Reydon, Hermannus Haak Steenhart.

Reydon, Hermannus Haak Steenhart, born 06-12-1896 in Amsterdam, Nederland. His family lived in Voorschoten, Leidseweg 198a . Hermannus married Wilhelmina Angenita Haak Steenhart (07-08-1895 Tiel – 09-02-1943 in Voorschoten. Reydon was a convinced national socialist who glorified peasantry as the essential characteristic of the Germanic people. Was one of the first members of the NSB . The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) under Anton Adrian “Ad”  Mussert,  was a Dutch political party that existed from 1931 to 1945. The NSB adhered to the ideology of National Socialism, presented itself from an anti-democratic perspective not as a party but as a movement and functioned as a collaboration party during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Reydon edited “Volk en Vaderland” for many years, with which the party went hawking every Saturday. Found democracy alien to the people and in conflict with the Germanic nature.

In the spring of 1932, the jurist Reydon registered as a member of Anton Mussert’s National Socialist Movement (NSB), which gave him registration number 252. He became the leader of the NSB circle in Amsterdam from 01-02-1933. From June 1936, he was editor of the National Socialist monthly De Wolfsangel. Volksche Wacht, previously called De Wolfsangel and Der Vaderen Erfdeel, was a monthly magazine published between 1936 and 1944 by the National Socialist Movement (NSB) and intended for NSB members.

Reydon developed into a fervent defender of the farming class, the Germanic national character and the Dutch worker. He devoted many publications to this. He was also editor of the NSB weekly Volk en Vaderland   from 1933 to 1938. After that, he was political editor and acting editor-in-chief of Het Nationale Dagblad, the newspaper of the NSB, until December 1940. He was then appointed training leader of the Nederlandse Landstand, a farmers’ organisation of the NSB. After the resignation of Prof. Dr. Toby Goedewaagen succeeded Reydon as secretary-general of the National Socialist Department of Public Information and Arts on 01-02-1943. He also took over Goedewaagen’s position as president of the Dutch Cultural Chamber. On the same date, Mussert appointed him as authorized representative for public information. Six days later, the resistance group CS-6 carried out an attack on him, in which his wife was killed immediately. Reydon himself died six months later from the injuries he sustained. 

On 09-02-1943, an attack was carried out on the Reydon couple by neurologist Gerrit Willem Kastein.  Kastein waited for Reydon in his own home behind the front door, after he had first shot Mrs. Reydon dead there.

When Reydon came home, Kastein pressed the gun into his back and immediately shot. The man, age 46, was seriously injured and died months later as a result of complications. The firearm came from the notorious Englandspiel traitor and SD henchman Anton van der Waals. This traitor had managed to gain Kastein’s trust. A few weeks after the liquidation, Kastein was arrested during a raid in café Kroon in Delft. During the interrogation by the SD, Sicherheitsdienst, Kastein jumped handcuffed from three floors through a window into the courtyard of the office. Kastein died instantly.

Death and burial ground of Reydon, Hermannus Haak Steenhart.

A few days later, Hermannus Reydon would also succumb to his injuries. With the family came fellow ban leader Alblas, who had greeted the Leader in Ede on behalf of the latter. Inspecteur-Generaal of the Dutch, NSB, paramilitary Landwacht Cornelis Kees van Geelkerken and left N Alblas  Also present at the cemetery were the farmer leader, comb. Boerenleider, Peasant leader of the Landstand, rural class, NSB. Evert Jan Roskam, the mayor of Ede, comb. Van Dierendonk and the chief commissioner of police, Hulsman. Evert Roskam survived the war and died age 82 on 04-10-1974. Evert Jan Roskam is buried next to Mr. Hermannus Reydon in the (old) general cemetery in Lunteren. The grave was owned by Roskam and made available to Reydon by him. Reydon’s grave features an inverted eolh rune and Roskam’s an odal rune. Because a large boulder with Reydon’s name and that of his wife is hidden under a tree, Reydon’s grave is barely recognizable.

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