Notables as hostages: A Nazi attempt to prevent acts of resistance
Introduction
In May 1942 some 500 Dutch MPs, judges, industrialists, journalists, professors, scientists, writers, company owners and artists were randomly arrested by the Germans and taken hostage.
A hostage-taking by the Nazis of this size and prominence was unique during WW2. And the operation failed lamentably, as the first murder of some hostages only led to infuriation among the Dutch.
From 4 May 1942 until 6 September 1944 this Seminary was misused by the German occupation as a Dutch hostage camp. This memorial stone was placed on 14 August 1948 by the former hostages.
Beginning
Already in 1940, the Nazis captured many prominent Dutch individuals as hostages in response to the capture of Germans in the Dutch East Indies. These hostages, known as the Indian hostages, were initially interned in various locations, for example, in Buchenwald in Germany, before being transferred to Camp Sint-Michielsgestel. The camp housed both the Indian hostages and approximately 460 Dutch prisoners captured in May 1942. The internment of the Indian hostages became unnecessary when Japan conquered the Dutch East Indies, leading to transferring German prisoners to British India.
Camp Sint-Michielsgestel, - dubbed Hitler’s Herrengefängnis (Gentlemen prison) - was located in a seminary in Sint-Michielsgestel. It held prominent Dutch figures as collateral - Todeskandidat (death candidate) - aiming to exert control over the Dutch resistance. Despite being hostages, their treatment was relatively lenient, with freedom within the camp, no assigned work, and access to various activities such as movie nights, concerts, and exhibitions. The camp population was released in September 1944, with some individuals being freed in other locations.
However, there were some horrible reprisal executions carried out by the Germans in response to resistance actions. Several internees, including Robert Baelde and Willem Ruys, were executed on different occasions. The first execution was in retaliation for a failed bomb attack on a German army train in Rotterdam, while the second execution was in response to resistance activities in Overijssel.
On the third anniversary of the murder of five hostages their freed camp mates memorized their executed friends for the first time on the crime scene. 15 August 1945, the hostages of Gestel and Haaren.
Camp Sint-Michielsgestel became a hub of intellectual and social interaction, breaking down the pre-war societal divisions. It provided a platform for discussions and debates among individuals from different backgrounds and ideologies, fostering a sense of unity and political innovation. Notable internees included future politicians like Wim Schermerhorn, Willem Banning, and Jan Eduard de Quay, as well as figures such as Frits Philips, Pieter Geyl, and Marcel Minnaert.
An annual commemoration takes place at the execution site in the Gorp en Roovert estate in Goirle, where a memorial and monument were erected.
A diary fragment from a former hostage
“Fear and Threat
We lived in relative comfort, very different from the people in the concentration camps, where mistreatment and punishment were customary.We had self-government within our hostage community.Everybody made his own daily schedule. There was a cheerful, though uptight spiritual life. Family and friends, but also unknown people, showered us with packages. But we were locked up behind barbed wire.End Death threatened us. Death came in the night and murdered some of us. He kept threatening. He came back and crept through the darkness, aiming beams of light from his lantern at the sleeping ones, who awoke in dismay.That was just to scare us.Death reappeared, summoned a few and then sent them back to life.He did it just to tease us. Then he would strike again.”
The Hostage affair and The Crystal Butterfly
In The Crystal Butterfly Ludovicus Count Van Limburg Stirum is introduced as a middle-aged attorney and distant relative who vies for Edda’s attention. She doesn’t pay much attention to him. Until she hears of his horrible fate…
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