War Memorial Kolham

The war memorial is a reminder of all villagers who died during the occupation years 1940 – 1945.

On the boulder hangs a copper plaque in which
the following text is engraved:
1940 – 1945 In memory of our villagers who fell

A short story about Paul Niewold, resident of Kolham:
In May 1943, the Wehrmacht decided that all Dutch soldiers in captivity had to return. This led to a spontaneous strike across the country. Out of anger at the decision, everyone stopped working, including the agricultural companies, the shipbuilding industry in Hoogezand and the factories near Kolham. One of the strikers at potato flour factory De Woudbloem was Paul Niewold (1901), a quiet man who had never hurt anyone. He was taken from his home in Kolham by a police officer and transported to Hoogezand. It was a retaliatory action, picking up people at random. He was just unlucky. He was shot dead without mercy. As a deterrent example to the other strikers. The murder was widely covered by a Bekanntmachung the next day. No one ever learned where Niewold's body was transported. Nothing of him has been found.

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