The Fort de Bilt memorial in memory of victims of the German occupation contains dozens of names of people who did not die there at all. The Fort de Bilt Memorial Foundation confirms this, after a historian recently discovered that a number of names were incorrect.
Two years ago, the foundation had research done into 139 names on the monument, because critical comments had been made by amateur historians and relatives for years. “From that research, 39 names appear to be questionable and we now have to do more research into forty names. But we are still not sure who should and should not be on the lists,” says Herman Steendam, chairman of the foundation behind the monument. against RTV Utrecht.
This means that no changes have been made yet. “It’s a huge job that will cost a lot of money when the stones have to be re-engraved.”
Resistance fighters killed
Resistance fighters were murdered at Fort de Bilt during the Second World War. In 1995 the memorial plaques with the names of 139 people were placed. The list was drawn up by someone from the resistance who survived the war.
So a lot went wrong. For example, according to historian Jim Terlingen, the name of Dirk Johannes de Gram is incorrectly on the monument. According to him, this man died in 1973, almost thirty years after the war.
“He was not shot,” says Terlingen. “The monument also contains names of people who were shot at another location or who died of natural causes.”
It remains a mystery why so many wrong names ended up on the monument. “This person from the former resistance is not really a scientist, shall we say”, says Terlingen about the man who drew up the list of names.
The foundation hopes that in 2025 it will finally be established which names should and should not be on the monument.
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