Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - Cornelius van Kootwijk (#9)

Cornelius van Kootwijk

Cor van Koolwijk from Deest was forced to work in Germany at the end of 1942, where he stayed for almost two years. He had not been on leave during all that time, so in January 1945 he decided to volunteer for the Waffen-SS. Cor had been told that volunteers would be trained in the Netherlands and thought he could desert there. After his arrest, after the liberation, he ended up in the former Vught concentration camp where Germans, collaborators and war criminals were imprisoned.

Due to the heavy fighting, there were so many mines and ammunition in and around the Peel that mine clearers would need years to clear them. That is why volunteers were asked for the dangerous work in the camp in Vught.
Cor also signed up for this and after a short training he was taken to Deurne together with other Dutch SS men.

Behind Sjaak Mennen's house, on the current Fire Line in Neerkant, the mine clearers stood close together in a group and one of them stepped on a mine. Three of the Dutch SS men, Cor van Koolwijk, Mathias Verheijden and Toon van Berkom, and a Dutch guard, Herman Schutte, were killed.

Cor was buried at the cemetery in Deest.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen