Vas Dias, Salomon “Sieg”.

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Vas Dias, Salomon “Sieg”, born 01-06-1904, in Amsterdam, the son of the art dealer Jacob de Salomon Vaz Dias and his wife Hana, born Hamburger, and Salomon had a sister, Selma. Before the war, Vaz Dias was a journalist for De Telegraaf. Among his colleagues was the Dutch politician, resistance fighter, and journalist. Frans Johannes Goedhart, pseudonym ” ‘Pieter ‘t Hoen” with whom he would later collaborate in the illegal Parool group. He started his own photo press agency on Vijzelstraat, opposite the Carlton Hotel, called Foto-Varia. Here, the Dutch film director, ethologist, and photographer, Bert Haanstra became his apprentice in 1934, followed by independent photojournalist Sem Presser in 1935.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Vaz Dias was with photojournalist Hendrik Elbert “Henk Temme

  in counterintelligence, as a staff member of GS III.

The General Staff section III was the first modern Dutch intelligence service. GS III was established on 25-06-1914, by the General Staff, with the aim of collecting military information about various European countries. The former headquarters of GS III at Lange Voorhout 52 in The Hague.

After the May days, Vaz Dias, as a Red Cross employee, was involved in locating missing Dutch soldiers. He joined the resistance as a member of the Order Service (OD) and became a contributor to the illegal Parool, where he took care of the paper. In 1941, the Parool group met at the villa De Oldenheem on the Drafna estate in Naarden, where Vaz Dias was living at the time. At the request of Frans Goedhart, he had approached the Dutch journalist, politician and resistance fighter Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart. In September 1941, Vaz Dias put the radio operator Aart Hendrik Alblas, alias Klaas de Waard. Alblas Dutch naval officer and England sailor, did not survive the war, but who had run into trouble after tuning his transmitter, in contact with Goedhart. Alblas, age 25, was executed in Mauthausen concentration Camp, on 07-09-1944.

According to historian Loe de Jong, Vaz Dias acted as “a kind of mentor” to Alblas, and thus Goedhart was able to establish contact with government circles in London, after which they jointly urged ‘London’ that Goedhart should go to England with resistance man Peter Tazelaar, “the Zeeuwse Soldier of Orange”   during a ‘pickup operation’ by the Siebren Erik  Hazelhoff Roelfzema   group (Contact Holland).

Vaz Dias wanted to flee to England via France in 1942, but his escape route had been infiltrated by the Germans, and on June 30, he was arrested in Paris, after which he was transferred to the Oranjehotel in Scheveningen, the Netherlands. .

Death and burial ground of Vas Dias, Salomon “Sieg”.

He was sentenced to death by the Germans for espionage, sabotage, and aiding the enemy, and was executed by the Germans at the age of 39 on the Leusderheide, on 29-07-1943. The group of executed individuals included, in addition to Vaz Dias, the following 15 resistance fighters: Lex Althoff (also a member of the Parool group like Vaz Dias), Christiaan Frederik van den Berg, Joung lord Pim van Doorn, Rudolf Hartogs, Willem Hertly , Eddy Latuperisa, Willem Mulder, Anton van Rijn, Jhr. Johan Schimmelpenninck and his aides Anton Abbenbroek, Fritjof Dudok van Heel, and Johan de Jonge Melly, as well as Jan van Straelen, Gerard Vinkesteyn, and Bob Wijnberg.

Vaz Dias was married to Anna Theresa Munka. In 1937, their son Robert was born. In Amsterdam-West, a street is named after him. Vas Dias, Salomon “Sieg” is buried at the Dutch War Graves Rusthof. Dodeweg 31, 3832 RE Leusden. Section: XII. Grave: 137.

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