Heinrich Boere (27 September 1921 – 1 December 2013) was a convicted
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
-
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
war criminal and former member of the
Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
. He was on the
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance educat ...
's
list of most wanted Nazi war criminals.
Early life
Heinrich Boere was born in
Eschweiler
Eschweiler (, Ripuarian: ) is a municipality in the district of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany on the river Inde, near the German-Belgian-Dutch border, and about east of Aachen and west of Cologne.
History
* Celts (fi ...
,
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, to a Dutch father and a German mother, but his parents moved to
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
in the Netherlands when he was two years old. He volunteered for the
Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
in September 1940, only months after the
German occupation of the Netherlands
Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family re ...
. In June 1941 at the age of 19, Boere left to fight on the
Eastern Front including, in 1942, service in
the Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
. In December 1942, he contracted
pyelonephritis
Pyelonephritis is inflammation of the kidney, typically due to a bacterial infection. Symptoms most often include fever and flank tenderness. Other symptoms may include nausea, burning with urination, and frequent urination. Complications may ...
and was sent back to Maastricht.
War Crimes
In 1943, Boere volunteered for the Sonderkommando Feldmeijer, a Dutch
Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
. Their primary task was assassinating dissidents, and those retaliating against the Nazi occupation of their country by acts of resistance. By the end, it would include anyone presumed to be connected to a dissident. This operation, codenamed '
Silbertanne' (
Silver Fir
Silver fir is a common name for several trees and may refer to:
*''Abies alba
''Abies alba'', the European silver fir or silver fir, is a fir native to the mountains of Europe, from the Pyrenees north to Normandy, east to the Alps and the Car ...
), was responsible for 54 known killings, three of which Boere admitted to personally committing.
Following attacks on German occupation forces and Dutch
collaborators, the
SS and Police Leader for the Netherlands,
Hanns Albin Rauter
Johann Baptist Albin Rauter (4 February 1895 – 24 March 1949) was a high-ranking Austrian-born SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. He was the highest SS and Police Leader in the occupied Netherlands and therefore the leading ...
, ordered the ''Sonderkommando'' to assassinate civilians presumed to be in some way connected to the resistance.
Boere's first killing was committed in July 1944 when he and fellow SS member Jacobus Petrus Besteman received orders from the local ''
Sicherheitsdienst
' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...
'' (Security Service) office in
Breda to murder a
pharmacist named Fritz Hubert Ernst Bicknese, a father of twelve. Wearing civilian clothes, Boere and Besteman walked into Bicknese's pharmacy and asked him his identity. Upon a positive reply, Boere fired three shots into Bicknese's upper body, then Besteman fired several more shots as he lay on the floor.
In September 1944, on a Sunday, Boere and Hendrik Kromhout arrived in
Voorschoten
Voorschoten () is a village and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a smaller town in the Randstad, enclosed by the cities of Leiden, Wassenaar and The Hague. The municipality covers an area of of whi ...
at the home of Teun de Groot, a bicycle-shop owner and father of five children, who hid fugitives in his shop and was an acquaintance of anti-Nazi activists. As De Groot, still in his pyjamas, fumbled with his wallet to show his ID papers, Boere and Kromhout shot him. They then went to the apartment of Frans Willem Kusters, forced him into their car, and drove out of town. The pair falsely claimed that they had a flat tire, stopped the vehicle and shot Kusters.
[
]
Post-war years
In the immediate post-war years, Boere spent two years in an Allied prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...
, where he was interrogated and admitted to the three killings. After release from the camp, Boere initially went into hiding out of fear of being given a lengthy prison sentence, but managed to flee to West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. In 1949, a Dutch court sentenced Boere to death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
''in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
'' for the murders, for supporting the enemy, and for serving in the army of the enemy.
According to Dutch law, being convicted of serving the army of the enemy automatically leads to the loss of Dutch citizenship. Boere claimed German citizenship on the basis of a so-called ''Führererlass'', a law promulgated by Hitler providing all SS members with German citizenship. This law remained in force during the 1950s and 1960s in Germany, but was later annulled under pressure from the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
. From that point on, Boere was stateless, which was confirmed during the trial against him that started in October 2009. However, the German government refused to extradite
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...
him. West Germany was responsible for prosecuting war criminals, but Boere was never brought to trial there.[
The Dutch government repeatedly sought Boere's extradition. In 1983, a German court refused the Dutch request to hand Boere over to the Dutch authorities on the grounds that he might have German citizenship, and Germany, at that time, did not permit extraditing its own nationals. In 2007, a court in Aachen ruled that Boere could serve his sentence in Germany, but an appeals court in ]Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
overturned the ruling, saying that the 1949 conviction was invalid because Boere was unable to present a defence
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense indus ...
. Boere's case attracted a great deal of public attention and, in 2007, the opposition in the Dutch parliament
The States General of the Netherlands ( nl, Staten-Generaal ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague.
The States ...
brought the case up with the Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
Lists of current ministries of justice
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia)
* Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Just ...
. Besteman, Boere's partner in the Bicknese slaying, served time in prison in the Netherlands for his war crimes.[
On 14 April 2008, the state prosecution in Dortmund announced it was preparing to file charges against Boere.][ On 8 January 2009, the State Court of Aachen ruled that Boere was medically unfit and did not have to stand trial in the case. The Provincial Court of Appeal in Cologne ruled on 7 July 2009 that Boere was fit for trial, overturning the lower court's ruling. Following a ]judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
by the German Federal Constitutional Court, it was decided not to accept Boere's appeal and that Boere was indeed fit to stand trial. However, according to the court he would be under medical supervision, being provided with a doctor for the length of the trial. The trial started on 28 October 2009, at Aachen's regional court.
In 2009, Boere lived in an old-age home in his birth town of Eschweiler.[ He was not taken into custody for the trial against him. In an interview with '' Der Spiegel'', he said, "I'm not interested in what happened back then."][Most Wanted Nazis]
" Bridget Johnson, About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
In a documentary by Dutch journalists Rob van Olm and Jan Louter, who were the first to bring Boere to the attention of the public, he did admit to some feeling of remorse
Remorse is a distressing emotion experienced by an individual who regrets actions which they have done in the past that they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or wrong. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment. When a perso ...
and stated he has confessed his crimes to a priest, and prayed for his victims. On 23 March 2010, he was sentenced to life in prison
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
. His defence, that he would have been shot had he disobeyed orders (sometimes known as the 'Nuremberg Defense
Superior orders, also known as the Nuremberg defense or just following orders, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether a member of the military, law enforcement, a firefighting force, or the civilian population, should not be considered ...
'), was rejected. Following the ruling of the court, Boere's solicitors announced that they would appeal the judgment.
After his appeal was rejected, Boere began serving his life sentence on 16 December 2011 at the age of 90. Boere died on 1 December 2013 while in prison custody at Fröndenberg
Fröndenberg (; Westphalian: ''Frönnenbiärg'') is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Fröndenberg is situated in the Ruhr valley, approx. 10 km south-east of the district capital Unna, near the ...
.
Notes
External links
Germany: Trial opens of former SS member Heinrich Boere
wsws.org 2 November 2009
Life imprisonment for SS man Heinrich Boere
wsws.org 3 April 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boere, Heinrich
20th-century Dutch criminals
20th-century German criminals
Dutch people convicted of war crimes
1921 births
2013 deaths
People from Eschweiler
Dutch prisoners sentenced to death
Dutch collaborators with Nazi Germany
Dutch people convicted of murder
Dutch people of World War II
Dutch prisoners of war
People convicted of murder by the Netherlands
People indicted for war crimes
Dutch Waffen-SS personnel
People sentenced to death in absentia
Prisoners sentenced to death by the Netherlands
Criminals from North Rhine-Westphalia
German people who died in prison custody
Stateless people
Dutch emigrants to Germany
Prisoners who died in German detention