Dijk, Antonius Johannes Maria “Anton” van.

Dijk, Antonius Johannes Maria “Anton” van, born 19-04-1905 in Helmond, studied at the HBS in his birthplace Helmond. He then found a job with the police in my hometown Eindhoven. He was a convinced National Socialist. He was a member of the NSB under the Dutch leaders  Anton Mussert

In September 1941 van Dijk was appointed head of the police force in Nijmegen. Anton Mussert, after the liberation, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. On 07-05-1946, age 51, was executed on the Waalsdorp area. Cees van Geelkerken, after the war was sentenced to life imprisonment but released in 1959. He died on 29-03-1976, age 75, in Ede.

Van Dijk’s predecessor as police commissioner J.T. Veldman had tried to keep the police force “clean” and had avoided contact with the Sicherheitsdienst from Arnhem as much as possible. After his appointment as a supervisory director, Van Dijk appointed a number of reliable NSB members in key positions, including the notorious Marinus Verstappen . The SS man Marinus Verstappen, together with his girlfriend, Henderika Verharen, was responsible for the deportation of all Jews from Nijmegen!.  Verstappen died 18-07-1976 , age 66, in Someren. Initially, the police were heavily involved in monitoring listening to the forbidden English radio broadcasts, but soon the emphasis shifted to locating members of the resistance and Jews.

Many items of removed Jews were not handed over to the Germans by the Nijmegen police, but confiscated for their own use. As a police chief, Van Dijk had the first choice. He even went so far as to have a wealthy Jew tipped off by a subordinate that his arrest was imminent. The person concerned then went into hiding, whereupon Van Dijk could seize a large part of his possessions. Several of his subordinates objected to Van Dijk’s robberies, not because it would be morally wrong, but because less was left for them as a result. From that moment on, Van Dijk turned a blind eye to the fact that they too had room to confiscate things for their own use.

Van Dijk was very aggressive towards arrestees in his performance. In May 1943 an investigation was conducted into the actions of the police officer and he himself received a reprimand. In the same period he was expelled from the NSB. The reason for this was that he sent a fellow party member, who had a pregnant wife and two sick children, to Camp Vught, because he had stayed in the porch of his own home during the time of spelling.

Death and burial ground of Dijk, Antonius Johannes Maria “Anton” van.

Van Dijk was shot on the street on 08-07-1943 by the resistance fighter Henk Romeijn from Waalwijk. Romeijn was a member of the Amsterdam resistance group CS-6, who regularly committed attacks on “wrong” Dutchmen, such as the collaborating Lieutenant General Hendrik Seyffardt. The name comes from the address where the group originated: Corellistraat 6 in Amsterdam. The group was founded in the summer of 1940 by the brothers Gideon (“Gi”)  and Jan Karel (“Janka”) Boissevain . After their attempt to escape to England in July 1940 failed, they returned to their parental home, where their mother had already begun to receive Jewish refugees. Jan was executed age 23 on 01-10-1943, in Overveen andGideon at the same time age 22.

Romeijn was arrested by someone who thought he was dealing with a bicycle thief. He was executed on 05-04-1944, age 22, in Camp Vught. Van Dijk eventually died for nearly two months as a result of the shooting. On his deathbed, he was rehabilitated by the NSB.

He was laid out in the new council chamber of the town hall in Nijmegen, buried with military honor at the “Heldenfriedhof” of Rustoord.  After the war, the grave was cleared and his remains were transferred to the German military cemetery  in Ysselsteyn in Limburg with his grave no between many Dutch traitors. The tomb of Antonius Simons is intriguing, Section Q-Row 12-Grave 278 ’03 -04-45 † 03-04-45 ‘reports the cross.  A baby at a war cemetery. It is the son of Johanna Maria Simons. The father was possibly a German and therefore a wrong relationship. The child was born dead in Camp Vught, where after the war also false Dutch were held captive. After their death they were often buried at Ysselstein.

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