Indiscretion during a New Year’s Eve drink in 1945, about people in hiding with farmer Eisen in Schoonebeek, led to the arrest of about forty resistance fighters. Seventeen of them did not survive. What later came to be called the OD action of January 1945, is a black page in the war history of Southeast Drenthe.
According to researcher and writer Bert J. Finke, little is known about the OD action of January 1945, where OD stands for Ordedienst. For a four-part podcast and radio series, we get into Finke’s car for a drive through Southeast Drenthe; a journey through the history of January 1945.
The rumor
Boer Schutmaat told the rumor of the people in hiding to neighbor Bruinink, who was treasurer of the NSB in Schoonebeek, who in turn passed it on to NSB mayor Verbeek, who again informed the head of the Landwacht in Emmen, Mr Smit. That’s how the ball started rolling. After an arrest and during the subsequent interrogations, name after name was mentioned. Finke: “The story actually had a very insignificant beginning, but it had major consequences for the resistance in Southeast Drenthe.”