Every year, the 4-May Committee Amstelveenseweg, together with the Stichting Sociaal Ondernemend Opbouwwerk Zuid, organises a Remembrance of the Dead at the monument on Amstelveenseweg, near the Vondelpark. Here, on 7 May 1945, five members of the Internal Armed Forces were killed in a shootout with German soldiers.
This year, several speakers of various ages and perspectives will tell their stories, with musical accompaniment. A trumpeter will then play the Last Post, followed by two minutes of silence.
Programme
19:30
Commemoration begins
20:00
Two minutes of silence will be held. Afterwards, the National Anthem will sound and there will be an opportunity to lay flowers and wreaths
Address: Amstelveenseweg, by the entrance to the Vondelpark
More information: www.facebook.com/herdenkingamstelveenseweg
Background
On 25 May 1946, More than a year after the end of the war, a monument was unveiled on Amstelveenseweg, near the entrance to Vondelpark. This monument commemorated five resistance fighters, members of the Domestic Forces (BS), who were killed at this spot in three shootings that took place in the two days following the German surrender. As the ceremony was about to begin, unrest broke out. Under a tarpaulin, the sound of hammering and chiselling could clearly be heard. Shortly before the ceremony, it had been revealed that among the five names of the fallen resistance fighters, one name belonged to a BS employee who had previously been a member of the NSB. The widow of this victim, who was being excluded from the commemoration, became highly emotional – an extremely painful situation.
During the early morning of 6 May 1945, the first incident resulting in a fatal outcome took place. Two days earlier, on 4 May 1945, English radio announced that the German surrender in the Netherlands was almost complete. Men of the underground army, the Internal Armed Forces, were summoned to report. About 20 BS men from the area took up residence in a shed that belonged to a blanket factory on Amstelveenseweg, directly opposite the Vondelpark. During the night of 5th-6th May, two of them took turns keeping watch outside. At six o’clock in the morning, a German truck drove along the Amstelveenseweg. Suddenly the truck stopped at the corner of Zocherstraat. Out of nowhere, a gunfight ensued between the BS men standing guard and the German soldiers. 42-year-old Ben Seydel, father of two children, was fatally hit.
The next day, on Monday 7 May 1945, also on the Amstelveenseweg, a group of German soldiers driving towards the city centre were stopped by BS officers. They were taken away to the BS quarter in the shed. Around noon, German soldiers invaded the shed to free their comrades. During an exchange of gunfire, 42-year-old BS officer Frans Masseling was hit by a shot in the abdomen and taken to hospital, where he died on 26 June 1945. BS worker Jacob de Bruyne was also hit by bullets. He succumbed a day later. De Bruyne, 36, father of two still-young children, grew up in a pro-German family near the Hoofddorpplein. During the first years of occupation, he worked in the service of the German army. He then went to work as a rope-maker. In June 1944, he became unemployed due to an accident, after which he joined the resistance. No one in the underground was aware of his background.
Another dramatic shooting on Amstelveenseweg would follow. Late in the afternoon of 7th May 1945, the BS force another German army vehicle, this time a bus, to stop opposite their shed at the entrance to the Vondelpark. 27-year-old Anton van Druijten yanked open the door and ordered the German soldiers to come out with their hands on their necks. Suddenly, one of them grabbed a machine gun from the ground and shot Van Druijten dead at close range. A fierce shootout ensued. One of the German soldiers died beside the vehicle. BS officer Piet Roozendaal fell down, heavily wounded. He too would die of his wounds. The German soldiers fled into the Vondelpark. They surrender only after mediation by a German officer.
Even today, he fallen four BS men are commemorated with dignity during the commemoration of the dead every year on 4th May at 8pm at the monument. In 2013, a plaque was installed next to the monument, briefly stating what happened on 6th and 7th May 1945. It also indicates that a fifth BS ‘er died, Jacob de Bruyne and the reason for the last-minute removal of his name in 1946.