Monument met acht slachtoffers

Near the Hidden Village in the woods around Vierhouten, a boulder reminds us of the hiding camp where people in hiding were hidden from April 1943 to November 1944 along the then sandy and virtually impassable Pas Op road. Huts were excavated, especially such as Blokhut, BIM Hut and Oranjehaven. The BIM hut stood for the names of Beatrix, Irene and Margriet.

A total of between 80 and 120 people lived in the huts: Jews, work refusers, resistance fighters, American soldiers, English airmen, German deserters and a Pole and a Russian. Every day a group of volunteers from Nunspeet brought water and food, toys, clean goods and the latest news. When the camp was discovered, eight Jewish people in hiding were arrested and later shot. A monument has been placed for them on Tongerenseweg.

Most of the 87 people in hiding escaped. Eight Jewish people in hiding were unable to escape. They were captured and imprisoned in the basement of ‘De Paasheuvel’. Two of them were executed at the foot of ‘De Paasheuvel’. The others later had to walk – together with an execution squad – to the ‘Pas-Opkamp’ to be shot there.

About one kilometer outside Vierhouten, a skirmish broke out when two of the people in hiding tried to flee. One of them was shot dead while fleeing, the other returned when his six-year-old son started screaming. Three pits were dug in which the people in hiding had to lie down. They were then shot dead. The six-year-old boy also did not escape this fate. These were Arnold de Leeuw, Louisa Mathilda de Leeuw-Weijl, Johan de Leeuw, Arend Samuel Meijers, Hartog Spijer, Max Gompes, Kaatje Gompes-Schoonhoed and the little boy John Roelof Meijers. A monument has been placed at the spot where they were executed.