In the Fire of the Eastern Front
In the Fire of the Eastern Front
Hendrick C. Verton
• Extraordinary story of a Dutch volunteer in the Waffen-SS
• Vivid details on SS training and combat on the Eastern Front
• Account of the little-known siege of Breslau in early 1945
Dutch SS accounts are very rare, particularly ones that describe recruiting, training, and frontline service as completely and colorfully as In the Fire of the Eastern Front. Hendrick C. Verton volunteered for the Waffen-SS in early 1941 and fought on the Eastern Front until the end of the war as a member of the 5th SS Panzer Division and SS Regiment Besslein.
Hendrick C. Verton
IN THE FIRE OF THE EASTERN FRONT
The Experiences of a Dutch Waffen-SS Volunteer, 1941-45
Translated by Hazel Toon-Thorn
Dedicated to my parents and my brothers and sisters, who because of my military service in Eastern Europe suffered a terrible penalty in Holland after the end of the Second World War.
Foreword
by Dr. Erich Mende
The author (centre) in 1985 with Dr Erich Mende (left) and a comrade.
[Dr. Erich Mende was a Member and Vice-Chancellor of Parliament from 1963 to 1966, and Chairman of the Liberal Party from 1960 to 1967.]
There is a Latin saying, “Vae victis!” i.e. woe to the vanquished, referring to the ‘Contempt of the Victor’, which Germany was made to feel at the end of World War II. It was confirmed once again, inasmuch that the German population stood under a collective guilt, for which every individual was penalised. The ‘victors’ released laws in all of the Allied occupied territories, for the annihilation of National Socialism and militarism, and with a total re-education programme. The Germans and their sympathisers had to learn from their mistakes and the error of their ways, and return to a liberal and lawful system of democracy.
A campaign of revenge also began against all those Europeans that had worked hand in glove with Germany, those who had lent a sympathetic ear. It lasted for years. Finally, with insight and common sense, politicians, unions, publishers, and the Church, led by Konrad Adenauer, Kurt Schumacher and Theodor Heuss, won the upper hand against false judgement and targeted insinuation, in order to achieve a balance of the truth.
It took over forty years to reveal to the rest of the world that Russia was responsible for the mass murder of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers and soldiers in Katyn. The Allies, as well as other European countries, despite knowing the truth, blamed the German Wehrmacht. This was done without any hint of a guilty conscience. More than half a million people suffered under the wrath of the ‘victors’ and their contemptible direction. Being either a close neighbour of Germany, or of the same moral code, many took up arms against Bolshevism, as ‘volunteers’ in Germany’s army. Their actions were regarded as treason, their sacrifices and sufferings in the theatre of war despised.
A Dutchman and his family describe how this really was, in all its shocking reality. European conduct, ideals and neighbourly friendship towards Germany, weave through the whole book, whether in East Prussia or in Silesia. In the defence of Breslau, Hendrik Verton reveals the brave conduct, ethical moral code, and sacrificial assistance given by the European ‘volunteers’. Only those who experienced the bitter German-Russian war can testify to the honest and conscientious truth of this book. I can recommend it to students of contemporary history, for its coherent collection of times, dates, and events.
It only remains for me to say that the author and his brother, whose large family stem from Holland, have greatly contributed to the rebuilding of German democracy, in the capital of Bonn, over the last forty years. In every way, my encounter with the Verton family was, at this time, a mutual acknowledgement for an expanded and peaceful Europe of ‘fatherlands’.
[Author’s Note: Dr. Erich Mende died on 6 May 1998. He had read my manuscript, which had been typed up to that point in time. Being very bitter over the defamation of Germany’s soldiers, he supported my work by offering and writing the Foreword to my book.]
Prologue
If one day the world were to open its archives, which in this day and age remain partly inaccessible, we would be able to find out that in the recent past many things were different in reality than how they have been portrayed in the present day. For reasons of power, politics and education, the chroniclers and historians have written according to ‘political correctness’ that has been manipulated by the ‘victors’. Unfortunately, in ‘dancing to their tune’, historians have hidden the truth. They have therefore prevented any chances of reconciliation.
Nothing can be divided simply into light and shade, and I do not attempt to do this. However, I do wish, as an eyewitness, to anticipate the long awaited glasnost, and to give my account of my experiences of World War II.
My appeal to the reader is, to remember that these accounts of events, together with my feelings, can only be understood when viewed through the perspective of this period of time. Neither do I wish to justify events. My generation neither created nor was able to influence events of that time.
Of those living today, the majority did not live through the war, and even then only superficially. Some day mankind will learn about it only from ‘hearsay’. The results of such events however, do lead from that time into the present. I have reported some of these aspects quite extensively and others a little less. The last of the accounts deal especially with historic events, and therefore guilt and reconciliation play a role. The others utilise pressure groups, who from ‘time immemorial’ pursue a one-sided interest by using every discussion to uphold an old score.
Our family history began in the far distant past in France and Holland, and leaves a lot to speculation. Where, when and why they came, is not fully known. This family history, from the beginning of the 20th Century, is still very ‘young’, but for my part I have described it exactly, from the beginning of the 1930s. In its composition it includes the description of my own role, of course, and is seen through my eyes. Many had to ‘box’ their way through this very difficult time. Many lost everything they owned, had to build anew, and not lose their courage. Those born at that time had much to bear and experience. Those born now should be thankful that fate has produced a long peaceful development, and try to understand our role in history a little better.
Our destiny in life is simply a throw of the dice that brings luck for some, and trouble and torment for others.
Our capacity to remember grows ever fainter, therefore time is short. So here is my story, how I and my family experienced it.
Hendrik Verton
CHAPTER 1
Where From?
Early in 1982, 150 families all with the name of Verton, assembled together on the Dutch island of Schouwen—Duiveland. Nearly all came from Holland, except the contingent from Germany who had settled in Bad Godesberg in 1949, and were the only ones with this name in the whole of Germany. Where did they come from and how long had they been in existence?
Decades of research have revealed that the family’s roots are to be found in France. The town of Verton, with its population of just 1,200 people, has existed since ‘the beginning of time’. The Romans built Vertonu in the 1st century, 40 kilometres south of Boulogne-sur-Mer and on the Channel coast. Today, due to sedimentation from more than one river, Verton now lies 6 kilometres distant from the sea. The astonishing fact is that in the whole of France there are no other families to be found with the name of Verton. So how did the Vertons come to settle in Holland?
Monsieur E. Reas, the former director of the Fromagerie-de-la-Cote-d’Opale, lives in the town of the same name. He relates that those members of the military
and religious order of knights, the Templars, were founded in 1119. They migrated from their original abode, their military settlement, and built themselves a massive castle, ‘de Verton’, a fortress for their protection. Over time, having become very wealthy, there was a fast growing hostility against them. This financial power of our forefathers reached its apex when becoming the bankers to not only very many princes, but also to the Pope himself.
Therefore it was not surprising when Phillip, King of France from 1285 to 1314, decided to break their powerful hold and destroy the Verton knights. He had Jacques de Molay, the Chief of the Order, and many others in high positions, arrested. After an illegal trial, they were sentenced to be burned at the stake. A handful escaped to Holland, probably over the English Channel. They used its northerly flow between Dover and Calais to reach Holland’s coast and the shores of the southern regions of Zeeland. The ‘Land in the Sea’ lay in the fork of the Rhine, Schelde and Maas rivers.
The Vertons very quickly became acclimatised and felt at home, their elegant French language being very quickly replaced with that of the Dutch. They be came fishermen, farmers and tradesmen, integrating and becoming honourable members of society in their new home. The majority of them remained on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland, lying to the west, in a delta of streaming waters that flowed from the east.
The Netherlands, including the island Schouwen-Duiveland.
The small medieval town of Zierikzee formed the commercial and cultural centre of the island. From the 13th Century it was the most important centre in the south, as well as being a strategic stronghold throughout the Flemish war. Hundreds of years later, in 1789, with the cry of ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’, French soldiers plundered everything of worth to be found in the elegant Patrician houses. In 1810 the whole of Holland was annexed to France. The result was a catastrophe, especially when Emperor Napoleon planned his Russian campaign. Holland’s youth were forced to fight in the Russian Steppes, not having the choice to volunteer, as in WWII with Germany. From 30,000 Dutch soldiers who marched to Russia in the summer of 1812, only a few hundred returned in the spring of 1813.
Schouwen-Duiveland has never really recovered from those times. However, life went on for those on the island. They worked along modest lines within the framework of a hard-working, Christian, and very strong conservative tradition and, most certainly, without influence from the outside world. Grandfather Verton was born on 12 January 1850, in a village called Dreischor. It lay 5 kilometres north of Zierikzee and was protected by a massive dyke. The Council Registrar recorded his Christian names as Jan Adriaan Matthijs, upon the wish of his parents. His near relatives were polder wardens. Polder is the Dutch for tiny islands, or pieces of land surrounded by water. Other relatives were dyke administrators, church vergers, council members, and managers of the island’s windmills.
Watchmaker and jeweller Jan A.M. Verton was talented in a technical way. His lucrative talent earned him the nickname of ‘Goldnugget’. At that time, pocket-watches, grandfather and wall-clocks, were considered to be a status symbol. It was not long before he was supplying the whole of Schouwen-Duiveland. My grandfather married Cornelia Marie Everwijn and moved with her to the large town of Zierikzee. On 30 March 1884, my father, Hendrik Cornelius was born. The technical age moved on, sewing machines and bicycles being asked for, produced and also repaired. The business prospered, with son Hendrik selling sewing machines to customers in the next villages or to outlying farms. He would walk for miles to the next customer, with the machine strapped on his back. My father’s memories of ‘the good old times’ are not filled with an overflow of exciting experiences. Zierikzee was still ‘a medieval province where time stood still’, which is what the incoming visitors always said. Because of it, the young folk were not offered the chance to expand into cultural, professional or vocational niches.
He then moved to Amsterdam where he found work in the chemical laboratory of a rubber factory. A young 28 year-old woman from Amsterdam won his attention and his heart. So this 28 year-old Zeelander and Louisa Adolphia Lammers were married on 7 June 1912, and she became our mother. In the coming years two daughters and six sons were born, all in different places. The girls were born in 1914 and 1916, and the boys in 1918, ’20, ’23, ’27, ’29, and lastly in 1935. The births always took place at home. The stork, with the help of the district nurse, delivered all eight Vertons to the door, as my grandfather had done with his sewing machines!
CHAPTER 2
The First World War and Fragments from Versailles
WWI broke out on 1 August 1914. It was a hugely encompassing and bloody war from which neutral Holland was spared. My father, however, had to defend its borders. Apart from general mobilisation, commercial restrictions, and the influx of nearly a million Belgian refugees, our nation was spared the struggles of war. Due to the concept of the Kaiser’s General Staff, German troops could move through France to Paris. But, only by first going through Belgium.
It was in 1917 that the USA, with its mighty reserves, entered the war against the German Empire. Only after four years of bitter struggles, and a blockade that led to famine, did Germany lay down her arms against 28 states, including the six great powers. Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince fled to Holland, and the Kaiser’s role in history came to an end.
The Allies’ proposal of extradition was refused by Holland, pointing out that there was a ‘right of asylum’. However, at the same time, Queen Wilhelmina promptly broke off diplomatic relations with the German Monarchy, having strongly disapproved of the Kaiser’s flight. Only her husband, Prince Consort Hendrik and his daughter Juliana, fostered a regular contact with their relations from the house of Hohenzollern, to whom she, Juliana, behaved very loyally, after she became Queen.
What were the underlying reasons for WWI? At the turn of the century Germany possessed a commercial monopoly around the whole of the world. Their valuable inventions were being internationally patented. Germany had no agricultural or industrial problems and the first-class quality of the end product was cheaply exported. Germany possessed colonies in Africa, the Pacific and in Asia, their ships travelling the seas of the world. Britain was an export nation, and ‘did not like to see this’.
France, since the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, following the Franco-German War of 1870–71, had never come to terms with this. Friendly relations with Germany were never sought. Instead she feverishly armed herself, and her newspapers ordered ‘Revenge’. Military pacts against Germany were made, until it was completely surrounded. The result was that the Russian Grand-Duke Nikolajewisch toasted his French military colleagues with “to our joint future victory and our next meeting in Berlin!” After the war, President Woodrow Wilson in America asked, “Is there one man alive who doesn’t know that the reason for war, in this modern age, is purely commercial competition?” It was a war of trade and economy!
Between 1871 and 1914 Germany was not engaged in, nor responsible for, any war. However, other ‘free-living peoples’ at that time, were guiding Germany’s foreign politics and their rules. According to Carl von Clausewitz, “War is only, after all, the continuation of politics, but using other methods”. Russia was at war with Turkey, and Turkey with Italy. Japan was at war with Russia, and Greece with Turkey. Britain was at war in India, South Africa and also Egypt. Spain went to war against the USA, and the USA against Haiti. France was making war with Tunisia, Morocco and Madagascar, and Holland with Atjeh in the Indies.
Nevertheless, the German Empire, after losing the 1914—18 war was, according to the world, guilty of ‘war-mongering’ and had to pay for it. The Versailles Pact, signed in the Compiègne forest north of Paris, presented Germany with inflation and poverty. This ‘peace treaty’ was nothing less than the continuation of the war. The German Empire, as a commercial competitor, had to be wiped out, and reparation, revolution and unemployment were the result.
Without any official agreement, Alsace—Lorraine was immediately returned to France. Poland
received the provinces of Poznan, West Prussia and also a promised section of Pomerania. From a section of the torn Imperial and Royal Austrian and Hungarian Empires, an independent state emerged in Czechoslovakia, which included the Sudetenland. Germany’s colonies were withdrawn, coming under the law of a League of Nations. Danzig, with its 97% German population, and not only as member of a guild of merchant towns but also the door to the Baltic, was given to Poland. In 1922 it became a part of a customs duty area.
It was therefore not unexpected, when at the outbreak of the next Great War, these developments became an explosive keg of gunpowder! During the course of reparations, if the amount of coal from Germany’s coal-mines, or wood from their forests, were not delivered punctually, it was reason enough for France to send five divisions of French and Belgian soldiers to the Ruhr. Many arrests followed, upsetting the cold and starving population. French officers made themselves ‘lords of the streets’, forcing people into the gutter with whips.
The ‘victors’ did everything they could to enforce the Versailles Pact, thus being responsible for an atmosphere that festered in the new generation in Germany which was then the torch-bearer of National Socialism under Adolf Hitler. The peace treaty of 1919 could be regarded as responsible for the dictatorship arising from 1933.
In between times, a certain American ‘style’ in bars and amusement halls, and the sound of jazz music spread over western Europe and the pattern was not confined to such places. To the anger of the conservative-minded it had spread to inner decor and fittings. However, this popularity of everything American suddenly ended in 1929, as Wall Street crashed. The results of ‘Black Friday’ spread like wildfire around the globe and resulted in one of the worst economic crises of all time. Before the end of 1929 there were already 30,000,000 unemployed. Stockbrokers and profiteers ruled the roost, under the noses of a very limp government. In Germany, it was clear that it had become a land of two classes, the rich and the poor.