Dutchmen in the Luftwaffe.

Jaap Woortman · Post by **Jaap Woortman** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 1:53 am

Since several years I am studying the presence of Dutchmen(M/V) in the Luftwaffe. This study has several aspects because a large number, about 1600 men, were forced in to the Luftwaffe and about 1000 were true volunteers. These 1600 men, who were forced into the Lw., were civilians, taken from the streets in Rotterdam and Noord Oostpolder in November 1944, in the Netherlands, and brought to Germany. In December 1944 800 were brought to Oldenburg, von Zeppelin barracks and about 800 brought to Pardubitz in Tjechie. All were then trained as Flak-personnel. Mostly Eisenbahnflak. About 200 became operational.
In the about 1000 volunteers were 350-400 Flakhelfer, kids of 16 and 17 years old, and 400 Nachrichtenhelferinnen. The other 200, and increasing in number, are Lw. Flieger, that is the rank of a Lw. soldier in training, pilots, wireless op., gunners(Bordschütze), Flak gunners, maintenance personnel, para's and soldiers of the Lw. Feld-divisonen.
It is far more then I ever have thought. The search is going on, although not primarely on the "forced" persons, every piece of information is welcome.

Jaap

HaEn · Post by **HaEn** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 7:11 pm

Hello Jaap. My brother was a flakhelfer at the ripe old age of 15; he was picked up "somewhere", trained and sent to the East. One day they woke up and found themselves surounded by Soviet soldiers. They had been surprised in their sleep (off duty). One of the Russians said; "move one muscle and we'll kill you" A few did, and they did. He was smart enough to play possum. Anyway, thought you might be interested. HN.

Annelie · Post by **Annelie** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 10:54 pm

Greetings HaEn:

Where was your brother trained?
Did he survive?

Regards
Annelie

Jason Pipes · Post by **Jason Pipes** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 12:22 am

There is an excellent work called "In The Skies of Europe: Air forces allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945" by Hans Werner Neulen that also includes a large section on foreigners in the ranks of the GAF. The section on the Dutch is only a few pages long but includes some excellent biographical info on a few of the actual Dutch volunteers that fought as actual pilots within the Luftwaffe. This work is translated from German and should be fairly widely available.

Jaap Woortman · Post by **Jaap Woortman** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 2:37 am

Dear Jason,

Thanks for the advice but I HAVE had the luck of finding the English edition of the work of Werner. I also have a good contact with him and I know he looking forward for my results. As you can image finding the names and birthdates of Dutch persons who have been in the Luftwaffe is a longterm project. I think it will take the next 5 years to do the research.

Jaap

teddy · Post by **teddy** » Tue Oct 01, 2002 10:54 pm

I have two uncles that were working in the Noord Oost Polder in November, 1944. They claim that they were sent to a labour camp. Escaping after six months by stealing German uniforms they made their way to the front. Challenged in German by British troops, they responded in kind. Big Mistake! They spent another six months in an Allied prisoner of war camp. After the war, one served in Indonesia with the Dutch army and then settled in Luxembourg, the other immigrated to Canada.

Jaap Woortman · Post by **Jaap Woortman** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 1:28 am

Indeed that can by true. At November 18th, 1944 there has been a "razzia" in the NOP. This was also called Nederlands Onderduikers Paradise. Al lot of these guys were send to laborcamps along the river Ems. Were did your uncles came from? City or village I mean.

Jaap

teddy · Post by **teddy** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 9:11 am

Jaap: Kampen, I think.

Feldgrau.net