Hellings, Jan Eise "Hollings"

Date of birth:: October 29th, 1917 (Amsterdam/Noord-Holland, The Netherlands)
Date of death:: 2007 (South Africa)
Nationality:: Dutch

Biography

an Hellings was a Dutch commando serving in the British Army during World War II. Although his English was poor, he spoke fluent German. Little is known with certainty about his earlier military career, but it seems likely that he initially joined a unit with many Dutch volunteers, such as No. 2 or No. 10 Commando.

Even before the war, in 1937, Hellings was registered as a conscript in Heemstede. It is likely that he was actively involved in the defense of the Netherlands during the May days of 1940.

After the failed Operation Aquatint, serving with the Small Scale Raid Force (SSRF), Hellings initially managed to evade capture. However, his escape ended abruptly when he encountered a German paratrooper unit in Brittany. He was taken prisoner of war, registered in Rennes, and then transferred to Germany. In Frankfurt, he was interrogated by the Gestapo.

Hellings spent time in two POW camps, the last of which was Stalag IX B. There he reconnected with his colleague, Tom Winter. His father died in 1942 while serving in the merchant navy.

Jan Hellings survived the war and emigrated to South Africa, where he died in 2007.

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