Welcome to House of History. The Dutch city of Breda lies in the southern
Brabant province. Aside from its cultural riches, a pretty well-known prison named de Koepel,
or ‘the Dome’, is situated there. In the wake of the Second World War, the prison housed
all Dutch war-criminals serving life sentences. Some of them had their death sentence commuted.
Others simply served life. 111 Dutchmen and 63 Germans. Among them were ‘Breda’s Seven’;
seven Dutch former Waffen-SS war-criminals serving life sentences.
Yet seven years after the Second World War came to an end and the Dutch court
sentenced these men to life, they managed to escape the prison and flee the country.
This event dominated the national headlines, and there was an enormous public backlash.
Not so much because of the escape itself, but because of the aftermath… Although it was known
where the escapees fled to and where they resided, it appeared that all of them managed to get away
with it. In 2018 the Dutch National Archives released confidential ministerial letters, memos
and reports regarding the escape. These provide a candid look in the subsequent diplomatic fallout.
The Escape
On December 26, 1952, Boxing Day, the prison hosted a movie night for its inmates. The 1935
black-and-white Austrian comedy Der Himmel auf Erden was played in the common room. But
seven former Waffen-SS members and war-criminals serving life sentences weren’t watching the film.
Herbertus Bikker, Sander Borgers, Klaas Carel Faber, Jacob de Jonge,
Willem van der Neut, Willem Polak and Antoine Touseul were planning their escape. With help
from sympathisers on the outside. Letters and documents reveal these
men were serving their sentences for a long list of crimes against humanity.
During the Second World War, they committed murder, abuse and reprisals against unarmed
civilians. They aided and abetted the deportation of Jews, some being camp-guards themselves.
As soon as the common room lights extinguished, the seven prisoners
snuck to the prison’s boiler room. They pick locked the door that led them to the courtyard.
One of the men worked in the boiler room and hid a ladder under piles of coal there earlier that
day. Using both the ladder and a firehose, all seven managed to climb over the five-meter high
outer perimeter wall, unnoticed by any guard. Outside two cars stood at the ready, a Plymouth
and Chevrolet. It appeared the men received help from outside and that this escape wasn’t a
spur-of-the-moment thing. It had been thoroughly planned. After the men jumped into the cars,
they drove to Germany. Within two hours, at around 10 PM that night, they crossed the border. Upon
arrival in Germany, they reported themselves to the local police. Some sources indicate
the local police officer that happened to be on duty that night was a former SS officer himself,
instantly sharing the department’s Christmas stollen and brewing the prisoners a pot of coffee.
Meanwhile, in prison, halfway through the film, the lights suddenly turned on.
Someone tipped the guards an escape had taken place,
although the guards were unsure who, and how many escapees there were.
After a rollcall they counted 167 prisoners: seven were missing. But it was too late, and most of the
prisoners would never return to the Netherlands. During the subsequent proceedings of German
authorities against the fugitives, a German district judge, Dyckman, convicted all men…
for illegally crossing the border. They were fined 10 Marks each. The fact the men only had Dutch
guilders to pay the fine didn’t really matter. It appeared they quite literally escaped justice.
Backlash
Now, you’d expect the men to be extradited to the Netherlands as the German authorities found out
they resided in the country. Because, well, they were Dutch citizens. Yet that wasn’t the case.
Since 1943 any person of a ‘Germanic nation’ such as the Flemish or Dutchmen
that joined up with the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS automatically received German citizenship. This
was thanks to the so-called Führer-Erlass, directives issued by Adolf Hitler himself.
Post-war German law prohibited extradition of its own citizens. So German courts used
this argument to obstruct any way shape or form, leading to these Dutch fugitives’ extradition.
In turn, all of them began new lives in Germany. It’s fascinating to read letters from the Dutch
ambassador Pim van Boetzelaer, complaining about this “ridiculous argumentation, because all these
men are as Dutch as can be.” Three years after the escape, in October 1955, the German ambassador to
the Hague received a firm reprimand from the Dutch government. In a letter, the government complained
about the deterioration of confidence in the German rule of law. Mainly because the German
courts used the Führer-Erlass as an argumentation not to extradite the men. After all, the decree
was a thoroughly national-socialist decree, issued by Hitler himself. How could Germany,
after all the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, uphold such an order?
Writing about the case in private letters, the Dutch Justice Minister Leendert Donker
complained about it being “highly unsatisfactory and completely untenable.” He also criticised the
Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joseph Luns. Apparently, Luns promised to ensure that he’d
reach an agreement with the Germans regarding the issue. But three years down the line
there was no word about it yet. Coded telegrams sent by the Dutch
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reveal a painfully obvious absence of Allied countries’ support.
In one such telegram from February 1955, they write that extradition of ‘bandits’ isn’t a
priority to Washington, London or Paris. They had bigger fish to fry. To be fair, due to the Cold
War, there was ever-increasing tension between the Soviet Union and the Western nations. It was
a priority to ensure support from West Germany, and agitating them by twisting their arm into
extraditing the men could work counterproductive. Dutch interest was secondary to these massive
geopolitical interests forming a block against the Soviet Union and its satellite states.
This too became painfully obvious to the Dutch government. On October 27, 1955, Minister Donker
wrote that “any chance of extradition of these men is close to zero. It is a lost
cause.” And Donker wasn’t too wrong. All men got away with it. Well, except for Jacob de Jonge,
a former camp guard who ended up not being eligible for German citizenship. He was
extradited to the Netherlands and served part of his sentence. I couldn’t for the life of me find
out how long he did serve, although it is near certain he did not serve a life sentence anymore.
As for the prison itself, in the immediate aftermath of the escape, the prison, housing
dozens of war criminals, increased the height of the walls and erected multiple guard towers.
Curiously enough the three men driving the cars and helping the escapees were arrested
and put on trial in the Netherlands. All three were native Dutchmen from Amsterdam.
It turned out they served prison sentences in the aftermath of the war for assisting the Germans
during their occupation of the Netherlands. Dutch newspapers publicised their names and their
defence. The interrogation reports are included in the secret archives of the Dutch Justice Ministry.
It was quite laughable: they stated they were simply driving around, looking at Dutch meadows,
when they ran into the group of escaped prisoners. On a whim, they decided to give
the men a ride. They supposedly didn’t know they were helping war-criminals escape. At any rate,
all four were sentenced to six months imprisonment for aiding the escapees.
Herbertus Bikker, nicknamed the Hangman of Camp Ommen,
ended up standing trial in Germany in 2003 - 51 years after his escape. The Germans charged
him with the murder of a member of the Dutch resistance, Jan Houtman. Yet psychiatrists advised
the court that Bikker wasn’t mentally capable of understanding the charges brought against him
anymore. As such, the German courts decided to halt prosecuting him.
Bikker was never convicted for any of his crimes, just like the others, except de Jonge.
Thank you for watching this video. If there’s a topic or event you’d like to know more about,
let me know your thoughts in a comment. I would also like to thank all my Patrons and channel
members for their generous support. If you enjoy House of History and want to support my work
consider checking me on Patreon or becoming a channel member. For just 1$ a month you will
gain access to the exclusive Patreon series. Don’t forget to subscribe. See you next time!