Date of birth:

January 19th, 1913 (Groningen, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

May 3rd, 1942 (KZ Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Germany)

Nationality:

Dutch

Herman was a student at the T.H. in Delft and a member of the Student Resistance. Mechanical engineering students Herman Bolt and Jan Woltjer both lived at Van Leeuwenhoeksingel 26, in the so-called ploerterij Verburgh. They were actively involved in the resistance against the German occupiers from 1940 onwards. Their landladies may not have been aware of it, but these gentlemen regularly smuggled prohibited goods into their rooms. At one point, Jan Woltjer had a suitcase with trotyl in his possession to blow up high-voltage power lines. Herman Bolt once gave others permission to store dynamite in his room during his absence. After professors R.L.A. Schoemaker and J.A.A. Mekel were arrested in 1941, it proved difficult to keep all the students involved out of it. On 26 April 1941, Herman Bolt was arrested and a house search took place at Van Leeuwenhoeksingel 26 some time later. Frits Busser witnessed this house search on 12 May 1941, when the notorious detectives L.A. Poos and M. Slagter were looking for housemate Jan Woltjer. The landladies were not very willing to let the gentlemen in, but had to obey the search warrant. Jan Woltjer was not present at the time, but was arrested two days later and taken to the Scheveningen prison. Almost a year later, all those involved in the resistance groups Mekel and Schoemaker were sentenced to death and shot in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On 3 May 1942, 72 Dutch resistance fighters were executed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, after a trial that went down in history as the ‘Trial of the 72’. The Germans made it seem as if there had been a fair trial, all resistance fighters were also assigned a lawyer, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Do you have more information about this person? Inform us!

• Photo 1: J.Niemeijer "Hoe Groningen streed".
• - Herman Johannes Bolt | Oorlogsgravenstichting
  - Herman Johannes Bolt | Erelijst van Gevallenen 1940-1945
  - Mensen uit Oldemarkt - Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen
  - Het Proces der 72 (1942): Nederlandse verzetslieden worden na schijnproces geëxecuteerd in Sachsenhausen | IsGeschiedenis