Osdorp in Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands — Northwestern Europe
Anton Hölzel
Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, March 16, 2024
1. Anton Hölzel Marker
Deventer, 7 mei 1909 - Neuengamme (Duitsland), 20 april 1945
Chauffeur Antonie Hölzel was lid van de Communistische Partij van Nederland (CPN). Hij werd op 9 september 1941 gearresteerd tijdens een actie tegen Haagse communisten en in het Oranjehotel, de gevangenis in Scheveningen, opgesloten. Hij kwam uiteindelijk in concentratiekamp Neuengamme terecht, waar hij samen met Dirk Deutekom als ziekenverzorger moest helpen bij gruwelijke medische experimenten op twintig Joodse kinderen. Toen de Britse troepen eraan kwamen, en daarmee de bevrijding in zicht was, moesten de sporen van deze experimenten worden uitgewist. De jonge slachtoffers en verpleegkundigen, waaronder Hölzel, werden naar de kelder van een leegstaand schoolgebouw aan de Bullenhuser Damm overgebracht en daar op brute wijze vermoord.
Driver Antonie Hölzel was a member of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN). He was arrested on September 9, 1941 during an action against communists in The Hague and imprisoned in the Oranjehotel, the prison in Scheveningen. He eventually ended up in Neuengamme concentration camp, where, together with Dirk Deutekom, he had to assist as a caregiver in gruesome medical experiments on twenty Jewish children. When the British troops arrived, and liberation was in sight, the traces of these experiments had to be erased. The young victims and nurses, including Hölzel, were taken to the basement of an empty school building on Bullenhuser Damm and brutally murdered there.
Erected 2023
this page online
Topics and series. This memorial is listed in this topic list: War, World II. In addition, it is included in the Give Streets a Face / Geef Straten Een Gezicht, the Heroes of the Dutch Resistance (GSEG), and the The Holocaust series lists. A significant historical date for this entry is April 20, 1945.
Location. 52° 21.072′ N, 4° 47.193′ E. Memorial is in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland (North Holland). It is in Osdorp. It is on Anton Hölzelsingel, on the left when traveling north. Touch for map. Memorial is at or near this postal address: Trijn Hullemanlaan 177, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland 1060 RJ, Netherlands. Touch for directions.
Regionally, it is in Europe, the European Union, Atlantic Europe, the Benelux Low Countries, the Schengen Area, Western Europe, and the Western World. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Roman Empire and specifically also the Holy Roman Empire.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Nel Hissink (about 90 meters away, measured in a direct line); Jan Goldschmeding (about 90 meters away); Guus Reitsma (about 90 meters
Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, March 16, 2024
2. Anton Hölzel Marker - wide view
Also see . . . The story of the Children of Bullenhuser Damm (The Children of Bullenhouser Damm Assoc.). Details on how Hölzel died…
Excerpt: In April 1945 the Allied armies have pressed far into National Socialist Germany. The outcome of the war has been decided long ago. But not until 8 May is a conditional surrender signed. Up to that point, those who are aware of the crimes they have perpetrated have been busily erasing as much evidence as possible.(Submitted on April 8, 2024.)
At this time, 20 Jewish children are living in Neuengamme Concentration Camp outside Hamburg. They are aged between five and 12 years. There are ten girls and ten boys, including two pairs of siblings. For months, the SS doctor Kurt Heißmeyer has been maltreating them as test objects for medical experiments: he has injected live tuberculosis bacilli under their skin and used probes to introduce them into the lungs. Then he has operatively removed their lymph glands. In an interrogation in 1964, Heißmeyer declared that for him “there is no difference in principal between Jews and laboratory animals”.
On 20 April 1945 the children, and four of the adult prisoners who have been looking after them in the camp, are brought to a large school building in Hamburg. It is almost midnight when they arrive. The adults are the two French doctors, Gabriel Florence and René Quenouille, and the Dutchmen Dirk Deutekom and Anton Hölzel. This is the school on Bullenhuser Damm, which serves as a satellite to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp. The group is brought into the cellars. The adults are hanged from a pipe under the ceiling in the boiler room. The children are injected with morphine and then, sleeping, hanged from hooks on the wall. SS man Johann Frahm hangs on to the children with his whole body weight, because they are so thin that the noose does not close. In a hearing in 1946 Frahm said, he had “hung the children up on the wall like pictures”. None of them cries.
Then the next group of 24 Soviet prisoners-of-war is hanged. No one knows what their names are to this day.
Then, as if the children’s murder had never taken place, life in Hamburg continued as usual. The school became a school again, although its pupils were never told about the events that had taken place in the cellars of the building. No search was ever made for the parents and families of the victims. The perpetrators of the crime were soon forgotten...
Additional keywords. Holocaust
Credits. This page was last revised on April 8, 2024. It was originally submitted on April 8, 2024, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. This page has been viewed 192 times since then and 14 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on April 8, 2024, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
