Johannes Post

Dutch farmer and Anti-Revolutionary Party local politician, who became a heroic resistance fighter during WW2. Johannes Post was the youngest child of the farmer and reformed local ARP politician Jan Wolters Post (1 Sep 1863, Kerkenveld - 10 Oct 1942, Hollandscheveld) en Trijntje Tempen (11 Oct 1865, Hijken - 16 Feb 1937, Hollandscheveld). On 30 April 1887 they married and between 1888 and 1906 they got eleven children. He followed one year MULO secondary education, then started working on the farm of his father. On 26 November 1929 Post married Dina Salomons (3 July 1903, Nieuw Buinen - 26 Febr 1991, Rijnsburg) in Borger, that year he started a farm for himself. He also engaged in the marketing of poultry, eggs and horses. They got nine children,of which their first child Jan Wolter (13 Oct 1930 - 20 Oct 1930, Nieuwlande) died after a week. He joined like his father the Calvinistic Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), and became in 1935 alderman of Oosterhesselen. He was known as a hard-working, intelligent, non-conformist and highly principled personality, who was not afraid of taking risks. But he was also member of the Calvinistic Reformed Church and the Christian Anti-Revolutionary Party, who were fiercely opposed to communists and anarchists. In the dualistic Calvinistic view G'd' will has ordained his Universal government / will on earth. So oppression against it, as Isaiah proclaimed was a suicidal step. When the German invasion started on 10 May 1940, he was shocked and wanted to fight. But the Dutch capitulation followed soon after the bombardment of the medieval city of Rotterdam (14 May 1940, 13h30). Unlike the Dutch communists, anarchists and left wing intelligentsia, who started the resistance movement soon, he was not on the Nazi death list. Even most Dutch Jews, had no idea of what was coming, as the Holocaust was implemented gradually by the Nazi's, in small steps, to prevent upheaval. Having to sustain a large family, he went on with his farmers work, but at the same time started with "low profile" passive resistance, like refusing to pay income tax and spreading "illegal" uncensored papers. In 1942 he met the pastors son and landscape architect Arnold Douwes (26 Jan 1906, Laag-Keppel - 7 Febr 1999, Utrecht). Douwes, who later wrote with Max Léons the book "Mitswa en christenplicht" (Mitzvah and Christian duty) about the modest heroes of the illegality, would hide with Post and set up an organisation to save Jews in their "new land". Qouting the World Center for Holocaust Research, Documentation, Education and Commemoration on Nieuwenlande: "A unique instance of collective rescue took place in the Dutch village of Nieuwlande. In 1942 and 1943 the village inhabitants resolved that every household would hide one Jewish family or at least one Jew. Given the collective nature of the activity, the danger to the village was small – there was no fear of denunciation since all the village dwellers were partners to the "crime". All 117 inhabitants of that village were recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations". In May 1943 the Dutch ex-military Jan Wildschut (28 Nov 1913, Den Bosch - 31 Jan 1945, Kamp Leonberg) hided with him, as in April 1943 was announced that all military man would be become prisoner of war again. He was a die hard and preferred to fight. Wildschut became a prominent member in the "Knokploeg" (fighting gang) of Post and Douwes. Together with his brother Marinus Post (3 August 1902, Hollandscheveld - 7 November 1944, Alkmaar), he took the for Anti-Revolutionary Christians unusual next step: Armed resistance against an illegal and immoral government. As pleas in the name of morality would not work. Their goal was not to kill Germans, but to save lives of prisoners and persecuted Jews. Killing Germans would lead to reprisals by the Nazi's on innocent hosted civilians. But freeing tortured comrades, destroying archives with the names and addresses of Jews, stealing distribution and identity cards to support the persecuted, that were their pragmatic goals. A spectacular action took place on June 23, 1943 with four robberies in one day. They robbed the registration offices in Sleen, Zweeloo, Oosterhesselen and Nieuweroord of their distribution cards. They worked for the resistance group around the illegal paper Trouw, that had a national network of "koeriers" distributing the illegal uncensored papers and food cards for the hiding people who had no name . Soon Post had to hide. On 16 July 1943 Post and Celina Kuijper, a Jewish resistance woman, were arrested in a pension in Ugchelen by the SD. They were brought to the police in Apeldoorn, where he tried to escape. He was arrested again, but on 18 July 1943 he was liberated by a traffic police officer. Post's family had to hide. An attempt to free Celina (Lien) Johanna Kuijper (4 March 1923, Rotterdam – 27 Aug 1943, Auschwitz) from Camp Westerbork failed. She was taken to Poland and immediately gassed upon arrival in Auschwitz. Post changed name ("Hemke van der Zwaag") and stayed with his brother Henk Post, Reformed minister in Rijnsburg. Here he formed a new local Knokploeg (KP, gang), that stole identity cards from town halls to give Jews and other persecuted false passports. Autumn 1944 he became a leader of the National resistance force, the Landelijke Knokploeg (LK). The Germans reacted to the growing armed resistance with the Aktion Silbertanne (Sept 1943 - Sept 1944), a series of murders on civilians carried out by a death squad composed of Dutch members of the SS and Dutch veterans of the Eastern Front. For every killed Nazi sympathiser, three Nazi non-sympathisers on their death list would be killed. January 1944 he and his KP settled in Breda. A series of robberies took place. On 19 February 1944 his KP robbed the police station Archimedessreet in The Hague. The loot consists of documents, sixty guns, cartridge and ammunition. Two days later in Zwijndrecht, he was almost caught. On Friday 23 June 1944, his mate Jan Wildschut, was caught during a robbery in Haarlem commissioned by Post. Wildschut and many other reading resistance fighters were tortured in house of detention on the Weteringschans in Amsterdam. Post heard of it on 26 June and decided to free them. It was difficult; on 1 May 1944 the Dutch resistance fighter and artist Gerrit van der Veen (26 Nov 26 1902, A'dam - 10 June 1944, Overveen) had tried it before. On July 15 1944 at 3h26 AM comrades of Post started the raid on the house of detention. The guard who would open the main port for them, Jan Bogaard had contacted Willy Lages, the head of the Amsterdam SD. It was a trap and when they entered a German squad with machine guns were waiting for them: "Hände hoch! Jeder Widerstand ist sinnlos!" Post, who was nearby, heard the shooting. But he did not know of the double betrayal of the guard. It was Post's task to pick up guard Jan Bogaard and his mother at 4h15 AM to bring them to a safe place. A SD car arrived, but with an arrest team of Willy Lages. Post was caught and severely molested on the street by the SD and broke several bones. On Sunday morning 16 July 1944 the men were interrogated. At noon Post and 13 of his surviving fighters were brought to the Dunes at Overveen where they were executed without having had any trial. The young Dutch SS-Scharführer, Johan Willem van der Snoek (20 August 1917, Vlaardingen) gave them all a neck shot. Snoek, his name meaning Northern pike, was an extremely sadistic and violent man. After he had returned from the Eastern front with frozen feet, his toes were amputated in Amsterdam. When he worked for the SD in Amsterdam, he took revenge on prisoners, by letting them take of their shoes, after which he tried to crush their toes with his boots. He committed suicide on 8 June 1945. His brother Marinus, had refused to engage in the risky operation. In his eyes it was a suicidal act. On 18 October 1944 Marinus Post was arrested in Amsterdam. He was executed on 17 November 1944 in Alkmaar. After the war, he was reburied at the "honorary cemetery" Bloemendaal, next to his brother. The Johannes Post Kazerne in Havelte, near to the hiding place for U.S.A. nuclear weapons in a bunker in Darp, was named after him, as were many streets and schools. Link to German Wikipedia