Jos Scharrer - The Dutch Resistance Revealed: The Inside Story of Courage and Betrayal

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
German pastor who fought Nazism and was executed

The Inside Story of Courage and Betrayal

Jos Scharrer

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Jos Scharrer, 2018

ISBN 978 1 52672 813 5

eISBN 978 1 52672 814 2

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52672 815 9

The right of Jos Scharrer to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by

her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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I am extremely grateful to a number of people who helped me with this book on the story of my late father-in-law, Henri Scharrer.

First and foremost is Professor Doeko Bosscher of the University of Groningen, who gave me a couple of copies of his book on his uncle Fritz Conijn entitled Haast om te Sterven (Hurry to Die), published in 2015. This book contains far more about Henri Scharrer than the family ever knew. It is only published in Dutch, and so I had to overcome language difficulties in trying to follow the story. If I misunderstood anything or read the information incorrectly, he has kindly sent me corrections.

Linda Libourel Morison, the daughter of Caroline (Carry) Libourel, also gave me important insights into her mothers character and relationship with Henri Scharrer.

I am grateful, too, to Robert Courtois of Brussels, who contacted me out of the blue as a result of his research into the death of Emmanuel Scharrer; he sent me what information he had about Emmanuels murder and the involvement of a group which included his own great-uncle, Georges Dumont, who was found guilty of this murder and who died in the Buchenwald camp shortly before the end of the war. His emails spurred me to start searching in earnest for material in order to capture the true story of Henri Scharrer.

Bruce Bolinger of California has an important website on which he has posted information on the Dutch Resistance obtained from British National Archives and helper files (people who helped the Resistance) from the National Archives II (NAII) in College Park, Maryland, outside Washington DC. Bruce sent me scans of some of the information he found on Henri and people associated with him, including the Stichting files with correspondence on the education of Henris sons, Richard and Raymond.

Through Bruce I was able to contact Michael Moores-LeBlanc of New Brunswick, Canada, who has been studying the KLM line (a false escape line) for over 25 years and has developed a file on 235 airmen, their Dutch-Belgian helpers and the members of the Abwehr III/f who ultimately entrapped them. He also sent me scans from his files, and photographs, with advice to follow the story of the relationship between Henri Scharrer and Christiaan Lindemans (King Kong), who turned traitor and whose counter-espionage activities resulted in the Allied defeat at the Battle of Arnhem. He is also believed to have betrayed Henri, although the information on this is sketchy.

It was also a real stroke of luck that Bruce Bolinger gave me the email address of one of the few surviving Engelandvaarders (people who successfully escaped Holland and reached England) by the name of Rudy Zeeman, of Tasmania, Australia. The day after I emailed him, he replied saying that Henri Scharrer was one of the men who had helped him escape and they had met on a number of occasions; also that he had written a memoir, Luck through Adversity , in which he tells the story of his escape. He arranged for me to get a copy of the memoir from his nephew, Don Conner, who lives in Durban, South Africa.

Megan Koreman (who researched the Dutch-Paris escape route, and launched her book Children of Dutch-Paris with publisher Boom in Amsterdam in November 2016), sent me some files on her articles to check details, as well as a few names. Her assistance was much appreciated.

My brother, Eyre Shaw, read the first draft of the manuscript and gave me many comments which I have implemented. He also proofread one of the final drafts, picking up typos and errors which had escaped me. The book could not have been finalized without him.

Many thanks also go to Tim Cooke, Vernae Vermaak, Alistair and Yvette Barclay and Keith Partridge who also read the manuscript, seeking out typos and giving me useful comments and suggestions. Thanks are also due to my other friends and family who have been both helpful and understanding of the limited time I have had to socialize over the past year, while I put this story together.

Extensive research has been done to source copyright and royalties on images used in order to ensure that no infringement has incurred.

H enri Scharrer is my late father-in-law, and when I started this project I had little information about him. I knew he was a French-speaking member of the Dutch Resistance. There were also recollections of Henri as told by my husband, Richard Scharrer, Henris eldest son, most of which at the time I thought somewhat exaggerated.

Initially, what the family knew was that he had been arrested on a train and a few days later had been executed by firing squad on 6 September 1944 for helping Allied airmen. And that was more or less it. As my search went along I uncovered stories of bravery, treachery, murder, assassinations, deceit and an astonishing devotion to the Resistance cause by large numbers of people.

Once I decided I could write the true story, no matter how brief, I found several researchers in other parts of the world who are also investigating the Dutch Resistance movement. The most important of these is Professor Doeko Bosscher of the University of Groningen, whose book Haast om te Sterven (Hurry to Die) about his uncle, Fritz Conijn, contained much missing information on Henri Scharrer, as Fritz and Henri had not only worked together but were executed together. Many people have assisted me, suggesting numerous websites to visit, emailing me scans of documents from war archives in the United States and the United Kingdom and passing along personal letters from characters involved in these activities.