Raid in Putten commemorated eighty years on: ‘Tears still’

Around a thousand people celebrated the attack at the beginning of October 1944 in the Oude Kerk in Putten. After the memorial service, several thousand people took part in a silent march through the town of Gelderland. During World War II, over 650 civilians were sent to concentration camps by the German occupiers.

“Almost every resident in Putten has a family that was expelled at that time,” Gert van Dompseler from the Oktober 44 Foundation told him, his grandfather’s three brothers, he explains to a NOS reporter. Even eighty years later, the wounds in the city have not yet healed. “There are still people who cannot sleep when this day comes. There are still tears.”

King Willem-Alexander attended the memorial:

The king spoke to four relatives and walked past 659 children. They symbolized the number of boys and men deported by the Germans on October 1 and 2, 1944.

The attack was an act of revenge by the German army. Putten’s resistance had fired at a Wehrmacht car the night before. On October 1, the townspeople had to report to the square. The women and children were separated from the men.

The first group was released, but the men were taken away. More than a hundred houses in the area were also set on fire by German soldiers.

The annual memorial in Putten is always well attended. The ceremony ended today at “The Mourning Widow”, the memorial to the victims which was unveiled by Queen Juliana in 1949.