Commemorative Column Richard Jung General Cemetery Sintjohannesga

This memorial monument in the cemetery of Sintjohannesga was erected in memory of resistance fighter Richard Jung, who was shot by the occupying forces in Scharsterbrug on 15 April 1945.

Jung was born on 27 February 1911 in the Czech town of Reichenberg and worked as a shunter for the national railways. In 1942, he was called up for service in the German army, which Jung, as a fierce opponent of National Socialism, refused. He committed acts of sabotage and was arrested.

He was then imprisoned in various concentration camps and prisons, from which he was released or managed to escape. These included Wenizza, Dnipropetrovsk, Dubno, Ratipol and Brual-Rhede Lager III. He eventually fled and ended up in Bad Nieuweschans in the Netherlands. After much wandering, he went into hiding in the Schar, with the Johannes Kuiper family. He stayed there for nine weeks and met Broer Akkerman from Sintjohannesga, with whom he left when his host in Drenthe was arrested.

On 8 April 1945, the Haskerland group of the Dutch Internal Armed Forces was mobilised. Jung proved himself to be a courageous resistance fighter who always volunteered to do the hardest and most dangerous work.

On Sunday 15 April 1945, he volunteered for a reconnaissance mission in the service of the Canadian army, which was advancing towards the bridge in Scharsterbrug. Jung went ahead on his bicycle, but when that became too dangerous, he decided to continue on foot. Every now and then he sought cover in the so-called one-man holes in the verge of the road. Jung found insufficient protection in a hole that was half filled in, with the result that he was shot dead by the occupying forces.

Akkerman removed Jung's remains under enemy fire with the help of two Canadian soldiers. On 18 April 1945, he was buried in the Dutch Reformed cemetery in Sintjohannesga. In nearby Rotsterhaule, a road has been named after Richard Jung.

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Source

• Text: Bert Deelman + Herma de Vries
• Photos: Herma de Vries (1, 6, 7, 8), Bert Deelman (2, 3), Hubert Nijgh (4, 5)