During the Second World War in the Netherlands, there were a number of Dutch collaborators
with the Nazis.
Not all dutch offered active or passive resistance to the occupation by the Germans, and some
men and women chose or were forced to collaborate with the occupiers.
Many men joined the German Army, and others worked towards helping the Nazis achieve their
goals.
Some dutch civilians were responsible for fanatically tracking down those Jews who were
in hiding within the Netherlands, and they were involved in capturing hidden Jews and
then delivering them to the Germans for a price.
One of the most high profile cases of this, saw Anne Frank and the Frank family ultimately
betrayed whilst they were hiding out in the secret annex.
Someone did tell the authorities of their whereabouts, which resulted in the transport
of the hiders to the concentration camps, and ultimately their deaths.
Today we look at one woman who was executed for her role in collaborating with the Nazis,
and for hunting Jews and passing them over to the Germans.
So join us as we look at, ‘The Compelling Execution of Ans Van Dijk.’
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Anna ‘Ans’ Van Dijk was born on the 24th December 1906.
She was the daughter of Jewish parents, Aron van Dijk and Kaatje Bin.
It’s assumed that she had a relatively Norman upbringing, and n 1927 at the age of 21 she
married Bram Querido.
However within 8 years, they had separated and following this she had a relationship
with another woman, and then opened up a shop in Amsterdam.
Her shop was for headwear or hats, however dark times for the Netherlands were on the
horizon.
On the 10th May 1940, the Germans invaded the neutral Netherlands, and within 5 days
of the Army rolling into the country, the armed forces had surrendered.
Rotterdam had been heavily bombed during the attack, and the royal family quickly left
the country fleeing to London.
The invaders placed the country under immediate German occupation, and the swift invasion
shocked many especially because of the Neutrality of the Netherlands.
The armed forces defending the Netherlands quickly folded, as they had old weapons and
equipment and poor numbers of these, and they were caught by shock.
Their weapons systems in places were from the First World War, and had not been updated.
Thy had a very small amount of armoured cars and tankettes, and could not complete with
the rapid assaults of the Wehrmacht.
Rottedram was blitzed by Luftwaffe bombers, and around 25,000 homes were destroyed with
hundreds killed.
The locals pressured the garrison commander of the city to surrender.
The dutch high command were shocked by the large scale bombing, and they ordered the
army to surrender.
Life inside of the occupied Netherlands got tougher as the war went on with large scale
food shortages.
Hitler thought highly of the Dutch people, and he considered them fellow Aryans.
There were attempts to appease the population to sway them to the National Socialist ideology,
and the leaders of the Netherlands eased on the repression of the civilian population.
However for Jews, they were persecuted heavily inside of the country.
The Nazis began early to deport Jews to different concentration camps, and the dutch people
saw this and began to strike.
Mass deportations continued, with Jews being sent to transit camps before being sent to
concentration camps further away.
Jews were forced to wear the Star of David, and the survival rates of the dutch jews was
around 27%.
Now as mentioned, there was a significant degree of collaboration with the Nazis.
Between 20,000 and 25,000 dutch men for example joined the Heer of the Waffen SS, with whole
brigades of dutch soldiers fighting for the Nazis.
Some even saw action on the eastern front, and even fought in the Netherlands themselves.
But there was a very shameful part of collaboration.
Women who collaborated or slept with German soldiers were often forced into ordeals of
public humiliation, having their heads shaved and being painted with swastikas.
Ans Van Dijk was one collaborator who sold her soul to the Nazis.
Her hat business and shop was closed down by the Nazis in 1941 as they sought to seize
all Jewish property in Amsterdam, and Jews were forbidden across the country to own business
and to work inside of retail shops.
There were other restrictions on them.
Because of the closure, Van Dijk was left out of work, but being Jewish herself, she
must have feared for her life at some point.
It’s alleged that to make money she began to sell goods where she could, and also allegedly
helped Jews to find hiding places, however in January 1943 she was forced herself to
hide from the Nazis to escape deportation.
On Easter Sunday 1943, she was arrested by the SD and detective Peter Schaap of the Office
of Jewish Affairs of the Amsterdam Police after she was caught.
During her interrogation and interview, to avoid deportation and to secure her freedom,
van Dijk decided to switch over and to collaborate.
She agreed to help the SD to find Jews hiding in different places and she agreed to work
for them, as a Jew hunter for her own safety.
She began to infiltrate different circles, and she would offer to help Jews inside of
Amsterdam lying to them that she could help them to secure safe hiding places and also
provide them with false papers.
She did this a number of times, and she managed to trap at least 145 people, and it’s estimated
that this number was even higher.
In a horrific show of how sick she really was, she even managed to lure her own brother
and other family members and then they were turned over tot he Nazis.
Of those at least 145, it’s estimated that at least 85 of the people snared by Ans van
Dijk were murdered inside of the concentration camps.
However other estimated put her betrayal even higher, saying that she was responsible for
turning over around 700 Jews over to the Nazis.
There have even been suggestions that Ans Van Dijk may have been the one who found out
about Anne Frank’s secret annex, and that it was her who provided the information for
the Gestapo to raid the annex and for the Frank family and the other hiders to be seized.
She could have been the one behind the death of Anne Frank.
She continued to turn Jews over to the Germans, but after the Second World War she was arrested.
She had moved from Amsterdam to The Hague, and was arrested at her friends house on the
20th June 1945.
She was interrogated by the Dutch police, and was charged with 23 counts of treason
against the people of her nation.
Ans was brought to trial on the 24th February 1947, and was brought infront of a judge and
a courtroom.
During her trial, she claimed that she had acted and agreed to help the Germans only
to save her own life, stating that if she had not agreed to help the SD and the Nazis,
that she would have been sent to a concentration camp, and would have been killed.
She said this was the only reason why she did it, denying she was a nazi, but amazingly
she confessed to all 23 counts of treason.
It was obvious what Ans van Dijk’s sentence would be, as she was key to the murder of
those men, women and children she handed over to the Nazis.
Without her, they would not have been killed.
Ans van Dijk for her actions was sentenced to death.
She tried to appeal her conviction, pleading that without her turning over Jews then she
would have been killed herself, however this went to the Special Court of Appeals.
She even requested to the Queen, Wilhelmina for a royal pardon but this again was rejected
confirming her death sentence.
On the 14th January 1948, Ans van Dijk was brought from her prison for Fort Bijlmer,
and the night before her execution she was baptised and joined the Roman Catholic Church.
She also wrote a number of goodbye letters, including one to a Nun who visiter her in
jail.
However early in the morning she was brought out to what looks like the moat of the fort,
or a ditch surrounding a wall.
Next to the wall were sandbags to ensure that bullets did not ricochet, and as she was brought
into the ditch, she was led out to a post.
She was then tied to this stake, and her hands and legs were also secured to ensure that
van Dijk could not escape.
Over her head, a black cap was placed over her heads to ensure that she did not see her
final moments.
Opposite her was the firing squad, who were given the signal to get ready.
The firing squad then once the signal was given to fire, fired straight into Ans van
Dijk.
Her execution was one which can be viewed as slightly controversial, as she was Jewish
herself and it’s clear that but for her collaboration, chances are that she would
have been killed inside a concentration camp herself.
However what she didn’t have to do was to take her role as a snitch for the SD to the
level that she did, as for her actions, dozens were sent to their deaths inside some of the
worst and most evil places in the History of the World.
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