Gerardus Johannes.Schiffmacher -- Born --14.Dec.1916 -- (Died) 1.Dec.1944 Ladelund GER -- Transported to Ladelund, German Forced Labour Camp -- Not Married - No Children -- Father: Hendrikus.Johannes.Everhardus 1888 --(Mother) Willamina Anna Bitterling 1889
On Sunday the 1st of October 1944, after early Morning Mass Gerardus borrowed a bicycle from his neighbours , ten Hoven to go and visit his engaged Girlfriend Truus Keinhuis who lived in Putten, were he was arrested , in the early hours of the morning, on the out skirt of the Village, in retaliation for an attack on a German Car occupied by German Army Personnel, in the surroundings of Putten the previous evening, by a local resistance group.
And was the following day transported to a Prison Camp in Amersfoort and from there to a Forced Labour Camp at Ladelund (Schleswig-Holstein ) Germany.
Gerard is burried in an Massgrave of 111 other victims in the Church yard behind the Church in Ladelund.
On Saturday the 30th of September about midnight a party of a under ground resistant group from the Village of Putten, which included a number of Citizen from the Village under command 30-year-old Ab Witvoet, a former military policemen attacked a German-wagon on the Olden Allerseburg weg, near the Village of Putten in the Netherlands.
Trough the grapevine of the under ground resistant came a request of a German courier to be obtained who could be Questioned regarding the strength of the German army in the area where the war was being fought, butt the front at that time was still hundreds of Kilometres away , in a area of the Ardenes (Belgium), none of the resistant groups in the District took any notice of the request except group leader Witvoet who decided to take action on his own account without informing any other groups in the area.
On his command a flat top truck was parked on the side of the Road on the back of the truck was mounted a Light Machine Gun and some strong lights, when an little later an German staff car approched the group, the lights where switshed on to blind the driver of the wagen the wagon which was occupied by two German-Officers and two Lance- Corporals from the battle hardend Herman Goring Division.
According to one of the participants one of attackers opens fire from the side of the road with a Brengun, the Machine gun on the back of the truck misfired which caused a confusion within the group, when the participants asked for further orders the group leader Ab Witvoet was nowhere to be seen or heard of and had in effect cleared out.
The Germans in the car returned the attack by firing at the group and the attackers where forced to find shelter, the car with the Germans faltered and came to a stop, on a different position than was original anticipated in a plan at a briefing prior to the attack which again brought confusion and caused near panic within the group and many mistakes where made.
The two Lance-Corporals escape, so did one Officer Lieutenant Sommer, who was wounded in the attack butt was capable to make his way to a Farmhouse about 500 meters down the road.
Lieutenant Sommers arrived at the farm house and was looked after by the farmer and his Wife who bandage his wounds and a little later the Farmer stopped a German Army Wagon, Lt Sommers is transferred to a Hospital where he died the next day.
The other German Officer Over-Lieutenant Eggart is also wounded but was unable to escape.
After the attack the group slowly returns to the area where the shooting took place, and a discussion developed what to do with the wounded German-Officer Over- Lieutenant Eggart, some of them would like to kill him, butt others would like to keep him alive, there they feel to kill him now constitute murder.
It is to Mr.Rengers hora Siccama to argue for his life of the Over-Lieutenant Eggart.
You don't shoot a war-prisoner and definitely not a wounded war-prisoner
are the words contributed to Mr Regers Hore Ciccama.
One of the attackers is also wounded Frans Slotboom collected a bullet in the Liver.
Together with the Over-Lieutenant Eggart , Slotboom is transported to the Head-quarters of the Occupational Forces at:
Huize Enny`s Hoeve, Hunnenweg, Voorthuizen
Frans Slotboom died there the next morning Sunday 1st Oct.1994, advice from a Doctor called in the same night, to take him to a Hospital is not fore coming due to a shortage of Petrol, and no Petrol was made available for a wagon to take him there.
The occupants of the German Auto belong to the Herman Goring Regiment, when Commedant:
/
Oberst Fritz Wilhelm Herman Fullriede
This Highly Nazi Third Reich Decorated Officer with:
Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz and Ritterkruez zum Eisernen kreuz
Heard what has occurred he takes direct action, and send his available troops under his command to the Township of Putten, after which he makes contact with the German Weermacht Headquarters at Hilversum.
Chief of Staff General Von Wulisch
Orders the troops to circle the Town of Putten and to arrest the whole Population of the Town.
On the main roads machine gun where placed and by the time the morning Church service ended the circle was well and truly closed.
The Herman Goring Troops (Waffen SS) stationed in Utrecht, Amersfoort and Harderwijk where all transported to Putten in the early hours of the fatal Sunday morning in October.1944, and all roads out of the Village where sealed off.
Nazi General of the Luftmacht Flieger Friedrich Christian Christiansen.
Pilot in the First World War. 1933
Head of the Luftwaffe training school, 1935
Generalmajor. 1937
Head of the Nazi Flying corps. 1938
Generalleutnant. Flieger General. 1939.
Military commandant in Holland. 1940.
In command of the Wehrmacht in occupied Netherlands.
Was said to have been highly agitated.
Put them all against the wall and burn the place down
Was the general's reaction.
When informed of the general's intention, officers of the German army tactical agreed with the order as long as the SS would take the responsibility.
The debate continued until it was resolved that since Germany needed
manpower, the men - all those between 18 and 50 - were to be send to labour camps.
In the area of the Olden Allerseburg Weg the German troops started to collect hundreds of Men, Women, and Children, who where forced out of there homes and those walking on the street where arrested and herded and detained into an open paddock Opposite Hotel " de Spring " on the Cul the Sac end of the Harderwijker Straat, is also a Collection point on the side of the road lay`s a dead person who tried to escaped, and was shot by a Germans trooper, the same happened there , the troops started to collect the people out of there homes and farms it was a very thorough job no one escaped and included some two day`s earlier arrived evacuated people, from Arnhem and Oosterbeek.
One of the German patrols was accompanied by a Dutch police officer the outer areas of the Town was by now well under the control of the German troops, and by about 11 O`clock the time the Church service was about to end, some of the men in the Church where warned, and people in the Church where scared and frightened , by the troops along the street and the to and fro movement of the German armed forces and troop carriers.
Some trying to escape where shot and killed on the spot, two where able to climb in to the ceiling of the Church and where saved.
A little later the People that were in the Church where allowed to leave the Church, but then where herded and kept in front of the Church in Station street.
By this time thing happened quick in succession ,accompanied by the Dutch Police Officer, the German troops instructed the Woman and Children back in to the Church, exception is made for the ill and the infirm and some of the smaller children.
Those excused where instructed to hang some white sheets out of the windows of the homes they where in.
The people collected by Hotel " De Spring " and the Olden Allerseburg Area are marched under strong army personnel to the Town.
A certain number of people where marked out as " Todeskanidaat "
They where shot against the wall of Restaurant " De Heerdt " the Woman and Children from this convoy where also herded back in to the Church, the Men where escorted in to the School. which was situated on the market in the afternoon more people arrived from out laying area`s and a large number of homes selected at random where burnt down in retaliation.
The next day 661 old and young men where transported to Amersfoort.
Thirteen men managed to escape earlier while 58 were sent home shortly after
arriving in a concentration camp in Amersfoort.
And from their 590 of them were sent to Forced Labour Camps in Germany where 541 of them perished or went missing without a trace.
Nearly all where transported to Ladelund Germany.
The Ladelund Satellite Camp of Concentration Camp Neuengamme existed for only six weeks.
From November 1 to December 16, 1944, approximately 3,000 people passed through this camp.
Three hundred of the prisoners died in Ladelund, a small town on the border of Denmark. In addition, an indefinite number of people were transported back to Neuengamme before their death.
The death rate in Ladelund is one of the highest for a satellite concentration camp.
In 1938, the camp was built for two hundred men who worked in forestry as well as other areas of the Reich Labour Service.
In November 1944, 2,000 concentration camp prisoners were packed into the camp to dig anti-tank ditches.
" The Friesenwall "
It was known, a militarily useless operation at that point.
The prisoners for the most part were Dutch, but there were also many Poles, Russians and People from ten other nations who were considered.
" Political Criminals "
They had participated in resistance against the occupying powers or had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time and were taken hostage.
The men died mostly from malnutrition, disease and beatings.
They stood all day in ice cold mud or water in the ditches and were often arbitrarily beaten by the Kapos.
They could not remove their wet clothes.
The camp was located just a few hundred meters outside the town and the townspeople could hear screams in the evenings.
In the first weeks, the wretched prisoners always marched directly through the town on their way to work.
The Pastor Johannes Meyer, a devoted National Socialist who led the church community, tried to improve the living conditions in the camp.
He succeeded in assuring that everyone who died in Ladelund received a Christian burial and that there be accurate records of who died and when and where they were buried.
Ladelund has been an official concentration camp memorial since 1950.
Relatives saw to it that the dead remained at the Ladelund Cemetery.
Gradually the barracks were torn down until by 1970 none were left.
A memorial stone was erected in 1985 near the grounds of the camp.
Since November1990, there has been a permanent exhibition about the Ladelund satellite camp located in a documentation house that was especially built in Ladelund for this purpose.
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