this beloved doctor.

    Avondvrede Retirement Home, Hogestraat, Aalten
    Avondvrede Retirement Home, Hogestraat, Aalten

    Although more space was made available at Avondvrede, the capacity of the hospital proved too small, as one also had to take into account war victims from the local area; therefore, the hospital was relocated to the Patrimonium building. In cooperation with the U.V.V., I.K.O., and the Red Cross, the material side of the work was taken care of. After the final bombardment, the Patrimonium building became unusable, and it was decided to liquidate the hospital, as the majority of the patients, under the leadership of Sister Schaafsma, preferred to leave for the North.

    Sister Doesburg remained at her post with a few patients, and the hospital was moved back to Avondvrede. From there, they departed once more—joined by a number of victims from the bombardment in Bocholt—to the building on the Lichtenvoordsestraat, which still serves as an emergency hospital today. About twenty patients were housed in the cellars there. Enormous support was received from the surrounding hamlets.

    In the beginning, the conditions were extremely primitive. Later, everything improved. Special praise is due to the girls of Aalten, who performed nursing work without any prior training. Just before the liberation, some victims of the liberation battles were admitted. An unforgettable moment was, of course, the arrival of the first ‘Tommy’ (British soldier) who was brought into the hospital.

    Emergency Hospital Aalten – De Graafschapper, 14 July 1945
    De Graafschapper, 14 July 1945

    And now the work has come to an end. The large stream of repatriates, for whom they had prepared as their final task, did not arrive, and the now well-equipped emergency hospital is disappearing in these coming days. (Why not make it a permanent hospital?) A piece of Aalten’s war history is hereby concluded, but many will continue to remember this work with gratitude.

    Source

  • Letter to the editor: the liberation

    Letter to the editor: the liberation

    De Graafschapper, 18 May 1945

    Letters from De Graafschap

    Dear me,

    I can imagine that as a former Achterhoeker, born and raised in our beautiful region, you are very curious about news from our region and how we are all doing here. It will be a pleasure for me to inform you from time to time of what has happened here and what is going to happen. Let me start by telling you that we have generally come off well here in our Achterhoek. The Tommies who came in here from the direction of Bocholt just before Easter were amazed by the friendly, apparently still prosperous country. into which, after the debris fields of Germany, they were suddenly transferred.

    “You see here again an undamaged house,” said one to me, “and you see friendly people again, who laugh and wave at you! We have experienced that differently in recent months” Still, it was not given to us as a gift, don’t think so. The last six months in particular have been quite haunted here. Also in the political field. It was raid after raid. Greens, blacks, land guards, Gestapo, S.S., we have experienced all that beauty in its different variations here. Anyway, you have experienced that yourself in the city. so you know all about it. Let me rather tell you how we celebrated the liberation here, when it became known that our entire people was freed from slavery.

    Liberation parade Stationsstraat Aalten, 1945
    Liberation parade Stationsstraat, 1945

    I can tell you best about Aalten, where I happened to experience it myself, but I am sure that the same enthusiasm prevailed throughout the Achterhoek. You should come to Winterwijk today, which was worn out for a hotbed of the party, right? It only now becomes clear what a “thin” layer of the population there actually kept the terror going, because there is no municipality in the Achterhoek, where you see flags as exuberantly as right there.

    Uncle Jan Wikkerink
    ‘Uncle’ Jan Wikkerink

    The music was immediately on his feet, you get that. In the afternoon a whole procession with children and the elderly followed through the decorated streets and it was a joy to hear a Dutch march again. The case stopped for a moment in front of Jan Wikkerink’s house. You may remember them from school in the past. And otherwise I just say “Uncle Jan”, then at least every person in hiding in the Achterhoek knows who it is. Well, that musical tribute at his doorstep was, in my opinion, exactly right. Because that’s just an ordinary contractor, isn’t it? but what a lot that man has achieved during the war years, so secretly gone.

    He was quietly district head of the National Organization for People in Hiding and made sure that all those boys stayed alive and, if possible, out of the hands of the slave hunters. He and his men housed countless people there, (you know that there in Aalten they have the name hadden. dat there were as many people in hiding as inhabitants?) and where it was necessary to provide all those people with ration cards, not only city people, but also a lot of Jews and everything else, with the Gestapo on their heels, den Achterhoek came fleeing in. In cooperation with the Knock teams, many distribution offices in our area have been honored with a fruitful visit and Oome Jan always had the quiet, cautious leadership of them.

    It was therefore no surprise when one night a child was abandoned on his doorstep. After all, he knew what to do with everything and everyone and he was simply the big placement agency, apparently also for babies. Anyway, the little one didn’t have to go far, he stayed at the same address, i.e. on the other side of the front door, where he was lovingly welcomed. It was exactly on the 21st of September and so the foundling was officially registered at the town hall the next morning with a straight face under the name Willem Herfstink . (After all, the suffix “ink” means “the son of” in Achterhoeksch). But on the first day of the liberation, the “Son of Autumn” returned to his own address, namely to the Jew master, who was very happy with his wife that they had kept their little one safe in such a dangerous time. You understand that that card was again pierced with real Achterhoek cleverness. The doctor had taken the child of the parents in hiding straight to Uncle Jan, who was already waiting for it behind the door.

    Dela Wikkerink-Eppink with Aron Jedwab alias Willem Herfstink
    Dela Wikkerink-Eppink with Aron Jedwab alias Willem Herfstink

    It was a shock to the whole region when they finally got hold of Uncle Jan. If the whole region heard about it as soon as possible, because the captivity lasted only a few hours. The knock team could have put it right sooner, but they had to wait a while for the doctor for the chloroform and the sergeant on duty of the military police also had to rehearse how he should be intoxicated as really as possible. But then it was done, only the doctor was still busy for an hour and a half to call the good sergeant back to life, because the boys had worked him a bit too enthusiastically with the chloroform-dot.

    Johannes (Joop) der Weduwen
    Dr. der Weduwen

    The quiet figure of Uncle Jan had since disappeared from sight, but he now had so much more time for his illegal work. The Germans were furious as usual and knew nothing better to do than to throw a few hand grenades into his house in impotent rage, which of course burned down in the end. But better the house than Uncle Jan, everyone said comforted, and so the music of the week was a spontaneous tribute from the whole population. And it was certainly also with the approval of the whole village, when later a few songs were played in front of the house of the late Dr. of the Widows, who gave so much clandestine help and in particular was a lifesaver for many boys in the camps of Bocholt and Rees. The Achterhoek knows how to celebrate, but also to sympathize with those for whom the party is impossible due to harrowing memories.

    At the end of my letter, I will tell you one more example of this, which will do you good. It was in one of the hamlets that the music association went around the farms with blaring festivities. But there was a shadow over this hamlet. On the last day before the liberation, a direct hit in an air-raid shelter had snatched five children from one family, with two older evacuees, from their lives. The site of that disaster was on the main road, where the procession passed. But a hundred yards from that place the music fell silent, and they went on in silence. And there at that burned-out shelter that chorale of the 103rd Psalm was played in the moving silence of all neighbors: Like the grass is our ephemeral life… Then they quietly moved on and only at a great distance from that place the festive music was resumed.

    I am writing this to you because I know it will do you good. The war has not hardened us and made us numb. There is still room in the heart of the Achterhoek for compassion and quiet piety.

    See you again, you
    GERT GROOTERS

    Source

    • De Graafschapper, 18 May 1945 (via Delpher)
  • War Victims in Aalten, World War II

    War Victims in Aalten, World War II

    Aaltensche Courant, 4 May 1945

    List of war victims from the municipality of Aalten, according to official data from the Municipal Secretariat.
    (supplemented with full first names and explanation by the editors of Oud Aalten)

    AchternaamTussenv.VoornaamLeeftijdDatumPlaatsToelichtingGraf
    HorstterArent Jan22 jr.12-05-1940RhenenGedood op de GrebbebergMilitair Ereveld Grebbeberg
    LieversBernardus Josinus22 jr.12-05-1940RhenenGedood op de GrebbebergMilitair Ereveld Grebbeberg
    RoelofsenJan36 jr.12-05-1940RhenenGedood op de GrebbebergMilitair Ereveld Grebbeberg
    VriesdeMarcelis Adolf19 jr.12-05-1940RhenenGedood op de GrebbebergMilitair Ereveld Grebbeberg
    BettingJosephus Arnoldus54 jr.21-01-1941Bocholt (D)Gedood bij een luchtaanvalRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    TrietvanGeertrui8 jr.09-03-1942AaltenBrandbom Trompstraatons onbekend
    HiddinkGerrit Jan57 jr.08-01-1943LinteloGedood door een bom nabij Koopweg 10Oude begraafplaats, Aalten
    HiddinkWillem11 jr.08-01-1943LinteloGedood door een bom nabij Koopweg 10Oude begraafplaats, Aalten
    LammersAlbertus Hendrikus20 jr.10-01-1943Oberhausen (D)Gestorven in DuitslandBerkenhove, Aalten
    DolstraHarm24 jr.12-03-1943DidamBeschieting vliegtuig op trein bij Didamons onbekend
    GraaffdeWilhelmus Petrus40 jr.22-02-1944NijmegenBombardement station NijmegenBerkenhove, Aalten
    SchutWillem19 jr.07-03-1944Weimar-Buchenwald (D)Overleden in concentratiekampons onbekend
    KortenJohan19 jr.12-03-1944AmersfoortSlachtoffer kerkrazziaBerkenhove, Aalten
    RuizendaalCornelis34 jr.20-04-1944DoesburgGedood tijdens vuurgevecht met de SSBerkenhove, Aalten
    WeduwenderJohannes42 jr.23-01-1945Apeldoorn‘Dokter van het Verzet’Berkenhove, Aalten
    RooijenvanChristianus Franciscus Bonifatius68 jr.28-01-1945AaltenBom op RK pastorieRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    Klein RouwelerJohanna Maria57 jr.01-02-1945HarreveldBom op RK pastorieRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    BrusGerrit Jan62 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleBerkenhove, Aalten
    GrotenhuisteAnton10 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    GrotenhuisteArent Jan12 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    Harstvan derMinnekus25 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleBerkenhove, Aalten
    HogenkampHerman Jozef15 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    HogenkampJozef Bernardus Antonius6 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    HogenkampJohanna Maria22 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    RoondeJohannes18 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleBerkenhove, Aalten
    StronksGerrit Willem26 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    StronksHendrik Willem33 jr.08-02-1945DaleBombardement DaleOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    Bergvan denReijer58 jr.24-02-1945AaltenBombardement KruisstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    HelminkJohanna Willemina9 jr.24-02-1945AaltenBombardement KruisstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    HouwersGerhard Johan3 jr.24-02-1945AaltenBombardement KruisstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    JacobsAleida60 jr.24-02-1945AaltenBombardement KruisstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    LammersAntoon Hendrik18 jr.24-02-1945AaltenBombardement KruisstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    SteenbergenJeanette7 jr.24-02-1945AaltenBombardement KruisstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    ElburgGerrit26 jr.28-02-1945Sinsen (D)Gestorven in een DurchgangslagerNederlands Ereveld Düsseldorf
    StronksGesina Aleida63 jr.02-03-1945HarreveldBombardement DaleBerkenhove, Aalten
    WijkampJosephina Aleida Hendrika20 jr.09-03-1945LichtenvoordeGedood door een V2-granaatscherfRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    WeversGerrit Jan22 jr.20-03-1945Bocholt (D)Gedood bij een bombardementBerkenhove, Aalten
    BrethouwerHarmen Jan52 jr.21-03-1945GendringenLuchtaanval op Duitse stellingenBerkenhove, Aalten
    HoitinkDerk Willem54 jr.21-03-1945GendringenLuchtaanval op Duitse stellingenBerkenhove, Aalten
    HoornenborgJohan Bernard45 jr.21-03-1945GendringenLuchtaanval op Duitse stellingenBerkenhove, Aalten
    WikkerinkJohannes Gerhardus45 jr.21-03-1945GendringenLuchtaanval op Duitse stellingenBerkenhove, Aalten
    BaanCornelis Marienus24 jr.24-03-1945VarsseveldGedood bij een bombardementBerkenhove, Aalten
    BraakvanHendrik Jan26 jr.24-03-1945VarsseveldGedood bij een bombardementBerkenhove, Aalten
    IngenvanCatharina79 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    KamphuisStefina Johanna14 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    KoelmanHermina Maria Gerarda20 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    KoelmanHenricus Wilhelmus55 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    LamersAntonius73 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    LeemhorstMaria Johanna Christina34 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    LindeteJohan Friedrich68 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    LindeteJohannes Lambertus40 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    MechelenvanJan Hendrik15 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    Meulenvan derGerrit44 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement Dijkstraat
    PolmanM.J.28 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement Dijkstraat
    RosKlazina38 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    StokkingCatharina Hendrika25 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    TepeJohannes Henricus Antonius50 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    UmbachBernardus Wilhelmus10 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    UmbachFrieda Elisabeth13 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement Dijkstraatons onbekend
    UmbachFriedrich Hubert5 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    UmbachHeinrich Friedrich43 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatBerkenhove, Aalten
    WechgelaerCarolina Gerharda68 jr.24-03-1945AaltenBombardement DijkstraatOude begraafplaats, Aalten
    VermeulenAldert30 jr.25-03-1945AaltenOude begraafplaats, Bredevoort
    VermeulenWillem23 jr.25-03-1945AaltenOude begraafplaats, Bredevoort
    HulsLena Hendrika42 jr.26-03-1945AaltenRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    DuenkGerda Anna6 jr.28-03-1945IJzerloGedood bij granaatinslag op Westendorpweg 1Oude Kerkhof, Dinxperlo
    DuenkJohannes Wilhelmus21 jr.28-03-1945IJzerloGedood bij granaatinslag op Westendorpweg 1Oude Kerkhof, Dinxperlo
    DuenkJohanna Wilhelmina9 jr.28-03-1945IJzerloGedood bij granaatinslag op Westendorpweg 1Oude Kerkhof, Dinxperlo
    TebeestJohanna Wilhelmina Gerharda19 jr.28-03-1945IJzerloGedood bij granaatinslag op Westendorpweg 1Oude Kerkhof, Dinxperlo
    ElfersThomas Henry74 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement Barloons onbekend
    ReisenleitnerHelen Grace Margaret74 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement Barloons onbekend
    WeeninkAndré6 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement BarloBerkenhove, Aalten
    WeeninkJan3 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement BarloBerkenhove, Aalten
    WeeninkJacoba Tjitsche17 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement BarloBerkenhove, Aalten
    WeeninkRudolf6 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement BarloBerkenhove, Aalten
    WeeninkWillemina Jacoba21 jr.30-03-1945BarloBombardement BarloBerkenhove, Aalten
    HuininkHerman25 jr.31-03-1945AaltenVerzetsmanBerkenhove, Aalten
    SchenkHenricus Gerhardus6 jr.04-04-1945AaltenOmgekomen door spelen met een projectielRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    SchenkWilhelmus Marinus Josephus8 jr.04-04-1945AaltenOmgekomen door spelen met een projectielRK begraafplaats, Aalten
    WisselinkDerk Willem5 jr.04-04-1945AaltenOmgekomen door spelen met een projectielBerkenhove, Aalten
    DienskeJan30 jr.05-04-1945BredevoortDwangarbeider gevlucht uit DuitslandNationaal Ereveld Loenen

    Monument to the war victims

    Immediately after the liberation, there was a need among the population of Aalten to honour the war victims with a monument. In 1956, the monument was unveiled on the Wheme, in memory of all Aalten civilians who died during the occupation years as a result of acts of war. The statue was made by artist Bé Thoden van Velzen.

    The monument consists of a statue of a male figure with a woman and child. The sculpture of French limestone is placed on a terrace. The pedestal consists of masonry, concrete and natural stone. The memorial is 1 meter 31 high, 1 meter 43 wide and 90 centimeters deep.

    War Memorial Whemerstraat, Aalten
    War Memorial Whemerstraat, Aalten

    Sources

  • Dutch National Battalion

    Dutch National Battalion

    During the liberation of the Achterhoek, the Dutch National Battalion was established in Aalten on 15 April 1945. A unit that consisted of members of former Achterhoek assault groups, at that time officially called Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (Domestic Forces), and people in hiding who had found a safe haven in Aalten and the surrounding area. The men had volunteered after a call from the Canadians. In no time they had about 400 war volunteers at their disposal, good for three companies.

    Everyone knows the Princess Irene Brigade. Founded in 1941 and consisting of Dutch soldiers who had escaped to England, Dutch volunteers who were already abroad and so-called Engelandvaarders; men who made the crossing to England on their own to fight against the Germans from there. The Irene Brigade moved north from the invasion beaches, fought in France, Belgium and Zeeland and fought its last battles in the Bommelerwaard near Hedel shortly before the liberation. Less well known is the ‘Achterhoek’ unit that fought with the Canadians during their advance to the north.

    Dutch National Battalion, photo: Foto Garretsen, J. Bloemendal
    Photo: Foto Garretsen, J. Bloemendal
    Dutch National Battalion, photo: A.Ph. de Keijzer
    Photo: A.Ph. de Keijzer

    Canadians ask for and get help

    The Forgotten Battalion, Henk Krosenbrink

    The Dutch National Battalion (DNB) had its home base in the Julianaschool in Aalten, renamed ‘Prins Bernhard Kazerne’ for the occasion. With their knowledge of the area, the members of the DNB provided valuable services to the Canadians. Equipped and armed by the Canadians, the soldiers of the DNB advanced up the IJssel, via Doesburg, Steenderen and Gorssel.

    The men guarded the bridges over the IJssel and moved on to Apeldoorn. “Fierce fighting and fierce resistance,” says Arnold Somsen, member of the DNB, from Aalte in the book ‘The Forgotten Battalion’, published by the Staring Institute. “After that, it was now the end of April, the liberation army moved in the direction of Harderwijk, Bunschoten and Spakenburg. We were housed in a school. Standing guard in the evening. The Germans were still in Eemnes. So close by. Gunfights and hand grenades back and forth…”

    After the liberation, the DNB was assigned to the Infantry Regiment of the Royal Netherlands Army. With that, the ‘Aalten’ battalion officially ceased to exist.

    Sources

  • Playing into death

    Playing into death

    Piepersweg, Aalten

    Monument 'Playing into death', Piepersweg, Aalten

    On the Piepersweg in the Aaltense Heurne there is a memorial in memory of a tragic accident that took place shortly after the liberation of Aalten. The monument was erected in memory of three young boys who died in the accident.

    On the afternoon of 4 April 1945, just a few days after the liberation, the boys Wim Schenk (8 years old), his brother Henk Schenk (6 years old) and their friend Wim Wisselink (5 years old) were playing outside.

    In a dry ditch along the Bocholtsestraatweg they found a projectile. Unaware of the danger, they threw it at each other. At one point, one of the boys threw the projectile against the wall of a nearby house, after which it exploded.

    The consequences were horrible. Wim Schenk died on the spot. His brother Henk and Wim Wisselink were seriously injured and were taken to a military emergency hospital in Barlo, where they died shortly after each other.

    Booklet and monument

    In 2011 a booklet about this dramatic event was published entitled ‘Spelend de dood in’, written by Louis Veldhuis.

    Seventy years after the accident, in 2015, relatives of the Schenk family unveiled a monument at the site of the tragedy. It consists of a pedestal with images of the three boys and was designed by artist Ans Braamskamp.

    Sources

  • The Liberation of Aalten

    The Liberation of Aalten

    March 30th, 1945

    Liberation of Aalten, 1945
    Photo: © Collection National Hiding Museum, photo: J.H. Bennink
    Liberation of Aalten (1945) – Photo: Foto Garretsen, J. Bloemendal
    Photo: Foto Garretsen, J. Bloemendal

    At the end of the Second World War, on Good Friday, March 30, 1945 , Aalten was liberated by British troops. This liberation was part of the large-scale Allied advance through the eastern Netherlands, immediately after crossing the Rhine during Operation Plunder. The liberators belonged to the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards, both part of the 32nd Guards Brigade within the Guards Armoured Division of the British Army. 1

    Advance to Aalten

    At the end of March 1945, the Guards entered the Achterhoek from Germany. The Grenadier Guards formed the vanguard and advanced along the Bocholtsestraatweg towards Aalten and then on to Enschede, with the Irish Guards as mechanized infantry in their wake. 2 The advance was hampered by destroyed bridges, minefields and fierce resistance from retreating German units.

    The King’s Company of the Grenadier Guards was ordered to advance towards the centre of Aalten via the so-called ‘centre line’. However, important bridges turned out to have been blown up by the Germans. The bridge on the Bodendijk was partly still intact and Major Baker, commander of the King’s Company, led his men over it. 3

    When they arrived at the railway, the men encountered fierce resistance and were bombarded with mortar fire and grenades. The fight with the enemy had disastrous consequences for the liberators: several soldiers were killed, including platoon commander Andrew Duncan. 4

    Around midnight, another two soldiers of the Irish Guards were killed because their vehicle hit a mine in the then Dijkstraat (now Plein Zuid). The explosion led to a fierce fire in which the old café Vultink burned down completely. The next day, March 31, 1945, two engineers of the Royal Engineers were killed while clearing mines. 5

    Losses and cemetery

    Of the total of 13 British soldiers who died, 12 are buried in the Berkenhove general cemetery in Aalten. Platoon commander Andrew Duncan is buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery near Kleve. Thanks to historical research, photos of twelve of these soldiers have now also been found. This literally gave the liberators a face. 6

    After the liberation

    Immediately after the liberation, the Aaltensche Courant appeared again. Shortly after the liberation on April 4, three boys, eight-year-old Wim Schenk, his six-year-old brother Henk and five-year-old Wim Wisselink found a projectile in a dry ditch on the Bocholtsestraatweg. They decided to test the projectile and threw it against the wall of a house. The three children were killed. 7

    In honour of the efforts of the King’s Company, the bridge over the Keizersbeek was named the King’s Company Bridge. The ceremony took place on May 5, 2008 and was attended by, among others, veteran Walter Price, who actually served in this unit in 1945. 8

    King's Company Bridge, Grenadier Guards - Bodendijk, Aalten

    More information

    Sources

    1. WW2Talk ↩︎
    2. WW2Talk ↩︎
    3. Heritage Aalten ↩︎
    4. Grenadier Gazette 2011 ↩︎
    5. Wikipedia ↩︎
    6. Aalten Vooruit ↩︎
    7. Wikipedia ↩︎
    8. Geocaching.com ↩︎
  • Bombardment of Dijkstraat

    Bombardment of Dijkstraat

    Aalten, 24 March 1945

    Bombardment of Dijkstraat, Aalten (1945)
    Photo: Foto Garretsen

    On 24 March 1945, a bombing raid took place in the Dijkstraat in Aalten. The factories on the Dijkstraat were the target. There were at least 18 to 19 fatalities. However, the exact number is not known to date.

    Dijkstraat 42-14, Aalten
    The Dijkstraat in Aalten, before the bombing of 24 March 1945

    Shortly before the end of the Second World War, on Saturday 24 March 1945, planes suddenly screeched down over Aalten. Almost immediately the whistling sound of the falling bombs was heard. Part of the textile factory and Driessen’s office was bombed flat. The factory of the Aalten Tricotage Factory (ATF) also turned into a mess. From the bridge on the Dijkstraat to the railway, houses were completely destroyed, others had suffered very serious damage. The consequences were terrible.

    Victims

    At blacksmith Umbach’s, the cellar, where father Umbach (43 yrs.) and three of his children (13 yrs. 10 yrs and 5 yrs.) were hiding, was hit by a direct hit. All perished. The mother of the family and another son barely survived by crawling under a table in the kitchen. A little further on, the Te Linde-Wechelaar couple (both 68 years old) and their 40-year-old son were killed. At Koelman’s house, father Henricus Wilhelmus (55 yrs.) and daughter (20 yrs.) were killed. Johannes Henricus Antonius Tepe (50 yrs.), Maria Johanna Christina Leemhorst (34 yrs.), Anton Lamers (73 yrs.), Annie Kamphuis (15 yrs.), Henk van Mechelen (15 yrs.) are also among the victims. Furthermore, three evacuees, namely Catharina van Ingen (79 yrs.), Catharina Hendrika Stokking (25 yrs.) and an unknown 15-year-old girl from Haarlem.

    In the Aaltensche Courant of May 4, 1945 and in the book “Er op of er onder” (by W.P. Nederkoorn and G.J.B. Stork) two more victims are mentioned: M.J. Praster-Polman (28 yrs.) and a certain G.A. van der Meulen (44 yrs.).

    There were also many wounded. The emergency services of the Red Cross and the Air Protection had their hands full recovering the dead and getting survivors out from under the rubble. Bombs have also fallen in the Stationsstraat, De Wheme, Kerkstraat, Hofstraat, Hogestraat and Boomkampstraat. Buildings on the Parallelweg and Koopmanstraat, south of the railway line, were damaged. Bombs also fell in the Molenstraat and Varsseveldsestraatweg.

    Sources

    • Aaltensche Courant, 04-05-1945
    • ‘Er op of er onder’, W.P. Nederkoorn and G.J.B. Stork
  • Bombardment of Barlo

    Bombardment of Barlo

    Nijhofsweg 4, Barlo

    On March 30, 1945, the Aalten rural district of Barlo was liberated by the Allies. During the relief of Barlo and the surrounding area, an air-raid shelter at the Nijhof farm was hit by an Allied bomb aimed at the retreating Germans.

    During the skirmishes between the warring parties, the seven children of the Weenink family, the Elfers couple who had fled from The Hague and the Nijhof couple and daughter Wanda hid in the shelter of the Nijhof farm, which was considered a reliable hiding place.

    Headmaster Weenink, who had fourteen children, lived next door to the school that had been taken over by German soldiers. When the alarm went off, he sent his children to the shelters outside the center of Barlo, because he thought it was too dangerous there. Seven children fled to the shelter at the Nijhof farm on the Nijhofsweg. The other children went to the shelter of farm ‘t Markerink. The shelter at Nijhof was not under, but next to the house. The house remained unscathed.

    The last bomb dropped from an Allied plane fell on the shelter. The people in it were buried under earth and tree trunks. The Nijhof family was just at the entrance of the cellar to see if the bombing had ended and was spared by this. But five of the seven children and the couple from The Hague died. The liberation of Barlo would become a day of mourning because of this tragedy.

    The seven victims were Thomas Elfers (74 yrs.), Helen Elfers-Reisenleitner (74 yrs.), André Weenink (6 yrs.), Co Weenink (17 yrs.), Jan Weenink (3 yrs.), Mien Weenink (20 yrs.) and Rudolf Weenink (6 yrs.).

    Monument

    On the initiative of the Dwars door Barlo Foundation and the relatives of the victims, a monument has been erected in memory. The monument was placed at the Nijhof farm and was unveiled on March 30, 2009. The monument consists of two boulders, one standing upright on top of the other. In the top stone is a round hole with a piece of broken glass in it, as a symbol of the irreparable damage. Below are the names and ages of the victims. On the bottom stone, which serves as a pedestal, is a quote from the Bible. An information board has also been placed at the monument.

    The text on the monument reads:

    ‘GOOD FRIDAY
    MARCH 30TH, 1945

    MIEN WEENINK 20 YEARS
    CO WEENINK 17 YEARS
    ANDRÉ WEENINK 6 YEARS
    RUDOLF WEENINK 6 YEARS
    JAN WEENINK 3 YEARS OLD
    T.H. ELFERS 74 YEARS
    H.C.M. ELFERS-REISENLEITNER 75 YEARS’.

    On the pedestal is the quote:

    ‘INNOCENT LIVES DESTROYED
    BY RELENTLESS
    WAR VIOLENCE

    PSALM 73, VERSES 12 AND 14
    (OLD RHYMING)’.

    The text on the information board reads:

    ‘MONUMENT IN MEMORY

    ON GOOD FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1945, THE LAST BOMB FELL
    THIS PLACE WHERE AN AIR-RAID SHELTER ONCE STOOD. THIS WAS
    THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE
    HAMLET OF BARLO. THE STRONG HIDING PLACE OF THE
    NIJHOF FAMILY TURNED OUT NOT TO BE ABLE TO WITHSTAND SUCH NOTHING
    RUTHLESS VIOLENCE OF WAR.

    THE NIJHOF COUPLE AND THEIR DAUGHTER SURVIVED THE
    WOOF; THE ELFERS COUPLE AND FIVE WEENINK CHILDREN
    DIED.

    THE FIELD BOULDERS SYMBOLIZE THE LEADEN AND MASSIVE
    SADNESS. THE HOLE WITH THE – BROKEN – GLASS IN ONE OF THE
    ERRATIC STONES SHOWS US A GLIMPSE OF A NEW
    FUTURE, ALTHOUGH IT WILL NEVER BE UNSCATHED.

    WE HOPE THAT THIS PLACE OF REMEMBRANCE WILL MAKE YOU QUIET
    STAND BY THE GREAT GIFT OF FREEDOM THAT WE
    NOW WE CAN LIVE. LET US BE CAREFUL WITH THAT
    AND TO WORK TO HELP OTHERS IN THIS WAY AS WELL.
    TO GIVE THE WORLD THAT FREEDOM.

    FOUNDATION DWARS DOOR BARLO.’

    War Memorial Nijhofsweg, Barlo (photo Francien Wiersma-Luimes)
    War Memorial Nijhofsweg, Barlo (photo: Francien Wiersma-Luimes)

    Sources

  • The Bark

    The Bark

    Gelkinkweg, De Heurne

    De Bark, Gelkinkweg, De Heurne

    In the summer of 1944, De Bark, an uninhabited farm between Aalten and Dinxperlo, became a hiding place for a growing number of mostly young people in hiding, who wanted to avoid the Arbeitseinsatz, as well as a few Allied pilots who had been shot down.

    On Sunday morning, February 25, 1945, the guard sounded the alarm when three German soldiers from a surveying unit made an unexpected visit to the front house, where they had found no fighters but possibly suspicious objects.

    After leaving the house, the Germans were arrested, disarmed and imprisoned by the ‘Lange Henk’ and comrades, armed with a sten gun. The same happened to their colleague who was waiting for them in an army truck. The command was then faced with a complex problem: how to keep it out of the knowledge of the German occupier and what to do with the four prisoners?

    Death penalty

    An improvised court-martial of De Bark pronounced the death penalty. Shooting them and then burying them was too cumbersome and risky. The final conclusion was: hang up. And so it happened.

    The four corpses were driven into a tree by Jan Ket in a car, undermined with two explosive charges, in a recent bomb crater near Varsseveld. They were placed in the vehicle in the best possible position, after which the explosives were ignited. Only one went off, but the explosion was heavy. Ket and his men, who had to get away, were sure of their case.

    That same evening, a German patrol found the partially burned-out car with the corpses of two Wehrmacht soldiers next to it with cords around their legs and welts around their necks. The two other bodies were unrecognizable. Later research showed that the rear explosive charge did not go off due to the force of the front one.

    Reprisal

    The reprisal measure of the German occupying forces was merciless. Forty-six political prisoners were taken from the camp De Kruisberg (Doetinchem) and executed on the border of Aalten and Wisch, near the Aalten toll.

    In the meantime, the resistance group had left De Bark according to plan and moved to an old agricultural shed on the Dinxperlosestraatweg between Aalten and Dinxperlo. The news that the ruse with the staged ‘car accident’ had failed and the German reprisal by liquidating 46 Dutch political prisoners did not reach them until many days later. It first aroused disbelief in them and then a deep impression.

    They were not given much time for reflection and processing, because in the meantime four Allied divisions had crossed the Rhine and were approaching the Achterhoek. On March 30, they made contact for the first time with two Canadian combat vehicles, which turned up at the ‘Somsenhuus‘. The liberation was a fact.

    Sources

  • Bombardment of Kruisstraat

    Bombardment of Kruisstraat

    Aalten, 24 February 1945

    Bombardment of Kruisstraat, Aalten (1945)

    On Saturday , February 24, 1945, bombs fell on and around the intersection of Kruisstraat (now Prinsenstraat) and Bredevoortsestraatweg, in the center of Aalten. The consequences of the bombing were disastrous: eight people died, including three children, some were injured and the devastation was enormous.

    Addie Steenbergen, daughter of baker Steenbergen, lived almost on the corner of Kruisstraat and Prinsenstraat. A couple had just left the store when the air raid siren went off. The couple did not want to go into the shelter, but continued to take shelter in the porch. Addie had to go to the other side of the street from her mother to pick up her sister Netty, who was playing there. Mother Helmink was still outside and shouted that Netty was already in the shelter at her home. Addie went back home into the bomb shelter. Mother, grandma Meijnen and sister Bea, were already there.

    Father and Toon Lammers, the servant, were still outside at the entrance to the shelter when the bomb hit. The bomb landed on the Steenbergen bakery. When they see a huge blowtorch, Addie’s mother tells them to sit close to her: “If we burn, at least they will see that we were sitting together.”

    There was a huge cloud of dust and then a total silence…

    Victims and havoc

    When Addie, her mother and sister came out again, there was nothing left of the house, only rubble. Toon Lammers, the 18-year-old baker’s assistant, got a ladder on his neck and died instantly. Father Steenbergen had fallen headfirst into the cellar of the bakery due to the air pressure displacement. He had a skull base fracture and was in a coma. The couple (van den Berg-Jacobs) who took shelter in the porch also died. Netty died in the shelter of the Helmink family, as did Hansje Houwers and a daughter of Helmink, her playmates. These three children died due to overpressure on the lungs. Two Germans were also killed. Addie later found a piece of leg from one of them among the rubble.

    Gerrit and Bernard Buesink were busy outside that Saturday afternoon, just after noon. They lived on the corner of the intersection Prinsenstraat/Kruisstraat. Father Beusink had a forge there. The house received a direct hit, but miraculously they survived.

    Eyewitness report

    Eyewitness account of Cindy Weeber’s father about the tragedy on February 24, 1945, written down in 2006:

    “My brother had to get bread from the Wikkerink bakery, on Bredevoortsestraat, and I wanted to get a toll from the Cooperative. We went with my father’s bicycle, my brother Henk cycled and I sat on the back of the ‘pakkiesdrager’, and so we went to Aalten. First we went to get bread from Albert Wikkerink and then we cycled on to the Cooperative to get a toll for me.

    Suddenly the siren sounded, a warning for air raid sirens. My brother Henk threw the bicycle with bread against the façade of the Buesink forge and hid from the bombs there and I went to shelter at bakery Steenbergen. What followed was a deafening noise of bombs whizzing down. All this took about 10 minutes. After about fifteen minutes I dared to get up. My hands, arms and head were full of wounds but I had nothing else. Afterwards I realized that I could have been dead, but when you lie there like that, you don’t think about it. When I got up and went outside, everything was one big mess and I was full of dust from top to bottom.

    As I was scurrying over the rubble, I heard my brother shouting, “Jan, Jan, here I am.” I recognized his voice and shouted, “Where are you?” “Here”, it sounded and I saw a gray figure coming towards me. It was my brother Henk who was also covered in small wounds, but otherwise he was fine. The bike and the bag of bread were totally crushed.

    My brother said to me , “Go home quickly, and tell them that everything is all right,” and I ran home and told father and mother what had happened. They both panicked and thought the worst, but I said that Henk was also fine. Father then went with me to pick up the bicycle and the bread, but everything was covered in rubble.

    Later I heard that there were seven deaths. We did have a guardian angel then because we were both practically unharmed.

    What I have noticed now, after all these years, is that my brother never talked to me about this incident again. This is becoming more and more apparent in me. I don’t know why, but every now and then I wake up at night, wet with sweat, and I see the weather in front of me. Maybe it can be explained as you get older, but it comes back more and more often.

    Unfortunately, my brother passed away. How I would have liked to have talked to him about it, but alas. After a good 60 years, there comes a time when you start thinking about why we were spared and those seven others were not.”

    Sources