Dutch War Graves Hoogersmilde

The cemetery in Hoogersmilde contains four graves of Dutch victims of the Second World War:

Harm Pit
Harm Pit was wrongfully arrested and taken to the Schultehuis in Diever, where the blood squad was based. This blood squad consisted of Sanner and his group of seven Landwachters. His group had a reputation for being extremely violent and, among other things, using the “bathtub method” during interrogations. Many of the people they captured were shot without trial.
Although Mr Pit was innocent, he attempted to flee, possibly because of the group's reputation. After a short flight through the town centre, he was shot dead by Sanner and Burgman behind the town hall.

Arend Tibben
Member of the resistance. Died in Ohlsdorf from KZ Neuengamme.

Bertus Sluiter
Was forced to go to Germany for the Arbeitseinsatz. Drowned on 23 April 1945 when the tugboat he was working on ran aground on a wreck and sank.

[Jan Moes
Forced to go to Germany for labour service. Died on 19 May 1945 in Halle.

The same cemetery also contained the grave of a perpetrator: Gerrit Sanner, a construction worker from Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, front-line soldier in the Waffen-SS and Landwacht commander, went into hiding in The Hague after the war. After a burglary, he was arrested and detained in Veenhuizen. There he was recognised as the leader of the Bloedploeg (Blood Squad). A year later, he was tried and sentenced to death and executed.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Gerrit Hazenberg
• Roder Journaal - Bloedploeg Norg in beeld.
• SCHOON, S, De Knokploeg Noord Drenthe, Dijkhuizen en van Zanten, Groningen, 1970.