Monument The Boulder

History
In the night of the 7th of April to the 8th of April a group of French paratroopers (SAS, Special Air Services) lands in the Drenth village Diepen, with the order to sabotage the Germans and give help to the men of resistance. As well thanks to the arrest of two fierce NSB'ers, the following day, a liberation atmosphere is there in the village, which has the result that in the morning of the 10th of April a few NSBers are getting whipped.
Ofcourse the Germans didn't let them get away with this and a few soldiers arrived early in the afternoon from Steenwijk into the village. Split in two, one half of the group of soldiers takes 11 citizens hostage and try to locate the other soldiers. That evening 11 hostages are executed by a firing squad in front of a wall. One of them, Koop Westerhof, survives the shootings by playing dead. Three other citizens are chased by the Germans, only one survives, by breaking away.

Monument
Years after the war, I don't know the exact date, a monument was placed at the executing wall with the name "boulder". It's a large plate made out of marble, which rests on a socle out of stone, on this they placed a big rock. On this rock they attached bronze colored signs with the names of all victims of war of Diever:

(the names of the victims, the date they died, where they died)
Jan Booiman, overleden op 29 juli 1943 te Warnemünde;
Abraham Oostra, overleden op 26 september 1944 te Osnabrück;
Thils Gerardus Drupsteen op 18 augustus 1944 te Vught;
Johannes Bosscher uit Diever, 14 maart 1945 te Neuengamme;
Jannes Dolfing uit Dwingeloo, 3 mei 1945 te Lübeckerbocht;
Jan Eqqink uit Wapse, 28 april 1945 te Neuengamme;
Roelof Eqqink uit Wapse, 30 april 1945 te Neuengamme;
Thils Eqqink uit Wapse, 6 april 1945 te Wöbbelin;
Auke Feenstra uit Dwingeloo, 30 april 1945 te Sandbostel;
Cornelis Marinua Groenewoud uit Diever, 21 februari 1945 te Neuengamme;
Hilbert Gunnink uit Diever, 14 april 1945 te Ravensbrück;
Jelte Koopman, uit Dwingeloo, 26 februari 1945 te Luwigslust;
Geert Gerhardus Koster, uit Diever, 24 maart 1945 te Wöbbelin;
Sebastiaan van Nooten uit Diever, 24 mei 1945 te Rotenburg;
Hermannus Vos, uit Diever, 30 april 1945 te Wöbbelin;
Jan Koning uit Diever, 10 aprl 1945 te Diever;
Hendrik Akkerman uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Harman Bennen, uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Klaas Daleman, uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Jan Houwer, uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Nicolaas Houwer, uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Koop Houwer, uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Roelof Hunneman, uit Diever, 10 april 1945;
Antonius Maria Gerardus Janssens uit Oss, 10 april 1945;
Joseph Antonius Cornelis Maria Janssens, uit Berkel, 10 april 1945;
Kornelis Kerssies, uit Diever, 10 april 1945.

The monument is situated at the forrestroad and not only in remembrance of the massacre on the 10th of April 1945, it symbolises the whole war in Diever.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: Teije Terhorst
• Photos: Reint Buiter (1, 2, 3), Bert Deelman (4, 5)