This story is the expanded version of the article that appeared in the Deventer Yearbook in May 2018. The article Schoutenweg 2a, the key to the back door describes both the periods Lou Jansen and his family spent in hiding at this address and the raid by the SD some time after their departure.
Forword
Lou Jansen, together with Paul de Groot and Jan Dieters, was part of the leadership of the illegal CPN. On 20 July 1940, the German authorities banned the CPN and its affiliated organisations. The leaders of the illegal CPN then went into hiding: Jansen in Appelscha, Dieters in Deventer and De Groot in Eindhoven.
In June 1941, Bertus Webeling, a communist from Amsterdam, rented a house on Schoutenweg in Deventer on behalf of the party. This house was to serve as a hiding place for Lou Jansen and his family.
In the autumn of 1941, they moved into the property at Schoutenweg 2a. Bertus, his wife and their young daughter would live there until the SD raid on 7 February 1943. The Jansens moved in with them. With a break in the spring of 1942, they lived there until just before Christmas 1942.
The research for the above-mentioned article yielded a wealth of information, more than could be incorporated into it. Hence this more detailed account, which will also serve as the basis for a play yet to be written.
Finally, a word of thanks to Ruud Jansen, who experienced much of this himself, wrote a book about it, and was always willing to answer my questions.
Johan van der Veen
Deventer
July 2018
Introduction
On 4 March 1943, a detective from the Deventer municipal police wrote a report about the disappearance of two boxes of personal belongings from the home of A.C. Webeling on Schoutenweg. Less than a month earlier, when he left the building after the SD raid, those boxes were still there. They were in the hallway by the front door.
He concluded his report by stating that he had locked the back door from the outside and handed over the key. The key ended up in the police archives. In 2016 it resurfaced and is now a silent witness to the two periods during which Lou Jansen, one of the leaders of the illegal CPN, went into hiding with his family in Deventer.
Deventer had good railway connections. The city had a left-wing tradition with powerful workers’ organisations that had been speaking out unequivocally against fascism and Hitler since the summer of 1933.1 Moreover, an illegal CPN group had already been formed in the summer of 1940.2
The Netherlands 1939 – 1941
Economy and politics
The crisis of 1929 hit the Netherlands hard. The low point was reached in the years 1932–1936. In the period 1929–1935, imports fell by 64.6% and exports by 64.5%. The unemployment rate rose from 6.2% in 1929 to 35.2% in 1936. In 1936, there were 480,000 unemployed people in the Netherlands.3
The various cabinets opted for a policy of ‘adjustment’ and for maintaining the gold standard. Government spending was drastically reduced and the value of the (too) expensive guilder was maintained until 1936. The latter made it difficult for the Netherlands to compete with other countries. The strong man was Colijn, who led centre-right or centre cabinets.
In 1939, the De Geer II Cabinet took office. It was a centre-left emergency cabinet with two ministers from the SDAP. This cabinet was faced with the threat of war and therefore decided to mobilise the armed forces.
The CPN
On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. For many members of the CPN, this marked the beginning of a short but turbulent period. Some of the party leadership was mobilised, while others went into hiding from the Dutch police. A number of prominent members of the CPN had been warned the day before the German invasion that they would be arrested. Nevertheless, a number of communists were arrested. For them, being imprisoned with members of the NSB was a humiliating experience. Other communists took security measures immediately after the German invasion. In various places, membership lists were given to unknown communists or sympathisers for safekeeping, Marxist publications were hidden or burned, and typewriters and stencil machines were taken to safe addresses.
On 15 May, the CPN party executive met for the first time to discuss the new situation. All those present agreed that a two-pronged policy should be pursued: on the one hand, legal opportunities should be exploited and, at the same time, preparations should be made for illegality. It was also decided to reduce the pre-war party secretariat, consisting of five members, to a trio: Paul de Groot, Jan Dieters and Lou Jansen. The other two members had to withdraw and were placed ‘in reserve’ along with a number of other party executives. They had to refrain from any party activity and, if possible, lead a legal life.
In the first months after the German invasion, legal activities remained possible. The party leadership negotiated with the Germans for weeks about the legal publication of Het Volksdagblad and Politiek en Cultuur. The latter periodical reappeared legally in the second half of June. Around that time, the magazines of related organisations, which had also been banned, published a legal issue: De Sowjet-Unie (The Soviet Union) by the VVSU (Association of Friends of the Soviet Union), Vrouwen (Women) by the Women’s Movement Against War, and Stormvogel (Storm Bird) by the NJF (Dutch Youth Federation). When the publication bans issued by the Dutch military authorities were lifted, the party leadership took the opportunity to publish Het Volksdagblad legally. The newspaper reappeared on 26 June.
The triumvirate that led the party had not yet gone into hiding at that time. In June 1940, Lou Jansen and his wife were still able to move freely with their friends Elske and Jo de Smit in Zandvoort. Apparently, the Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany offered a form of protection.
The day after the Volksdagblad appeared, Secretary-General of Justice Tenkink and the public prosecutors decided to ban all communist newspapers.9
In early July 1940, the ‘limited’ party leadership met in the Parlando party building: only those party leaders who could be recruited illegally. In anticipation of the ban on the party, it was decided to dissolve the legal party. Instructors were appointed to coordinate the establishment of the illegal party in the various districts. After the meeting, they were approached by the members of the triumvirate. One of them was Joop Geerligs.
On 20 July, the CPN was banned by the Germans. The following day, a meeting was held with the instructors present. It was the last meeting of the party leadership in its expanded form. The members of the triumvirate agreed on a division of tasks: Paul de Groot was given overall leadership and responsibility for editing texts to be published; Jan Dieters and Lou Jansen were to coordinate the instructional work: Jansen for Amsterdam and Dieters for the other districts. Geerligs became instructor for the IJssel region. He thus fell under Dieters, who, among other things, brought him into contact with Toon Kleinbussink in Deventer. After this meeting, the trio went into hiding.
The fact that Jansen went into hiding in Appelscha, Dieters in Deventer and De Groot in Eindhoven indicates that geographical dispersion was sought in the beginning.
The illegal Waarheid began publication on 23 November 1940. The newspaper appeared biweekly and nationwide. This was possible because the communists had already built up a nationwide illegal organisation. Until February 1943, the national newspaper apparatus functioned without interruption.
The trio and their families regularly changed their hiding places. They met in Amersfoort or in Deventer at the home of Dirkje Mandemaker’s sister, who had been in a relationship with Jan Dieters since 1938. In early February 1941, in the front room of Douwelerstraat 29, it was decided to take mass action, which culminated in the February strike. In Amsterdam, Lou Jansen wrote the famous strike call a few days before the strike.13
In early 1941, Bertus Webeling, an Amsterdam communist, was asked by the party leadership to set up a safe house for Lou Jansen and his family somewhere outside the city, in the Veluwe region.
The families
Webeling
Albertus Christiaan (Bertus) Webeling was born in Amsterdam on 4 June 1913. He was the son of Willem Webeling and Christina Alberta Beenke. He was the second child in the family. He had an older sister, Elisabeth, and four younger brothers and sisters. His father was a typesetter by profession.
Bertus married Guurijna Maria (Reina) Hoeijenbos, who was born in Utrecht on 21 June 1912, on 8 September 1937. Their daughter Christina (Tineke) was born on 8 December 1938. Bertus was a self-employed carpenter by profession.15
Bertus attended primary school through the 7th and 8th grades.16 He then went to work at a timber merchant in Pieter Pauwstraat (Amsterdam, De Weteringschans district). He worked there until he had to do his military service. Through his Catholic employer, he attended evening classes at the Institute for Extensive Industrial Education, part of the St. Jozef Gezellenvereniging. There he took a four-year course to obtain a certificate in technical drawing.
Bertus’s father was not politically organised, but he did have proletarian leanings. Bertus was not a member of the Communist Youth League. However, he did attend the Marxist Workers’ School on Prinsengracht.
In 1933, after completing his military service, Bertus was unemployed. He took a course in Esperanto in Amsterdam-West. During that course, he was recruited as a member of the CPN in 1937. His father followed suit about a year later.17 During that period, Bertus did carpentry work for the party. He became a member of the technical brigade that set up the stages for conferences, among other things. He worked there with Jan and Gerrit Jansen, Lou’s brothers.
As a CPN member, Bertus was active within the company groups. He also stenciled educational materials and made the covers for them.
From 1933 to 1936, Bertus lived with his parents on Mercatorstraat (Amsterdam, Van Galenbuurt neighbourhood). They lived at number 155, on the third floor. Lou Jansen’s family lived on the floor below them. In 1936, the Webeling family moved to Bennebroekstraat (Amsterdam, Hoofddorpplein neighbourhood). In September 1936, Bertus settled at Van Spilbergenstraat 66, on the second floor (Amsterdam, Hoofdweg neighbourhood).18 He lived in this house, later with his wife and daughter, until they left for Deventer.
During the mobilisation, Bertus was stationed in the Eemlinie. After the capitulation, the soldiers left the lines for Amersfoort. Bertus was then transported to a reception camp near the ‘t Hemeltje lock on the Vecht. He was discharged from service when he was able to prove that he had a job. Bertus started working as a carpenter at the Schellingwoude naval air base. There he built crew quarters on barges.
Shortly before the February strike, he started working at a large timber merchant in Zaandam. During that strike, work was also stopped at the timber merchant. Bertus went to the Schellingwoude air base to see what was going on there. There was also a strike there. He and others were sent away by the management. The next day, the strike was over and Bertus was able to return to work at the naval air base because the strikers there had been dismissed. Bertus hardly worked. He cycled around the large site for six to seven weeks, collecting money for the dismissed strikers. He took the money to Henk Gortzak, who distributed it.
Louis (Lou) Jansen was born in Amsterdam on 28 March 1900. He was the son of Berend Jan Jansen and Jacoba Johanna Naves. His father had a carpentry business. Lou was a late arrival . When he was born, the Jansen family had six children. Two children had already died at a young age.19
Jansen
Unlike his brothers, who became carpenters like their father, he was destined to continue his education. After secondary school, he first worked for several years at various employers in an office. He then worked as a sales representative and travelling salesman for various companies. In early 1930, he became unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
Lou Jansen married Fimke Bakker on 27 June 1925. She was the daughter of a small skipper from Friesland. Her father’s small cargo ship had no engine, so she was called upon to help with the daily work from a very young age. When there was no wind, she helped her father and brother pull the barge along the towpaths of the many canals in Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. She attended school very little, if at all. Fimke had two children when she married Lou: a son, Fimme, who died in October 1925, and a daughter named Johanna (Jopie). Lou Jansen and Fimke, who had since started calling herself Fennie, had three children together: Frederik (Fred), Sonja and Louis (Loekie). Rudolf (Ruud) was born on 5 August 1933 from a brief relationship his mother had with another man.
In 1929, Lou joined the Communist Party. Within a few years, he was on the national party executive.23 In 1935, he became a member of the Amsterdam City Council and a member of the Provincial Council of North Holland. In 1939, he was re-elected as a councillor.24 In 1938, he became a member of the party secretariat, the party’s executive committee.25
After their wedding, the Jansen family lived at various addresses in Amsterdam. In October 1933, they moved to Mercatorstraat 155, on the second floor, where they continued to live until they had to go into hiding.
Deventer
A house in Deventer
In 1941, after the February strike, the party leadership sent courier Sem Lobo to Bertus Webeling, who was then living with his family on Van Spilbergenstraat in Amsterdam. Lobo informed him that a family was being sought who wanted to live outside the city, in the Veluwe, to provide shelter for Lou Jansen’s family. Shortly afterwards, another courier, Gerrit van den Bosch, came to visit and Bertus went with him to Apeldoorn to look for a house. When that proved unsuccessful, they continued their search the next day. In Deventer, they found a real estate agent who had a house for rent. A contract was drawn up that same day, which took effect sometime in June 1941. In this way, Bertus became the tenant of Schoutenweg 2a.
Bertus was chosen for this job because he knew Lou Jansen and his family and because he was relatively unknown. As a member of the CPN, he was not active in a branch, but in what was known as ‘company work’.
The owner
In 1932, Henriëtte Boltjes had become the owner of Schoutenweg 2a.28 She was the eldest daughter of Gerrit Boltjes, who ran a wickerwork shop on the Brink. When her mother died in 1902, her father was left with four daughters. Henriëtte was 14 at the time, her sisters were 12, 11 and 5 years old. Around 1914, Henriëtte was still living with her father and youngest sister.29 In 1927, this sister, who had since become a teacher, was removed from Gerrit’s family card ( ) and added to her husband’s family card. At that time, Henriëtte was still listed as “without occupation” on her father’s family card.30 From the above, it could be concluded that Henriëtte had taken care of her father and the children after her mother’s death. The fact that she became the owner of Schoutenweg 2a in 1932 was possibly an investment for her old age. This is because she does not appear as a resident on the housing card that was kept from September 1936 onwards.31 In December 1939, Gerrit Boltjes’ business was closed down.32 Gerrit Boltjes died on 31 January 1948.33 The death notice lists the deceased’s address as Rozenstraat 59.34 His daughter Henriëtte is listed without a husband or children. In the 1949-1950 Deventer address book, Henriëtte is listed as living at this address.35
Epse
The Jansen family stayed in Appelscha from August to November 1940. They then went into hiding in Eerbeek for some time. On the eve of the February strike, Lou and his family were living on Badhuisweg in Apeldoorn. In the days leading up to the strike, Lou stayed with the De Smit family on Westlandgracht (Amsterdam, Hoofddorppleinbuurt district), where he wrote the strike call. In the early morning of 25 February 1941, he left by tram, which was still running at the time, and train to Apeldoorn. That same evening, a courier brought him a report from Apeldoorn on the first day of the strike.36 The Jansens remained in Apeldoorn for several months, until their departure for Epse.
In the meantime, Bertus Webeling had rented the house in Deventer. Bertus was cautious. He did not know who had been arrested during and in the aftermath of the February strike, nor what the Germans might know about him. For this reason, the house in Deventer was not occupied immediately. In consultation with the Jansens, a summer cottage in Epse was rented first: Zomerlust. In Deventer and Amsterdam, where Bertus and his family were still officially registered, the ‘holiday address’ in Epse was of course unknown. And people who temporarily rented a summer cottage were obviously not included in the population register.
Bertus had told the landlord that he would be living there with his wife and three children. The landlord was therefore unpleasantly surprised when it turned out that his holiday home was occupied by two families with a total of six children.
Ruud remembers two things from that period: how he waited for the Telegraaf newspaper delivery man in the morning to get the Tom Poes and Mr Bommel comic strip; and how strawberries were bought from a farmer in the area.
Bertus occasionally went to Amsterdam and asked neighbours if anyone had ever inquired about him. When that was not the case, the move to Deventer was arranged, probably in the autumn of 1941. However, Bertus remained cautious. The house on Van Spilbergenstraat was kept for more than six months and, as a precaution, the curtains remained hanging. Bertus Webeling’s family card states that the family was deregistered on 27 May 1942. The housing card in Deventer shows that they were registered on the same date in Deventer at the address Schoutenweg 2a.37 Bertus’s profession at that time was painter.38
Two families
Ruud, one of the five children of the Jansen family, describes his stay at the hiding place at Schoutenweg 2a, now 93, in his book Voordat ik het vergeet (Before I forget it). He writes that as a child he lived twice with his parents in the same house in Deventer. Both times they lived there with Bertus Webeling, his wife Reina and their daughter Tineke. It was a detached house on the outskirts of the city, with a small front and back garden. Anyone walking past Schoutenweg 93 today will recognise the house immediately.
In the spring of 1942, their stay in Deventer was interrupted. Ruud remembers spending a month in a large villa in Barchem, together with the Webeling family. Bertus and Reina remember a summer cottage called De Meerkoetjes.
In retrospect, Ruud is surprised that the house on Schoutenweg was chosen as a hiding place. A family with five children suddenly settling there. A father who was often away and children who did not go to school or have a job. Something like that would have to stand out. With neighbours on all sides – and there must undoubtedly have been Dutch collaborators living in the neighbourhood – the chance of discovery must have been much greater than in the countryside. On the other hand, it was easier to blend in with the crowd in Deventer.
Many people in a small space and the constant fear of being arrested led to tensions. Lou Jansen suffered from stomach problems and took powdered medicine for them. Reina and Fennie Jansen regularly argued about things ranging from the upbringing of the children to the use of the kitchen. This resulted in crying fits, Reina’s headaches, attempts at reconciliation and a tense calm until the next argument.
Bertus was a creative man. He photographed and painted. A darkroom had been set up in the attic. Ruud suspects that the photographic activities had everything to do with forging identity cards and other documents. Because all the rooms in the house were occupied, the attic was an ideal place for all kinds of activities. Ruud and his younger brother had made a secluded play area there, and Bertus and Ruud’s eldest brother used the space as a kind of gym. Every day, the two of them spent half an hour doing boxing exercises on a large sandbag. And to strengthen their arm and shoulder muscles, they had purchased a set of pull springs. The evenings were spent reading, playing shuffleboard, Monopoly and bridge. Ruud and his youngest brother were still too young for the latter game.
The harsh winter
Ruud writes that he experienced a harsh winter in Deventer, during which he learned to skate on the ponds in the city park. That was the winter of 1941/42. On a whim, his mother bought a pair of wooden skates in town.
It was a winter that seemed to go on forever. They also went sledging on a wooden Davos model. Shortly after buying it, Bertus, Ruud’s eldest brother, hit a tree with it. This broke one of the runners. Bertus glued it with bone glue and reinforced it with a screw.
After staying elsewhere, in the spring of 1942, the summer and autumn were spent in Deventer again. Once more with the Webeling family.
Raid by the Schalkhaarders
Ruud remembers that summer because they often cycled to the swimming pool, the Borgelerbad. Ruud and his youngest brother sat on the back with their mother. In this swimming pool, the Schalkhaar Police Training Battalion, notorious for its assistance to the German occupiers, practised ‘ ‘. One afternoon, after swimming and sunbathing, the recruits carried out a lightning raid. Their mother was terrified because she had a false identity card. They fled into a changing room, got changed and eventually managed to escape through a side door with a group of frightened swimmers.
Ruud remembers that on a drizzly afternoon, he had to accompany his mother and sisters to the swimming pool in the IJssel river across from the Schipbrug. He didn’t like it because there was no shallow end for people who hadn’t yet mastered swimming.
Appendicitis
Events also took place in Deventer that did not make life any easier. A major problem arose when his sister Sonja developed appendicitis and had to be admitted to hospital urgently. The operation went without complications, but registering with the hospital administration raised a lot of questions. Where were the health insurance and registration cards? They were asked for at every visit. And every time, the strict head nurse was promised that they would remember to bring them on the next visit.
Accident on Ceintuurbaan
One afternoon, the atmosphere was tense. Mother Jansen, who had gone shopping, did not come home. Father Jansen paced impatiently around the room and discussed with Bertus what they should do: continue waiting or leave the house. Because if she had been arrested, the Germans would of course be at the door in no time. Around dinner time, she finally arrived. Relief and raised voices.
On her way home, on Ceintuurbaan, she had witnessed an accident. A little girl had been hit by a Wehrmacht car, which was stationed at the ULO on that street. She saw the girl lying motionless on the street and rushed towards her. She then got into the Wehrmacht car with the girl and her mother and drove them to the hospital. The police arrived at the scene of the accident 50 minutes later. According to De Koerier of Friday, 20 November 1942, the girl was the five-year-old daughter of the R. family, who lived on Putmanstraat.39 The girl, who was crossing the road without paying attention, was hit by Gefreiter Geveke at ten minutes to two that afternoon. She was admitted to Sint Geertruiden Hospital with concussion. Mother Jansen remained until it was clear how the child was doing. In order not to arouse suspicion, it was agreed that she would maintain contact with the mother and child for the time being.
There are four witness statements in the Deventer police archives. One of the witnesses states that he alerted Dr Schoorl in Duymaer van Twiststraat. There is a statement from Dr Schoorl that the child was admitted to Sint Geertruiden Gasthuis or Hospital with concussion after being hit by a car.40
Police at the door
One evening in winter, the police suddenly appeared at the door. This event took place during a speech on the radio. The speech was probably broadcast on Radio Oranje. Listening to this station was forbidden. The speech was apparently so important that Lou Jansen had a few other people from the resistance visit him to take shorthand notes of it. Probably to print and distribute the speech afterwards.
The men were not to be disturbed. That is why Ruud and his little brother were put in the kitchen under the watchful eye of their sister Sonja. Outside, it was pitch dark due to the blackout regulations.
Around half past eight, it happened. Ruud, his little brother and his sister were sitting in the kitchen reading. In the background, there was a soft buzz in the living room. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. The children looked at each other in shock. Who would be coming to the door so late? After a few seconds, the kitchen door opened and Sonja was instructed by her father to open the front door.
When she did, she got the fright of her life. Standing at the door were two police officers who reported that light was shining through a gap in the blackout curtain. Could someone please make sure the gap was closed? With a good evening, they disappeared back into the darkness. The radio, which had been hastily hidden away, was brought out again and turned on. And while Ruud and his little brother had to go back to the kitchen with Sonja, they continued listening.
The friend
During his second stay in Deventer, Ruud had become friends with a boy his age. He lived in the house opposite him and was the son of the director of the Catholic ULO in Smedenstraat.41 When his friend was free, they played in the street and lit fires on a vacant lot nearby.
His friend had a real aquarium at home. Because Ruud liked it so much, he was eventually given a large glass jar with water plants and a real fish. The fish did not survive long in the jar, which was too small, but Ruud enjoyed it nonetheless.
Lou and Fennie Jansen were not particularly happy with this kind of friendship, because it could jeopardise the safety of both families. The boy from across the street might ask which school Ruud went to, what his father did and where the family came from. That is why Ruud was given instructions on how to answer such questions.
With regard to school attendance, the instructions were simple. Because Ruud could not go to school, he had to tell his friend that he went to a school on the other side of town. And in order not to arouse suspicion, plans were made to leave the house early in the morning to pretend to go to school. However, the problems resolved themselves because the family had to leave Deventer.
Departure from Deventer
Shortly before leaving Deventer, Fred and Bertus were busy making cardboard figures whose shadows could be projected onto a screen by means of a beam of light. It never came to a performance.
During the night of 14 to 15 October 1942, Paul de Groot narrowly escaped arrest at Villa Woudrust in Gorssel. His wife and daughter were arrested. According to Bertus, at least two people knew the address in Deventer. One of them was Jan Janzen, who was the linchpin of the national Waarheid organisation. It became too dangerous. Before Christmas, the family left Deventer: the two girls went to Velp and the others to Eerbeek. There, Lou, his wife and the three boys were arrested on 6 April 1943.
Guard duty
Bertus and his family remained in Deventer. They were officially registered as residents. As a citizen of the city, Bertus had to perform guard duty at objects of military importance. The Germans had taken this measure after attacks had been carried out in Deventer and the surrounding area in the autumn of 1942. Bertus reckoned that a sudden and unannounced departure might arouse suspicion. Moreover, it was also possible that Lou Jansen and his family had left on the basis of a false alarm. He found it difficult to just leave a good hiding place.
Raid by the SD
On Sunday, 7 February, Bertus set off for the object he was supposed to guard. It turned out he was on reserve duty. And because no one was absent, he was allowed to return home. He was back on Schoutenweg before eight o’clock. He put his bicycle in the hallway next to the house and went upstairs. After a few minutes in the bedroom, he heard the roar of an engine. Since motorcycles were a rarity, Bertus was immediately on his guard. He looked through the curtain and saw a motorcycle with a sidecar carrying three soldiers. The man in the sidecar jumped out, walked across the street and looked at the house. Bertus knew immediately that something was wrong. And he also knew that they must not get their hands on him, because he knew too much.
Bertus had made a hiding place under the floor for emergencies. The hatch was in the room and was constructed in such a way that he could close it even when he was alone. He had hung a dark cloth in front of the letterbox, not to block the light, but to prevent anyone from looking through the letterbox. While the SD officers were banging on the door, he ran down the stairs, entered the room and disappeared through the hatch. His wife followed him, possibly placed a chair on top of it and opened the door. The three SD officers entered, followed by ten soldiers. During the course of the morning, a detective from the Deventer police was sent to the house to guard Reina and Tineke together with someone from the SD.
The SD had discovered the address in Deventer shortly before midnight on 6 February. Jan Janzen had been arrested on 3 January. Janzen managed to endure two days of extremely brutal interrogation. This was the rule within the underground movement in order to give others the opportunity to disappear. Then the alias of Lou Jansen and his address in Deventer were revealed.44
Under the floor
It was a cold day. Bertus crawled as far away from the hatch as possible, into the bay window. He hoped that he would be invisible if the Germans found the hatch. He lay down there. He hid there for thirty-three hours and heard what was being said and rummaged above him. After the war, Reina, who was regularly interrogated, told him many details.
After a few hours, the soldiers above him became bored. They started playing shuffleboard. That suited Bertus fine, because it was stuffy and cold downstairs. Now he could cough occasionally. During the course of the day, the soldiers left, leaving behind two officials, probably from the SD and the aforementioned detective. They stayed for the rest of the day, the evening and the night.
Visit
During the day, Bertus’ brother-in-law came by. Reina, who had gone upstairs for a moment, saw him from the window and managed to signal him to keep walking. Later, a sister and brother-in-law arrived at the door. They rang the bell, unsuspecting, were pushed a “barking dog” under their noses and had to stay the whole evening and night. Reina’s guards suspected that they had come to warn Bertus. They, however, insisted that they had come to Deventer to discuss the family situation with Bertus. This was because there had been raids on several family members. During the raid on Woestduinstraat (Amsterdam, Hoofddorppleinbuurt district), at Bertus’s mother’s house, both his brothers had been arrested and taken away. The guards accepted this story. Bertus’ sister and brother-in-law were allowed to leave the next morning. For Reina, and later also for Bertus, it was a mystery why they had come and, above all, how they had found them. They had never given their address to family members.
Important information
While Bertus was hiding under the floor, he heard people talking above him about guarding the station and about a safe house in Barchem. The Jansens had already spent a month in hiding at that address, possibly with Bertus and his family members. It was not unlikely that the Jansen family was staying there or perhaps in Eerbeek.
Reina interrogated
On Monday 8 February, at 1 p.m., the detective who would write the report on the missing crates on 4 March 1943 brought Reina Webeling and her four-year-old daughter Tineke to the police station. At the request of the SD, he interrogated her during the afternoon. He did not learn much, because Reina stated the following:
“From July 1942, a certain Lodewijk JANSMA lived with us with his wife and five children. On Wednesday 3 February 1943, at around 3 p.m., JANSMA left. He did not tell me where he was going. His wife left with her children on Saturday 6 February at around 10 a.m. She also did not tell me where she was going. On Saturday, 6 February 1943, at around 12:30 p.m., my husband left on business. I do not know where he went. He did not tell me either. I never interfere in his business.
It often happens that he is away for a few days without coming home. I am therefore unable to provide you with any information about the whereabouts of the JANSMA family and my husband.
Tineke and Reina were picked up from the police station by two officers at 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday, 9 February. Tineke was taken to relatives in Amsterdam. Reina was transported to the SD in Rotterdam.45
To Eerbeek
Meanwhile, Bertus listened carefully to see if anything was moving above him. When it remained quiet, he went in search of the hatch. He opened it and crawled upstairs. Because the safe house in Barchem had been mentioned, he wanted to warn Lou Jansen and his family.
He did not set off immediately. When he looked in the mirror, he saw a man with a black face and two days’ stubble staring back at him. He had to shave and tidy himself up. While he was doing this, he noticed a soldier driving around the house. Bertus estimated how long it would take to circle the neighbourhood. When the coast was clear, he put on his coat and took a hat from the coat rack, probably one of Lou Jansen’s hats. Bertus did not wear hats. He put on the hat, took the bicycle, which had been brought inside, outside, opened the gate and cycled into the darkness.
Bertus cycled to a greengrocer called Achter de Muren, where vegetables were bought once a week and who was known to be anti-German, but otherwise had nothing to do with anything else. He was warmly welcomed by this greengrocer. He drank coffee there and was given a loaf of wheat bread for the road, which he put in his bicycle bag with some clothes.
He cycled to the hiding place in Eerbeek. There he found Fennie Jansen and the boys. The girls were in Velp at the time. He warned Fennie that there was danger in Barchem.
Amsterdam
Bertus then left for Amsterdam. It is not entirely clear how. In any case, he did not board the train in Deventer, because he had heard that the station was being guarded. Suspecting that he was also being watched at the station in Amsterdam, he got off at Abcoude and cycled to Amsterdam. Bertus had a contact address in Amsterdam: the De Smit family on Westlandgracht. He had been there several times to deliver messages. At this point, Bertus’s story becomes unclear in terms of the sequence of events. He says he had an appointment on the corner of Amstelveenseweg near the church. When he arrived by bicycle, he saw a German soldier standing there. Bertus cycled around the square, parked his bicycle on the other side and went to investigate the situation on foot. He soon came to the conclusion that this soldier was not waiting for him. He walked back to his bicycle, but it was gone. Stolen, along with his bread and his underwear.
In the dark, Bertus made his way to the Westlandgracht. At the address of the De Smid family, he found Lou Jansen.
In hiding
Bertus was taken in by the party at a hiding place in Huizen. He stayed there for fourteen days. The family was afraid and nervous. Bertus therefore thought it advisable to leave and return to Amsterdam. For a year, he changed hiding places every few weeks. He chose the addresses himself, because he had little confidence in the addresses provided by the party. Eventually, he was able to stay with his sister on Aalsmeerweg in Amsterdam (Hoofddorppleinbuurt district). He stayed in the attic and slept at night with a string tied around his big toe so that he could be woken up in time from one floor below if there was any danger.
The suitcases
On 15 February, the SD in Arnhem informed by telephone that the boxes still at the Schoutenweg 2a property had to be sent to Arnhem. The daily report states that the order was given.47
On 17 February, the acting police commissioner sent a wanted notice for Bertus Webeling to the Algemeen Politieblad (General Police Journal):
The Commissioner of Police in Deventer requests the arrest, investigation and arraignment of:
Albertus Christiaan WEBELING, born in Amsterdam on 4 June 1913, painter, residing at Schoutenweg 2a, Deventer.”48
The detective who had brought Reina and Tineke to the police station on 8 February reported on 4 March 1943, in response to the open back door at Schoutenweg 2a, that he had noticed that afternoon at around 6 p.m. that the door was closed but not locked. He had locked this door from the inside and closed it on 8 February when he left the house with Mrs Webeling. He left the key in the lock on the inside. At that time, there were two boxes or suitcases in the hallway near the front door, presumably containing personal belongings. Now they were gone. While on duty in the house, someone had come to the door to collect the goods on behalf of the Deventer Shopping Service. This had been arranged by telephone. The police officer suspected that one of the fugitives was still in possession of a key to the front door and had removed the boxes (suitcases). He concluded as follows:
“I have now also locked the front door from the inside with a clip, after which I locked the back door from the outside. I hereby submit the key to the back door.”
The report contains a note in pencil stating that the boxes had been collected for the SD. Apparently, the suitcases had already been taken to Arnhem in accordance with the order of 15 February.49
The keys
On 19 April 1943, the acting police commissioner informed the SD in Arnhem that the SD in Rotterdam had telephoned on 17 April to say that the keys to Schoutenweg 2a, which were at the police station, could be handed over “to the parents of a certain Mrs Webeling, who would come to the police station for that purpose”.50
Betrayal
Piet Vosveld
On 1 April 1943, Piet Vosveld was arrested. Until then, he had been performing courier services for the national CPN leadership and, together with Jaap Brandenburg and Gerrit van den Bossch, was to form the new daily leadership of the CPN, because the old leadership in the east had become isolated. Through Vosveld, the new leadership would remain in contact with Jan Dieters of the old leadership. Vosveld succumbed to the pressure of the interrogations and revealed an appointment with Dieters on 3 April at Café Ruimzicht on Loolaan in Apeldoorn. On that day, Vosveld was taken to the agreed location in Apeldoorn under SD escort as bait.
During this meeting, Vosveld gave Dieters a blank identity card for Paul de Groot. Dieters then cycled to an agreed location to hand over the identity card. He was followed by the SD. When he did not find De Groot there, he unsuspectingly turned his bicycle around and rode straight into the arms of SD agents. De Groot, who was slightly delayed, saw this happening from a distance and made his escape. Why he did not warn Lou Jansen or have him warned will always remain a mystery.51
Sentenced to death
On 6 April, the SD raided Lou Jansen’s hiding place in Eerbeek. Lou and his eldest son were taken to Amsterdam for interrogation.
Lou Jansen and Jan Dieters were sentenced to death on 24 August 1943. Requests for clemency were rejected by Seyss-Inquart. They were informed of this early in the morning on 9 October. Both men were allowed to write a farewell letter and smoke a cigarette. At 7.30 a.m., the sentence was carried out by a German firing squad on the Waalsdorpervlakte.53
The farewell letter, which is in the possession of Ruud Jansen, ends as follows:
“I have not lived in vain; my life had meaning and substance, which makes dying easy.”
And afterwards
Reina ended up in the Vught concentration camp. After Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday), 5 September 1944, she and a large group of women began a journey that would take her to Ravensbrück, among other places. She survived the hardships.54 After the war, the family settled at Groenendaalstraat 10 (Amsterdam, Hoofddorppleinbuurt district). Bertus initially earned a living as a photographer. When wood became available again, he resumed his profession as a self-employed carpenter. After the war, Reina was active in the Dutch Women’s Movement.55 In De Waarheid of 21 February 1950, Tineke Webeling congratulates her parents on their 121/2-year wedding anniversary. In July 1962, Tineke Webeling passed her MO-B drawing certificate.56 Bertus died in 1986. In De Waarheid of 28 January 1986, the CPN branch of Hoofddorpplein e.o. expressed its condolences to the family. On 26 May 2018, Tineke and her daughter attended the presentation of the Deventer Yearbook 2018, which contains a short version of this story.
After the SD raid on 6 April 1943, Ruud, his younger brother and his mother were detained in the detention centre in Arnhem. Ruud and Loekie stayed there for the rest of the night. The next afternoon, they were taken to a children’s home in Eerbeek.
The two sisters, who were in hiding in Velp, cycled to Eerbeek on 7 April for an unexpected social visit. Upon arrival, they saw that the house where the family was in hiding was being guarded by a police officer. They cycled on and heard from neighbours who lived a few hundred metres away that everyone had been arrested by the Germans. They then cycled back to Velp as fast as they could.
At the beginning of July, mother Fennie walked through the large gate and up the driveway of the children’s home. She had come to pick up her two sons. Together with their sisters, they stayed in Eerbeek for several months, at the address where they had first gone into hiding. In September 1943, they returned to Amsterdam, to Scheldestraat number 101. Fred was released and joined them. As best they could, they picked up the threads of their lives again. In Amsterdam, they learned that Lou Jansen’s death sentence had been carried out and they endured the Hunger Winter.57
On 9 May 1949, Lou Jansen was posthumously awarded the Resistance Cross. Fennie, his wife, accepted it on his behalf.58 She died in 1997. Ruud Jansen wrote down his memories between 2004 and 2014. He was also present at the presentation of the Deventer Yearbook on 26 May 2018.
The key to the back door of Schoutenweg 2a, which was taken to the police station on 4 March 1943, ended up in the police archives. It reappeared in 2016.
Notes
- This is evidenced by, among other things, police reports on anti-fascist posters and a report of the meeting (dated 30 October 1933) of the CPH-affiliated Strijdbond tegen oorlog en fascisme (Fighting League against War and Fascism), at which Member of Parliament Roestam Effendi spoke. See: NL-DvHCO, HCO Deventer City Archives, ID 0759, Deventer Municipal Police, inv. no. 539-3, behind tabs 30, 36, 37, 39; inv. no. 571-1, behind tab 2.
- J. Morriën, De leiding van de illegale CPN 1940 – 1943 (The leadership of the illegal CPN 1940 – 1943), Amsterdam 2001, p. 14.
- General History of the Netherlands, vol. 14, p. 136.
- Website Parliament and Politics, Cabinets by period.
- H. Galesloot and S. Legêne, Party in the Resistance, the CPN in the Second World War, Amsterdam, 1986, p. 23.
- Party in the Resistance, pp. 24–25.
- W.F.S. Pelt, Peace through Revolution. The CPN during the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939–1941), The Hague, 1990, pp. 208–213.
- Party in the Resistance, p. 31.
- Peace through Revolution, p. 214.
- Peace through Revolution, pp. 225–227; Party in the Resistance, pp. 42–43.
- Jan Willem Stutje, The Man Who Showed the Way. The Life and Work of Paul de Groot
1899 – 1986, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 168 – 173. - Party in the Resistance, p. 57.
- The leadership of the illegal CPN, pp. 7–11, pp. 16–17; The man who showed the way, pp. 168–173; Peace through Revolution, pp. 260–261, 298; Party in the Resistance, p. 78.
- NL-SAA, Amsterdam City Archives, archive number 30238, Amsterdam Population Register Archive, archive cards, inv. no. 904. See also Indexes: Willem Webeling.
- NL-SAA, archive number 30238, inv. no. 904 and 1938. See also Indexes: Albertus Christiaan Webeling.
- International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, COLL00172, Audio collection of interviews by Wim Pelt with (former) CPN members, interview with Bertus Webeling, 14 June 1985, nos. 127–130.
- International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, ARCH 00347, CPN Archive, inv. no. 134.
- NL-SAA, Amsterdam City Archives, archive number 5445, Archive of the Population Register Service, housing cards, inv. no. 337. See also Indexes: Van Spilbergenstraat, 2nd floor.
- NL-SAA, Amsterdam City Archives, archive number 5000, Population Register Archive, inv. no. 2455. See also Indexes: Berend Jan Jansen, Brouwerstraat, Buiten 19; NL-SAA, archive number 30238, inv. no. 1521. See also Indexes: Gerrit Hendrik Jansen.
- Before I forget, pp. 36–40.
- Before I forget, pp. 55–59.
- Before I forget, pp. 45–46.
- The man who showed the way, p. 106.
- Haarlem’s Dagblad, 18 April 1935; Telegraaf, 27 June 1935; De Tijd, 22 June 1939.
- The man who showed the way, p. 140.
- Before I Forget, p. 59.
- This chapter is largely based on:
International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, COLL00172, Audio collection of interviews by Wim Pelt with (former) CPN members, interview with Bertus Webeling, 14 June 1985, nos. 127–130;
Before I forget, pp. 69–102; and email correspondence with Ruud Jansen.
Before I forget, pp. 184–187. - Land Registry of the municipality of Deventer, Section B, parcel number 11452, Register entry 12730, series 3 and 4.
- NL-DvHCO, HCO Deventer City Archives, ID 1414, Deventer Population Register, inv. no. 2686, pp. 12 and 13.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 1414, inv. no. 331, nos. 0405 and 0406; inv. no. 352, nos. 0159 and 0160.
- NL-DvHCO, HCO Deventer City Archives, ID 1415, Housing Cards Deventer, Diepenveen, Bathmen, inv. no. 87a.
- De Koerier-Deventer Dagblad, 9 November 1939 and 27 December 1939.
- NL-DvHCO, HCO Deventer City Archives, ID 0724, Deventer Civil Registry, inv. no. 163, deed no. 43.
- Deventer Dagblad, 2 February 1948.
- Address book for Deventer, 1949–1950, Rozenstraat.
- Party in the resistance, pp. 78–81.
- See notes 15 and 31.
- See note 15 and NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 677- 4, behind tab 21.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 88, under no. 323.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 725-1, behind tab. 114.NL-DvHCO, ID 1414, inv. no. 407, nos. 0165, 0166, 167; Deventer Dagblad, 23 July 1931.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 89, under no. 38.
- The man who showed the way, p. 195.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv.nr. 89, onder nr. 38.
- The man who showed the way, p. 207.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 89, under nos. 39 and 40; inv. no. 732-2, under 1943.
- Telephone conversations with Tineke Webeling on 12 February 2018, 17 February 2018, 26 March 2018 and 14 May 2018.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 89, under no. 46.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 677-4, behind tab 21.
- See note 48.
- NL-DvHCO, ID 0759, inv. no. 728-5, behind tab 53/4/5; 1943.
- Party in the resistance, p. 135; The man who showed the way, pp. 208 – 213.
- Email correspondence with Ruud Jansen.
- Before I forget, pp. 125–129.
- See note 46 and The leadership of the illegal CPN, p. 17.
- De Waarheid, 23 and 24 February 1948.
- Algemeen Handelsblad, 31 July 1962.
- Before I forget, pp. 116–132; pp. 144–148; 153–161; correspondence with Ruud Jansen.
- Voordat ik het vergeet, blz. 184 – 187.