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2. The SS and Gestapo in Holland
- Wayne State University Press
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Chapter2 The SS and Gestapo in Holland Father Muckermann fled to Holland in 1934. In May 1940, Holland was occupied by German troops. The first thing that happened there was, of course, a thorough searching of the whole country for emigrants. The SS and Gestapo ransacked every last corner. Many people fell into their ruthless hands and spent years in concentration camps or have not been among the living for a long time now. During my visits to Father Muckermann in Holland in 1934, I had met a German editor several times who, because he was persecuted by the Gestapo, had left Germany with his wife and five children and had, like several others, sought refuge with Father Muckermann. Father Muckermann did the utmost for this family. He sought support for this strapped and now completely poverty-stricken family among the leading clergy of Holland, and the good Dutch gave amply. The editor himself was welcome help for Father Muckermann with his work in Holland, especially with the journal he was publishing, The German Wayy which came out in Oldenzaal. We found a sympathetic, kindly friend in Oldenzaal in the person of Pastor Franz Stokman, who expressed his willingness to commit the courageous deed of accepting responsibility for The German Way. We were often guests at his hospitable house, and since May 19401 had always worried about him, until I finally heard that he had escaped the claws of the SS and Gestapo by leading a very destitute existence as a longshoreman. With the help ofapriest, he had done this in Utrecht under an assumed name for five years, from 1940 on. The German Way was also supported in word and deed by the never-tiring "social apostle of Holland," Monseigneur Dr. Poels in Heerlen, who was also able to escape to safety before the German troops' invasion of Holland. Before German troops marched into Holland, and before the SS and Gestapo established their regime of terror in this peaceful land, the persecuted German editor fled, as I later learned from his daughter in the concentration camp. His family remained behind, frightened a thousand 64 The Blessed Abyss times over. House searches and arrests of the mother and of both eldest children followed. These children were held in custody, separated from one another, in a prison in Berlin; the mother was released to go home to her smaller children after many interrogations. The two eldest, however, remained victims and hostages of the Gestapo, who repeatedly brought them in for the most tortuous, hours-long interrogations, naturally always separated from one another. The girl was told that she shouldjust admit this or that, that her brother had alreadyconfessed it, although this was in fact not the case. Many German emigrants were arrested at that time in Holland, as well as many brave and courageous Dutch people who did not carry the torch for National Socialism. They were all subjected to interrogation after interrogation. Theywere questioned about Father Muckermann, about people who had visited him with whom he was in contact. The names of Father Maring and myself were named by the Gestapo agents again and again. If, in fact, one of the arrested emigrants named our names, as the Gestapo told us during our arrests, it is impossible to say. And ifit did happen, then it happened because of weakness, fear, and need, but not because of faulty conduct or mean-spiritedness. Someone also must have testified that other visitors had been with me at Father Muckermann's, people whose names were unknown to the Gestapo. Thus it was that they later demanded from me again and again the names of the priests and men who had been with me in Holland. But they never came over my lips. Therefore, thank God, they were spared the hell of the KZ, the concentration camp.1 1. KZ is the abbreviation for Konzentrationslager (concentration camp). 65 ...