During the war, Kees Kreukniet was involved as a civil servant for the municipality of The Hague in the distribution of ‘Ons Morgenblad’, an illegal news bulletin born at the Department of Urban Development and Housing. On 9 October 1944 he ran into the lamp during a raid on the printing works of the magazine and ended up in the Oranjehotel, the infamous Nazi prison in Scheveningen, where many resistance fighters were imprisoned. His family has always understood that he died there of pneumonia. There has been no trace of his remains ever since.
After extensive research by the WW2 Tracks Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Army Salvage and Identification Service (BIDKL), Kreukniet’s remains have been identified after all these decades. The body of the civil servant from The Hague was dumped in a mass grave on the Waalsdorpervlakte in 1944, together with eight other shooting victims, it now appears. Information about this mass grave came out as early as 1947 after interrogations with German agents. Most of the bodies in this grave could be identified, but not two. One of the bodies of those unknown dead turns out to be Kreukniet, has been confirmed indisputably.
Archive tiger Ronald Klomp of WW2 Sporen has intensified cooperation with the BIDKL regarding the identification of Waalsdorpervlakte victims since last year. Their joint mission is to identify as many victims from World War II as possible. “This collaboration is already bearing fruit,” says Klomp. For example, the body of the postman Marinus Henkes from The Hague was previously found, who was also shot on the Waalsdorpervlakte. “We have an extensive database of archival documents and the Defense organization has access to other sources. Our message is that solving war missing persons can very often be sought in thorough historical research and that DNA research certainly contributes to this.”
puzzle pieces
Together, the BIDKL and WW2 Traces searched for deceased persons with an unknown burial location whose date of death matched the dates on which the various executions took place. Soon the trail led to Kreukniet and the puzzle pieces slowly fell into place.
“The so-called transfer report of the body to the plot of Cemetery Rusthof in Amersfoort stated that he was wearing a shirt from Flebo with the store brand of the Else Brothers in it. They had two stores in the Vlierboomstraat and Stevinstraat in The Hague,” says the researcher. “The length also matched. Moreover, Kreukniet lived on Pippelingstraat, which is around the corner from Vlierboomstraat.” Further investigation revealed that Kreukniet’s age matched the unidentified body. A little earlier, the other unknown victim from this mass grave was identified. “That was Nicolaas (Niek) Corstanje from another resistance group,” says the researcher.
Punishment
In 2012, the Ministry of Defense already took DNA from the then unidentified body of Kreukniet ‘as the ultimate attempt to discover the identity’. The remains were then reburied at National Ereveld Loenen. In order to prove beyond doubt that this was Kreukniet’s case, the BIDKL looked for a living next of kin. It was found and the DNA matched.
“It is sad that his wife, parents and brothers never really got to say goodbye. The grave is the last tangible memory,” says Klomp. “It was also assumed by the family that the cause of death was pneumonia.” He suspects that the body was deliberately not released as a punitive measure. Kreukniet’s name adorns a plaque in the town hall on the fourth floor, along with 44 other names of civil servants who died in the war. “The Hague civil servant is now finally getting a stone with his name on the National Field of Honor Loenen,” said Klomp.
The municipality of The Hague is pleased that there is now clarity for the relatives. “During the Second World War, Kees Kreukniet worked for the municipality of The Hague as a deputy cashier at the Municipal Works Department,” says a municipal spokesperson. “Together with his colleagues, he ensured that the resistance magazine ‘Ons Morgenblad’ with a circulation of 3,500 was stencilled. The employees of the Urban Development and Housing Department wrote the texts for the magazine and took care of the distribution. Original copies of ‘Ons Morgenblad’ have been preserved in the library of the Hague Municipal Archives. Especially now that there are fewer and fewer eyewitnesses, it is extremely important that we pass on these war stories to the coming generations.”