Hendrick C. Verton - In the Fire of Eastern Front: The Experiences of a Dutch Waffen-SS Volunteer, 1941-45

The Stackpole Military History Series

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Carriers in Combat

Cavalry from Hoof to Track

Desert Battles

Guerrilla Warfare

Ranger Dawn

Sieges

IN THE FIRE OF THE
EASTERN FRONT

The Experiences of a Dutch
Waffen-SS Volunteer, 194145

Hendrick C. Verton

Translated by Hazel Toon-Thorn

STACKPOLE
BOOKS

English edition 2005 by Helion & Company Limited

Published in paperback in 2010 by
STACKPOLE BOOKS
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Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
www.stackpolebooks.com

Paperback edition by arrangement with Helion & Company Limited.

Originally published in 2003 as Im Feuer der Ostfront: Ein niederlndischer Freiwilliger an deutscher Seite im europischen Schicksalskampf by Nation Europa Verlag. German edition by Hendrick C. Verton.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, reprinting, or on any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from Helion & Company Limited.

Cover design by Tracy Patterson

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Verton, Hendrik C., 1923

[Im Feuer der Ostfront. English]

In the fire of the Eastern front : the experiences of a Dutch Waffen-SS Volunteer, 194145 / Hendrick C. Verton.

p. cm. (Stackpole military history series)

Originally published: West Midlands, England : Helion, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8117-3589-6

1. Waffen-SS. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadierregiment Nordland. 2. World War, 19391945Regimental historiesGermany. 3. World War, 19391945 CampaignsEastern Front. 4. Verton, Hendrik C., 19235. World War, 19391945Personal narratives, Dutch. 6. SoldiersNetherlandsBiography. I. Title.

D757.85.V4613 2009

940.54'1343092dc22

[B]

2008045321

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8117-5054-7

Dedicated to my parents and my brothers and sisters, who because of my military service in Eastern Europe suffered a terrible penalty in Holland after the end of the Second World War.

Contents

Foreword

by Dr. Erich Mende

The author (centre) in 1985 with Dr Erich Mende (left) and a comrade.

[Dr. Erich Mende was a Member and Vice-Chancellor of Parliament from 1963 to 1966, and Chairman of the Liberal Party from I960 to 1967.]

T here is a Latin saying, Vae victis! i.e. woe to the vanquished, referring to the Contempt of the Victor, which Germany was made to feel at the end of World War II. It was confirmed once again, inasmuch that the German population stood under a collective guilt, for which every individual was penalised. The victors released laws in all of the Allied occupied territories, for the annihilation of National Socialism and militarism, and with a total re-education programme. The Germans and their sympathisers had to learn from their mistakes and the error of their ways, and return to a liberal and lawful system of democracy.

A campaign of revenge also began against all those Europeans that had worked hand in glove with Germany, those who had lent a sympathetic ear. It lasted for years. Finally, with insight and common sense, politicians, unions, publishers, and the Church, led by Konrad Adenauer, Kurt Schumacher and Theodor Heuss, won the upper hand against false judgement and targeted insinuation, in order to achieve a balance of the truth.

It took over forty years to reveal to the rest of the world that Russia was responsible for the mass murder of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers and soldiers in Katyn. The Allies, as well as other European countries, despite knowing the truth, blamed the German Wehrmacht. This was done without any hint of a guilty conscience. More than half a million people suffered under the wrath of the victors and their contemptible direction. Being either a close neighbour of Germany, or of the same moral code, many took up arms against Bolshevism, as volunteers in Germanys army. Their actions were regarded as treason, their sacrifices and sufferings in the theatre of war despised.