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Victor Kugler put to work in Zwolle

Victor Kugler was put to work in Zwolle from 26 September to the end of December 1944.

Event

Sept. 26, 1944 - Dec. 28, 1944

52.50703 N 6.090717 E

Stationsweg 44

Zwolle

According to Victor Kugler's typed English-language notebook, he was put on a transport to Zwolle on 26 September 1944 and worked in Voorst/Westenholte.[1] Trenches and walls were being built there by the prisoners to stop the Allies.[2]

The Transportliste shows the initial departure date as 19 September 1944. This was changed on the cover sheet to 26 September 1944.[3] A Red Cross postcard stamped on 26 October 1944 confirms that Victor Kugler was put to work in Zwolle at that time.[4]

On a CADSU compensation form Kugler completed in 1963, he wrote that he stayed at the Buitensociëteit in Zwolle from 26 September to 30 December 1944.[5] At the Buitensociëteit, prisoners slept on straw and had no blankets. The people of Zwolle offered their help by arranging food and clothing, but they also helped prisoners escape.[2] Kugler is also said to have been given a fake/false identity card in Zwolle with a view to a later escape.[1]

Kugler's notebook also shows that he stayed in Zwolle during this period, but in different places:

  • 4 November 1944 Watersteeg in Zwolle.
  • 28/11 "New unit Watersteeg" Lodging at Brouwers.
  • 21 December, transferred to a school.
  • 28/12 Left Zwolle by train. Arived at midnight in Arnhem.
  • 30 Dec. arrival at Wageningen.[1]

According to a report by the Zwolle municipal police dated 10 December 1949, the Buitensociëteit (located near Zwolle railway station) had been evacuated in late November or early December 1944 due to the increasing Allied air raids, and the prisoners were housed in school buildings. Victor Kugler also typed in his notebook that he was moved to a school building on 21 December, which is later than the description in the police report and could possibly be related to his stay with the Brouwer family.

When Kugler ended up in Zwolle during his imprisonment, he sought contact with Martin Brouwer. Brouwer had been a representative of Gies & Co for some time during the war and a supplier of food stamps for the Secret Annex. Brouwer vouched for Kugler, who was therefore allowed to eat and stay overnight at the Brouwer family home.[6]

The De Helmhorst estate with the Hoog Erve villa on it was located on Watersteeg in Zwolle, now Kuyerhuislaan. An interview with the Brouwer children reveals that Kugler had to perform all kinds of odd jobs there.[6] Possibly this is what Kugler meant when he typed 'New unit Watersteeg' in his notebook.[1]

The police report shows that eventually about 50-60 of the prisoners in Zwolle were transferred to Wageningen. However, an exact date of that transfer is not given in the police report.[7] This may have been with the evacuation or as late as late December 1944. In fact, Kugler typed in his notebook that on 28 December 1944 he had to take the train to Arnhem and when it turned out that there was no work for the prisoners there, they then had to go on foot to Wageningen. They arrived there on 30 December 1944, according to the notebook.[1] Kugler also wrote on the CADSU form that the transfer to Wageningen took place on 30 December 1944.[5]

Footnotes

  1. a, b, c, d, e Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_Kugler_I_048: Engelstalig notitieboekje Victor Kugler.
  2. a, b https://erfgoed.zwolle.nl/monument-de-buitensoci-teit, geraadpleegd op 24 augustus 2022.
  3. ^ Nummer 190 op de lijst, op blad 11, is Kugler. Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis (NRK), Den Haag, dossier 97791: ‘Transportliste’ 19 september 1944, blad 1 en 11,  Het uitstel is veroorzaakt door de verwoesting van het station in Amersfoort op 17 september, als onderdeel van de slag om Arnhem. NRK, dossier 97791: Victor Kugler aan CADSU, 23 januari 1963.
  4. ^ NRK, dossier 97791: Briefkaart aan “fam. Kugler” in Hilversum
  5. a, b NRK, dossier 97791: Aanvraagformulier A, Centraal Afwikkelbureau Duitse Schadeuitkeringen, ingevuld door Kugler en gestempeld 3 september 1963.
  6. a, b AFS, AFC, Getuigenarchief, Brouwer. Gesprek met twee kinderen Brouwer, 15 mei 2011.
  7. ^ NRK, dossier 97791: Rapport No. 24.249 van Gemeentepolitie Zwolle, 10 december 1949. Uit dit rapport blijkt dat de Zwolse politie destijds beschikte over een lijst van gevangenen in de Buitensociëteit.