Den Hague - Eregraf Stijkelgroep

Sunday – The Stijkelgroep Burial Place
The Stijkelgroep was one of the first groups of opposition during World War II in the Netherlands. As early as 1941, before the opposition had managed to organize themselves in the Netherlands, a diverse group of people – including young craftsmen and students as well as directors and former soldiers - were engaged in collecting military information about the German occupier. The group is named after Johan 'Han' Aaldrik Stijkel. The Germans regarded the young academic from the Hague as the leader of the group. The Stijkelgroep consisted of a collection of small opposition groups from the Hague, the Zaandam area and Amsterdam. Amongst other things they exchanged spy material, because the groups searched for ways to get information to England. In the spring of 1941 Han Stijkel made an attempt with Cornelis Gude and Jean Baud to sail to England with a fishing vessel. On board they had a suitcase full of espionage material. The ship hadn’t even left the port of Scheveningen before it was intercepted by the Germans. The men managed to destroy the suitcase, but Han Stijkel and Cornelis Gude were arrested. Jean Baud escaped in the confusion, but was later also arrested.

Two Dutch agents from the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) had managed to infiltrate the group and tipped off the Germans. That same night a wave of arrests followed in The Hague. In the following days 150 people were arrested. Eventually 43 men and 4 women ended up in the Oranjehotel, the German penitentiary in Scheveningen. After a year in custody in the Netherlands the group was transferred to Berlin Tegel prison. The Stijkelgroep members were declared as ‘Nacht und Nebel’ prisoners; they had to disappear without a trace like mist in the night, contact with the outside world was next to impossible. In September of 1942 following a brief show trial at the military court in Berlin. Forty people were given the highest punishment for espionage: the death sentence.

Despite the Nacht und Nebel declaration the news about the sentences reached the Netherlands via a German lawyer. With mediation from Sweden it was attempted to exchange the Dutch prisoners for Germans in captivity with the allied forces, but that failed. It only caused a delay of the sentences. On 4 June 1943 at 8am Han Stijkel was shot at the execution grounds of the Berlin Tegel prison. In the hours that followed, with five minute intervals, the remaining 31 other members sentenced to death were also executed. That same day 7 saw their death sentence converted to lifelong imprisonment. These not sentenced to death were transported to concentration camps in Germany. Most died there during the last year of war. Only four returned to the Netherlands after the Liberation: Martine van Deth, Hilko Glazenburg, Wesselina van Hinte-de Bruin and Riek Lotgering-Hillebrand.

In 1943 news about the fate of the executed men reached Willem Wagenaar, the father of the executed Willem Wagenaar Jr. During the remainder of the war he was already making plans to travel to Berlin to gather more information about the fate of the executed Stijkelgroep members and to repatriate their bodies. He was therefore at the foundation of what would later become the Stichting Eregraf Stijkelgroep. The 32 executed men and Pieter Mulder – who died a few months before the execution in a hospital – were buried in a mass grave for prisoners of war in Döberitz, near Berlin. After the war that was in the Russian zone, which made the repatriation very difficult. In 1947 the bodies of the executed were transported to the Netherlands.

Because a significant part of the members of the Stijkelgroep were from The Hague it was decided to make an honorary grave at the new cemetery Westduin. On 1 August 1947 an honorary service was held in a very crowded Grote Kerk. Following the service, an impressive funeral procession of one kilometer led to the cemetery were 33 graves were waiting. Thousands of people stood along the route to pay their last respects to those deceased. For the ten members that passed away and of whom the bodies could not be recovered a cross was also placed. In 1951 the Stichting Eregraf Stijkelgroep was founded. The foundation is committed to the care of the honorary grave and to maintaining contact with the relatives. The board consists of family of the members of the Stijkelgroep.Read more