Memorial Merwede-hostages Sliedrecht

This 2020 monument commemorates the victims of the Great Razzia of May 16, 1944. Identical monuments were also placed at about the same time in Hardinxveld and Werkendam.

As a reprisal measure for the shooting of 2 Landwachters by the resistance near the Helsluis on the night of May 9-10, 1944, a large raid was held in Sliedrecht, Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Werkendam on May 16, 1944. For this, more 2,000 members of the Grüne Polizei, SS, and Wehrmacht were deployed. They searched houses, buildings, trains and buses and combed the polders looking for young men aged 18 to 25. In the process, a total of 589 men between the ages of 18 and 25 were arrested. Earlier, 21 civilians were arrested in Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Sliedrecht who ended up in Camp Vught, via Rotterdam, and later in Amersfoort. They were released in September 1944.

Almost all the men rounded up during the raid were sent to Camp Amersfoort. For 7 weeks, 318 of them were released mainly because of their work. On the night of July 6-7, the remaining 271 went on transport to labor camps in Germany as part of a larger group. There 26 (including 11 from Sliedrecht) and shortly after their return home another 2, of them died.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries en Jan de Jager
• Photos: Jan de Jager
• https://merwedegijzelaars.nl/
• https://www.struikelstenensliedrecht.nl/