Mord an 5 niederländischen Widerstandskämpfern - Leer, NS, Deutschland
N 53° 14.400 E 007° 26.558
32U E 396068 N 5900100
Gedenktafel an den Mord an 5 niederländischen Widerstandskämpfern im Westerhammrich in Leer / Ostfriesland
Waymark Code: WMYHQR
Location: Niedersachsen, Germany
Date Posted: 06/18/2018
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In 1943, as a chimney sweep apprentice drafted for military service, Willi Herold was separated from his unit at the beginning of April 1945 and found an officer's box with the uniform of a Luftwaffe captain near Bardel (Obergrafschaft Bentheim). From then on he gave himself out with this uniform as an officer and collected a dozen also scattered soldiers around him and arrived on April 11, 1945 to camp II Emslandlager, the prison camp Aschendorfermoor. With the words "The Führer (Adolf Hitler) personally gave me unrestricted powers", the just 18-year-old took over command there and set up a terror regiment. Prisoners who had recently attempted to escape were shot immediately. Within the next eight days Herold had more than 100 camp inmates murdered, some he murdered by hand.
After a heavy air raid, most of the surviving inmates managed to escape. The unity of Herold also sat down before the advancing front and committed final war crimes. The farmer Spark from Börgermoor, who hoisted the white flag, was hanged by Herold's people, and in front of the town of Leer five Dutchmen Johannes Gerhardus Kok, Kornelis Pieter Fielstra, Johannes Adrianus Magerman, Carolus Henricus Hubertus Magerman and Johannes Verbiest fought for alleged espionage murdered for ten minutes; these men had come from the already freed Groningen to liberate Dutch forced laborers.
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Today two commemorative plaques commemorate this crime: one at the old town hall of Leer, which at that time served as a prison and this one in Westerhammrich, where the five Dutch were murdered.