Background

German terror increased in the last year of the war. More and more Dutch people joined the armed resistance. On 14th December 1944, illegal resistance fighters committed sabotage on the railway between Amstel and Muiderpoort stations. An explosion destroyed the rails, halting German train traffic. On Tugelaweg in the Transvaal neighbourhood, the windows of houses shattered due to the huge blast.  The German occupiers were furious and took revenge. The next day, three random prisoners were removed from the prison on the Weteringschans and taken to the railway embankment, near the site of the act of sabotage. It was half past three in the afternoon on a bleak winter day when the German army vehicle containing the three handcuffed men stopped on the Tugelaweg, opposite number 110. Three armed members of the Grüne Polizei got out and chased the three handcuffed men out of the vehicle; two young men and one somewhat older. Orders were snarled in German. Bystanders, including children, stood at a distance and were forced to watch. Residents behind the windows ducked away, but still wanted to see what happened. The Germans pushed the men in front of them towards the railway embankment opposite the houses and loosened their handcuffs. The prisoners were resigned, looking each other in the eye and holding hands. Then things moved quickly. The three Germans drew their automatic pistols and shot the defenceless men. One of them showed signs of life and was shot in the neck. almost immediately after their gruesome deed, the Germans got into their car and drove away, leaving an icy silence. Bystanders who had to watch were left in horror. Shortly afterwards, policemen from the nearby Linnaeusstraat police station appeared. They had been ordered to keep watch over the dead bodies that were left there as a deterrent.

Two days later, an undertaker employed by the occupying forces collected the bodies and buried them anonymously in the dunes near Bloemendaal. The victims were Jan Faber (51), August van Gunkel (33) and Dirk de Bruin (36). They were arrested for being active members of the resistance in Baarn and the city of Utrecht, transmitting weather information of importance to Allied air force missions. The families of the victims did not learn that their loved ones were killed until many days after the execution.

During 1940-1945, the occupying forces designated the Transvaal neighbourhood as a Jewish quarter. Jews from other parts of the city were also forced to live here. Since 1950, the three victims of the Tugelaweg have been commemorated, along with the Jews murdered by the Nazis. A silent march passes through the neighbourhood. At the school building at 44 Laing’s Nekstraat, people pause at the plaque for the deported Jewish students and former students. On Transvaal Square, where Jews had to gather, the memorial ‘The Star of David’ recalls the fate of the deported Jewish neighbours. The anti-apartheid memorial on Kruger Square refers to racism and apartheid that also led to exclusion, persecution and murder in recent times. The procession then passes the memorial to Eli van Tijn on Kraaipanstraat. Van Tijn was the principal of a Jewish public school and was active in the resistance. He was betrayed, arrested, deported and finally murdered. Next, the march goes to the children’s monument in the playground on Joubertstraat in memory of the Jewish children who did not return. The procession finally reaches the monument ‘Het Buikschot’ in honour of the three men executed on 14 December 1944 on the railway embankment opposite Tugelaweg 110; a natural stone statue of a male figures, kneeling together.