The doctor who became a beggar and a tramp with a statue: these residents of Veenhuizen get color thanks to their great-great-grandchildren

Curator Alina Dijk comes up with the idea for an exhibition when she discovers for herself that one of her ancestors was also imprisoned in the Veenhuizen penal colony. She even works at the place where her ancestor died 175 years ago. She made that discovery only recently. “Stupid, huh?” she says laughing. “I have been working at the Prison Museum for some time and always said that I had no family in the Colonies.”

The maternal great-great-grandfather whom she accidentally tracks down is called Jenne Harms Hummel. In 1847 he was convicted of begging by the court in Leeuwarden. His death certificate can be found online. From the register of deaths in the municipality of Norg it appears: that on the third of July eighteen hundred and forty-eight, at three o’clock in the afternoon, in the second Gesticht in Veenhuizen, died Jenne Harms Hummel husband of Wilhelmina Hendriks Horringa, Schipper by profession, born in Seemed.

“Very special,” says Van Dijk of her recent discovery. It also makes her think. Because does this history actually affect her family? Does her great-great-grandfather’s fate have anything to do with her grandfather, who valued status so much and was proud of his possessions?

And what about other descendants of residents of the penal colony? “At the Prison Museum we often get questions from people about their origins,” says Dijk. This is how the idea for the new exhibition was born, in which the photographs of descendants of the residents of Veenhuizer asylums play a leading role. Dijk also has another motivation: to show that your background does not have to determine who you become.

Since the museum distributed the call, the phone has been ringing. “A lot of people have responded with beautiful stories, although they are often sad. It’s as if people think: ‘finally a listening ear’, says Dijk.

Zefke Mols, world famous in Sittard

Zefke Mols, actually Anton Pieter Joseph, is a well-known street figure in Sittard. In the Limburg city, homeless people can still go to BieZefke walk-in house and in 1974 he even got a statue in the center of the city. The beloved street figure is also sung about in a song by troubadour Jo Erens:

Zefke Mols, ouch, grits and verschleete,
is one of our shadts prophete.
With see medaajes oppe book,
creepy beard and peep in the mòndj,
löp hae all day in Zitterd ròndj.

In response to the call from the Prison Museum, Jos van Engelen shares his information about this famous figure from Sittard. He may not be a descendant, but he still thinks that Zefke’s story deserves a stage. Zefke became a beloved but eccentric drifter after being wrongfully imprisoned for murder in a German cell for seven years. This is his story in short.

Consternation in Karlsruhe

Zefke Mols was born as the second son in a family of eight children. He grows up in poverty. When he is 15, he starts working as an apprentice cigar maker. Later he and two friends in Germany try to recruit new customers for the cigar factory. In 1908 a man is stabbed to death in Karlsruhe. In the consternation that follows, the three foreigners are seen as suspects. Zefke is singled out as a murderer. Without evidence, he is sentenced to life in prison for murder.

After being innocently imprisoned in a German cell for almost 7 years, the doors open in November 1914. Mols is suddenly released. The First World War has broken out and the real killer would rather be in prison than fight at the front. He turns himself in and Zefke Mols gets his freedom back.

Millionaire

But Zefke has become a silent figure. A beaten man, who after his release on farms in Germany and France does chores in exchange for food. After five years, Mols returns to the Netherlands. Occasionally he has work, occasionally he roams around. Twice he is arrested for vagrancy and sent to Veenhuizen. Mols absolutely does not want that. From the Limburgs Dagblad of October 12, 1923:

“Although in this inclement weather it will be better in Veenhuizen, where Sjefke is not unknown anyway, than under the open sky on the Kapellerlaan, the defendant did not want to be sent and appealed to the fact that he had means of subsistence, he still had money, he said and indeed he was a millionaire, but always in Marken. A 5 mill note. was his property. Still, the requirement was for a year and a half to Veenhuizen (..).”

On March 26, 1922 Zefke arrives in Veenhuizen. From 1875, people only end up in Veenhuizen after a conviction by the court. In Zefke’s time, only men who were convicted of begging or wandering were sent to the ‘Rijkswerkinrichtingen’ in Veenhuizen.

He returns to Sittard after his forced stay. When he dies there on September 15, 1955, he receives a funeral from the municipality. “He got just as big a funeral as mayors get,” said city archivist Peer Boselie The Limburger. Sittard still fondly remembers the eccentric figure.

From doctor to beggar

From Ruinerwold, Wemmie Kooiker-Luten responds to the call from the Prison Museum. She shares the story of her great-great-grandfather Anthony Felix Simon Swart. He was born on October 13, 1781 in Wormer and is a physician. Swart works, among other things, as a surgeon at sea and a surgeon in Ruinen. On September 5, 1823, he was appointed as a physician in the beggars’ colony De Ommerschans.

He arrives with his wife Aaltje Bartelds Noordhuis and two of their children, Felix Simon Antonides Swarts (1814) and Bartha Rosina Swarts (1820). The details of a third child are not known, although Swarts later speaks of ‘three children’. Swart’s career in the Colonies is short-lived. Soon there is a fuss about his appointment. The provincial medical commission in Overijssel has few warm words for Swart’s skills.

‘He must have been taught backwards’

“To judge from his previous exam with us, he would not be able to take a full exam as such. He may then be 2nd and even 1st full master in advance. must have been in the navy, he must either have learned backwards, or forgotten, or not trained any further, or he must say he is now in Ruinen, must have seized upon himself with all his might, and increased in abilities beyond expectation . But we did not find in him at that time those qualifications which we in our hearts expect in a person to whom we should give full admission.”

The same year a personal disaster hits him: his wife Aaltje Noordhuis dies in the Ommerschans. Anthony Felix Simon Swart is left with three young children. On April 1, 1824, to make matters worse, he was dismissed as surgeon of the Ommerschans. He returned on September 20, 1824. This time as a beggar and with only two of his three children, Felix and Bartha. Anthony dies a month and a half after his return. Daughter Bartha dies in 1826. From the whole family only Felix is ​​left.

Never known

He is then only 12 years old. Initially he will stay in De Ommerschans. On April 1, 1829, he was placed among the orphans in Veenhuizen. On August 1, 1831, when he is an adult, he is discharged from Veenhuizen and he receives training with other ‘promising’ orphans at the institute of agricultural education in Wateren.

“My grandfather was a great-grandson of this Felix,” says Wemmie Kooiker. “My grandfather, I was raised by him, never said anything about it. He always said: never forget where you come from. But we never knew this.”

Young Felix has returned to Ruinen after Veenhuizen and Wateren. “There he could be employed by someone and he had to sell things at the door.” He gets married and when he has enough money for some land, he buys a small farm. Felix and his wife Jentje Lukas Kloeze have many children.

Shame

“I find it very special to have such a history in the family,” says Wemmie Kooiker. She hesitated for a moment whether to send her story. “I think it’s a bit double. Maybe they didn’t say it because they were ashamed of it. But I thought I had to share it anyway. This is a combination of circumstances that can happen to anyone. I think in those days it was really bad if you were needy.”

Now that she knows the history, she has visited De Ommerschans and Veenhuizen with her daughter. “You feel more involved in that history. That you walk there and you know that your great-great-grandfather also walked around there, that is very special.”

Who descends from Abraham Tichelaar?

Dijk is still looking for descendants of Abraham Tichelaar. His pocket watch is in the possession of the Prison Museum and the curator would like to use it in the exhibition. The owner of the pocket watch was born in Kruiningen in Zeeland and ended up in Veenhuizen on August 19, 1935 (his 70th birthday). He was then convicted four times for vagrancy with intent(et). His date of discharge is also stated on the card attached to the watch: August 16, 1938. It does not come to that, Abraham Tichelaar dies on November 7, 1935 in Veenhuizen.

“If you came to Veenhuizen as a patient, you had to hand in your things. When you got out, you got your stuff back. This man died in Veenhuizen and the pocket watch has always stayed here,” explains Dijk.

A medal with a double image hangs from the watch: on one side is Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, on the other side is King Umberto I of Italy. The medal was probably issued on the occasion of the state visit of the German emperor to the Italian king in 1888. On his description card, which is made upon arrival at the Rijkswerkinrichting, it is stated that Tichelaar was married to Janna Pupliekhuijsen.