Ambushing An SS Monster - Himmler's Henchman in Holland

My Uncle was a Dutch Resistance operator who was "turned in" by a Dutch NSB'er Dentist in A'dam. He was in a interogation prison in Amsterdam and escaped out a barred window to Ijmuiden (Port City on North Sea). He and another Dutch Underground member got into a rowboat and were eventually picked up by a British Navy patrol boat and interogated. He was then sent BACK to Holland via parachute for a specific mission, then picked up off the coast of Holland and debriefed by the British. He was then sent to RAF Spitfire training and became a pilot for the 322nd RAF Dutch Spitfire Squadron. He was shot down and killed over Holland 3 weeks before the end of the war in April 1945.

Being Dutch, I want to thank you for doing an item on this monster Hanns Albin Rauter or, as one Dutch historian named him, "the Vulture from the Alps"!

For many years one of the victims shot at the Woeste Hoeve was unidentified. A Dutch journalsit found out that this unknown person was a Polish pilot, Czesław Oberdak, Flying Officer of 306 Squadron. He was caught when trying to reach liberated Dutch area together with an other airman he met when hidden by the resistance. December 1944, both wearing civilian cloathing were regarded by the Germans as terrorists and locked up in a prison. Shot march 1945 and buried as a unknown Dutchman. His sister Ludmila kept looking for him many years after the war. She wrote a letter 1990 to a local newspaper when she learned her brother had crashlanded in that area. After the use of DNA it was possible to identify him. In 2008 His sister received his watch he was wearing. The shoes he wore, found in his grave, were rubber soled RAF issue for ground crew, rubber soled to prevent damage when walking on the wings of aircraft. These shoes were quite popular with pilots who at times wore them for flying duties. In December 2009 he was reburied in the family grave in Krakow with military honours in the presence of his siter Ludmila. 60 years after he had left Poland.

Thank you for making this video. My great grandfather was one of the prisoners killed at the Woeste Hoeve as a result of the ambush on Rauter. He was a dentist and member of the resistance. It is really a tragedy that my grandfather and his two brothers had to grow up without their father because of these senseless reprisals. To honor him a street in Hoogeveen is named after him.

I was born in that area. At "de Woeste Hoeve" there is an Inn. It was one of the first things I learned from my parents about WW2. Three years ago I had a coffee at the Inn with my wife. It is a peaceful place but I always remember that a monster was almost executed there and a lot of innocent people died instead. After the war he did not regret anything. Rauter was a demon.

They thought they were getting a truck load of pork...... What they got was a truck load of pigs.💀

My uncle wrote many, many letters home to my mom. They range from training camps, on board train to dispersal camp, on board ship to England, from Sicily, and Italy. But the most heartfelt and, in some ways, most terrible were the letters from the Netherlands. A beautiful country destroyed, it's people defeated and subject to a horrible tyranny, starved, tortured, humiliated, and murdered. There was deep-seated hatred for the NAZI oppressors by the liberating Canadian troops for what they did, but no amount of care, food, medicine, or anything else needed by the Dutch population was spared and gladly shared by the Canadian liberators. The Canadians never forgot the welcome they received, and the Dutch never forgot the Canadians. I will be there next year to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation.

Also one German victim, Oberwachtmeister der Ordnungspolizei Helmut Seijffards refused to execute 116 dutch hostages at the "De Woeste Hoeve" who had to die after the attemp to kill Hanns Albin Rauter. He was taken prisoner and was executed at the same spot as the 116 dutch hostages. He was burried with them in one grave.

Among the SS victims was a cousin of mine, Peter Pooters, who was with the CS-6 Resistance Group In Amsterdam. His sister Nel Pooters survived the war to tell me before she died in 2000 about life under the Nazis, their groups activities, and by that time I was a USAF Security Policeman. I was third in the family here to serve in the U.S. miltary, soon to have a daughter go the same way in miltary law enforcement. Thanks for this, Dr. Felton!

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it" -Churchill

It is remarkable how human beings can rationalize the evil they do.

My Oma told me of three of her neighbors who were shot as hostages in Het Kalf, "For the crime of being Dutch and on their way home from work."

I remember that my grandfather told he biked over the Jan Gijzenvaart bridge in Haarlem. Next day he heard that three Dutch people randomly were shot on that bridge, only 10 minutes after he crossed the bridge. It makes you wonder, what if he had been there 10 minutes later....

As a Canadian whose parents are Dutch I can't how much I appreciate your coverage of nazi atrocities in Holland during the war. My parents and grandparents well remember those times when one of my grandfathers was one of the 500 000 shipped to Germany. Only he escaped by jumping the train that was carrying to the slave labour factories in Germany. My mum remembers the day the Canadians liberated her town in Holland. It was early one morning when she, my grandparents, aunts and uncles were awakened by someone banging on their door. It was one of mum's yelling "The tommies are here!" That was a day my mum will never forget!

Get home after a 14 hour shift and see a new Mark Felton video.. Ahhhh yes, life is good!!

A met a Dutch man a few years ago who told me his anecdote about hunger. He was a post-WWII child born to parents who experienced the Netherland's mass starvation first hand. He said that when he was a kid and would complain to his mother that he was hungry, Mom said "you are not hungry, you just have hungers." He never understood what she was saying until later on in life when he learned of the Nazis' starvation of the Dutch population in 1944-45. To this day, he said, the Dutch welcome their American, British, and Canadian liberators with open arms.

Amazing, I'm Dutch, and have very good knowledge of WWII, but you caught me completely off guard with this story Mark. You keep pulling unique stories out of your bag! Big thanks for all your efforts.

To hear him stridently defend himself! Thank you for posting that clip.

I love reading everyone's personal stories in the comments and especially hearing about stores people heard from their parents and grandparents. Passing down family oral traditions is one of humanity's most fascinating activities.