In view of the liberation, thirty men were summarily executed on 12 March 1945 in the Amsterdam Weteringplantsoen. Nico Scholte, then 14 years old, was forced to watch.
Scholte, now 90, is probably the last eyewitness still alive. Every year on May 4, he visits the monument in memory of the mass execution, until corona that made it impossible last year. A collective commemoration at De Gevallen Hoornblazer in the Weteringplantsoen is also not possible this year.
Terrifying example
The execution was a reprisal for the murder of SS-Oberscharführer Ernst Wehner during a raid on a building of the illegal Resistance Group 2000, led by Jacoba van Tongeren. While it was clear that the Nazi regime would lose the war, the Germans were determined to avenge the murder. In doing so, they wanted to set a terrifying example to those who dared to resist.
The Germans took thirty Dutch prisoners at random from their cells in the Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen and brought them to the Weteringplantsoen in the morning of 12 March at around 09.15 am. Among them were mainly resistance fighters and men who had gone into hiding to escape employment in Germany. The oldest was 58 years old, the youngest was 19.
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