Somewhere they must be under the sand of the Loonse and Drunense Duinen. But the ‘Brabantse Sahara’ is so large that it is virtually impossible to find the grave of fourteen executed resistance fighters. Yet Hennie van Selst (65), Gerrit Broeders (70) and Antoon Verspaandonk (72) are not giving up. “These boys deserve a dignified final resting place.”
In the early morning of May 26, 1944, fourteen prisoners march into the 3500-hectare nature reserve.
They belong to three different resistance groups: from Tilburg (six men), from Groningen (three) and from Bergen op Zoom/Tholen (five). In their wake the German execution squad.
Seven death row inmates have to walk through to a four-by-two meter deep pit. The German soldiers aim and shoot, the men fall into the pit. One of them, Rob van Spaendonck, would say ‘Long live Wilhelmina!’ have called. Another is said to have lived after the execution and received a shot in the neck.
Allied plane
Before the other seven have their turn, the whole party has to take shelter under the trees because an allied plane is flying overhead. The delay doesn’t last long. Soon shots ring out again. Fourteen lifeless bodies lie in the pit, which is immediately filled in. To never be opened again.
“The grave has never been found,” says Hennie van Selst, who has been trying for at least 17 years to find the fourteen missing young men – the oldest was 34, the youngest three 22 years old. The Waalwijker knows that the loss of the mass grave happened on purpose. “An extra punishment, to hit the relatives.”
Metal detector
Van Selst is a detective. The former soldier is also active for Signi search dogs, a club of volunteers who track down missing persons. Last winter he accompanied a Signi team to Turkey to search for victims of the earthquake.
He works together with Antoon Verspaandonk from Veldhoven, who contributes his expertise as a metal detector finder, and with Gerrit Broeders, who continues the detective work of his now deceased father Rien. “My father was already in the dunes as a child. What happened to those boys has haunted him all his life. Those men gave their lives for our freedom. They deserve to be buried properly. Their relatives also want peace at last. I hope to be able to contribute to closing the work that my father was unable to complete.”
In the almost eighty years after the fusillade, the Ministry of Defense made five attempts to find the graves of the fourteen resistance fighters. Germans who had been there were brought to the Netherlands in the 1970s to designate the place. Even hypnosis was used. But they too could not find the grave. “Or did not want to find it,” says Verspaandonk.
Hope pinned on archives and additional aerial photos
Some Germans remained loyal to Nazism after the war. Like the doctor Ernst Zartl, who was present at the execution and had to determine the death of the victims. Back in Germany, he allowed himself to be surrounded by security for fear of an attack by the Dutch resistance, says Van Selst. “He was willing to come to point out the grave, but only if the Drie van Breda (imprisoned German war criminals, ed.) would be released. Those people were no use to you.”
The last excavation was in 2012. All available puzzle pieces were put together. Old aerial photos had been viewed, disturbances in the ground had been checked with a ground radar, and archive research had been carried out. Natuurmonumenten, manager of the area, agreed. The mayor of Heusden was also convinced: the excavation could begin. But alas: no bodies.
A disappointment, but the search continued afterwards. “We have about four places that are hot,” says Van Selst. They are looking for a hill (‘Top 3’, a witness later stated) and for a place where there used to be or still are ‘two birches’, something that also occurs in a witness report. Perhaps the grave lies at the old shooting range, but it is also possible that the fourteen were executed at the De Rustende Jager tavern. “A place where Mussert regularly visited,” says Verspaandonk. “Who knows, that was a known point for the Germans to meet.”
Aerial photos
But the missing puzzle piece is not there yet. Searching further in archives is the motto. And there may still be unknown aerial photos available somewhere. The investigators pinned their hopes on the Allied plane that interrupted the firing squad early in the morning. Van Selst: “That flew alone. Then you don’t think of a bomber, because they flew in column. It could very well have been a reconnaissance plane. And then there must be pictures. We keep looking, who knows…”