Victor Kugler escapes during an air raid
In late March 1945, Victor Kugler was sent to Germany on foot with about 600 fellow prisoners. Near Zevenaar, the column came under fire from British aircraft. Kugler took advantage of the confusion and escaped. After a few days, he arrived home in Hilversum.
Due to the advance of Allied troops, the prisoners were sent on foot towards Germany at the end of March. During this march, Victor Kugler managed to escape. About his escape and journey home, Kugler wrote the following in 1963:
'On that day [28 March] about 600 prisoners left Wageningen and marched across Renkum, Heelsum, Oosterbeek, Arnhem, Westervoort to Zevenaar, with the intention of proceeding to Germany the next day. On the outskirts of Zevenaar, our column was attacked and fired on by English Spitfires. There were unfortunately some casualties. I took advantage of the confusion and fled into the field.'[1]
After Kugler fled into the field, he reportedly went into hiding 'with a farmer, Mr Barends' and then left by bicycle heading towards the IJssel River. In Lathum, he waited several days in a brickworks until he could be ferried across the river. In Barneveld, he almost fell into the hands of the Gestapo, but on Good Friday he returned home to Hilversum, where he hid until the liberation.[1]
The chronology of Kugler's escape as he describes it himself may not be entirely accurate. Good Friday fell on 30 March in 1945. That would mean that everything would have to have taken place in two days, while he wrote that he spent several days at Barends and also several days at the brickworks. Either he escaped earlier than 28 March, or he only got home after Good Friday.
A diarist from Barneveld noted that on 27 March 1945, people were taken off the streets there to dig tank barriers.[2] Possibly this was the moment Kugler managed to escape what he called the Gestapo in Barneveld.
Records from the Historical Society in Zevenaar indicate that the day of Kugler's escape may have been 24 March 1945:
'24-03-1945 Around noon, a German car was destroyed by an Allied fighter. At half past three an Allied fighter carried out an attack on artillery on Arnhemseweg. A column of OT diggers returning from Oosterbeek was hit by 2 bombs. W. Donk (aged 44) and W. Nagtegaal (aged 24) from Utrecht and a German soldier were killed.’[3]
Footnotes
- a, b Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis (NRK), Den Haag, dossier 97791: Aanvraagformulier A, Centraal Afwikkelbureau Duitse Schadeuitkeringen, ingevuld door Kugler en gestempeld 3 september 1963.
- ^ Gemeentearchief Barneveld, Documentatiecollectie Tweede Wereldoorlog, bestandsnummer 408, dagboeken Gonny Noorlander, notitie 27 maart 1945.
- ^ Mailwisseling met de Historische Vereniging in Zevenaar, 1 november 2010.