The Henneicke Column was a group of

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 ...

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

collaborators working in the investigative division of the ''Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration'' (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung), with headquarters in Amsterdam, during the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

occupation of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Between March and October 1943 the group, led by former auto mechanic and Willem Briedé, was responsible for tracking down

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

in hiding and arresting them. The group arrested and "delivered" to the

authorities 8,000-9,000

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s. Most of them were deported to Westerbork concentration camp and later shipped to and murdered in

Sobibor Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

and other German extermination camps. The bounty paid to Henneicke Column members for each captured Jew was 7.50 guilders (equivalent to about US $4.75). The group, consisting of 18 core members, ended its work and was disbanded on October 1, 1943. However, the Column’s leaders continued working for ''Hausraterfassungsstelle'' (Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration), tracking down hidden Jewish property. Before Nazi Germany retreated from the Netherlands in May 1945, Wim Henneicke was assassinated by the Dutch resistance in December 1944 in Amsterdam. Willem Briedé escaped the country and settled in Germany. In 1949 he was tried by a Dutch court in absentia and received the death penalty. The sentence was never carried out; Briedé died of natural causes in Germany in January 1962. The history of the Henneicke Column was researched by Dutch journalist

Ad van Liempt Ad van Liempt (; born 21 May 1949, Utrecht) is a Dutch journalist, writer and a TV producer. He has written several books, including a biography of Prince Bernhard. He also initiated the history program '' Andere Tijden'' (''Other Times''). Outs ...

, who in 2002 published in the Netherlands ''A Price on Their Heads, Kopgeld, Dutch bounty hunters in search of Jews, 1943''.

List of members

The following list is incomplete. In total there were 53 Dutch and one German working for the Column: *Willem Christian Heinrich (Wim) Henneicke (1909-1944), liquidated by the Amsterdam resistance *William Henry Benjamin (William) Briedé (1903-1962), sentenced to death in absentia *Hermanus Maria Peter (Herman) Bartelsman (1881-1947), sentenced to death. Executed by firing squad March 6, 1947 *Frederik H. Meijer (1900-1947), sentenced to death. Executed by firing squad 28 March 1947 *Bernard Andreas

Dries Riphagen Bernardus Andreas "Dries" Riphagen (7 September 1909 – 13 May 1973) was a Dutch gangster and Nazi collaborator who is best known in the Netherlands for collaborating with the Nazi (SD) to locate as many Dutch Jews as possible and have them de ...

(1909-1973), escaped, never convicted *Sera de Croon (1916, Amsterdam), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Eduard Gijsbertus (Eddy) Moesbergen (1902-1980), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Christoffel (Chris) Bont (1906), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Hendricus Christiaan (Henk) Saatrübe (1909-1983), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Hendrik (Henk) van der Kraan (1897), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Martin Hinze (1913), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Hendrik Hofman (1892), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Diederik van der Kraan (1921), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Jacob Rigter (1912), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Jan Rutgers (1911), sentenced to death, later pardoned *Hugo Berten Heinrich (1890), fled, never convicted *Bruno Barend (Bob) Vlugt (1917), sentenced to life imprisonment *Richard Kop *Johan van Zeulen *Lambert Schiffer

References

{{Dutch fascism Bounty hunters Dutch collaborators with Nazi Germany Far-right politics in the Netherlands Jewish Dutch history The Holocaust in the Netherlands