Execution within sight of liberation

In May 1940, a stately villa on Groningen's Grote Markt was requisitioned by the Germans. It had been commissioned by Groningen businessman Willem Albert Scholten in the 19th century, which is why it was known as the Scholtenhuis.This house was the office of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO) and the Beauftragte (commissioner) of Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart in the north, Hermann Göring, during the occupation.  

The interrogations at Scholtenhuis were notorious. Prisoners were for instance beaten with nightsticks until they lost consciousness. A gruesome bathtub method was also used at the Scholtenhuis whereby prisoners were immersed naked in a bath of ice-cold water until they almost drowned, then pulled up by the hair, just to be pushed underwater again until the desired information was given. After interrogation, the detainees were taken to the attic of Scholtenhuis.  

In April 1945, the occupiers became aware that liberation was near and they wanted to clean up the traces of their crimes. As many as 70 prisoners who had witnessed the crimes were sentenced to death. Among them were ten resistance fighters who were taken from the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention) in Groningen at four in the morning on Sunday 8 April 1945 and taken by truck to the hiding spot in the Everts forest near Anloo. At the burrow, the prisoners were horribly abused by the SDs and then executed. The bodies were thrown into the burrow and covered with sand.  

Two days later, Gezinus Udding noticed that something had changed at the hiding spot in Anloo.He saw that it had been filled with burnt wood and soil. He also saw a large pool of blood. Once the burrow was dug out, resistance fighters found the 10 victims, all killed with a neck shot. The ten of them were then temporarily reburied at the cemetery in Anloo.