Kloosterstraat number 9, just a few minutes’ walk from the House of Detention, serves as headquarters. It is the house of Jan and Marie Bulthuis’s parents. “From there we left for the prison on the morning of the 11th,” says Jan Bulthuis. On the night before the robbery, they sit in a small bedroom, listening to a prayer from their father. There are weapons on the bed. The atmosphere is tense, but calm.
On Monday morning, Marie takes her post. “When I saw the security leaving at 7.15 am, I walked home and picked up the gang that was waiting for me.” Marie has to wait five minutes, after which she goes to the church on the Zuidersingel. Two vehicles with men in German uniforms are waiting there. They are KP members in disguise. Marie gives the signal, after which the vehicles drive to the House of Detention.
The six KP men at the prison take shelter in the bushes, waiting for the first Dutch guard. Jan Bulthuis is armed with two Colt .45 pistols and two hand grenades, in case force is necessary. When the door opens at 7:25 a.m., two gang members dive on top. The robbery has begun.
Nanning Zeldenrust’s cell opens. “I grabbed a bowl to put outside the door for water. Then the jailer said: ‘That’s not necessary this morning’.” Zeldenrust thinks it will be his last day alive. “I looked up and suddenly saw Jo Bastiaanse. I thought: they already have him, now everything is going wrong. But I saw that he was armed.”
Jan Talens remembers well that he heard strange noises that morning. “It was different than normal. We thought: now it has happened, but it also gave you hope. Then the door opened.”
Fourteen minutes later everyone is freed. The liberated resistance fighters are housed in all kinds of hiding places. In the days after the action, it is remarkably quiet in Assen. There are no reprisals. But the Security Service does strike in other villages. According to those involved, these actions are separate from the robbery.
The robbery in Assen freed 31 people, but in the months that followed, 71 people were arrested and murdered. How much value did the robbery have? “A beautiful memory had such a sad aftermath, it still makes me cold. But if we had not freed them, those 71 would still have been arrested. I am convinced of that, because their names were known. It gives you some satisfaction , but it remains difficult.”
For Bulthuis the robbery was one of a kind must. “Can you, as a KP member, continue to live with the thought that you left 31 people behind and did nothing to free them? We did it at enormous risks. But whoever wins is right.”