- Willem Sassen
Wilhelmus Antonius Sassen (
16 April 1918 – 2001) was a Dutch collaborator, Nazi journalist and a member of the SS, where he had the rank ofUntersturmführer corresponding tolieutenant . He became widely known around 1960 as the interviewer ofAdolf Eichmann .Private biography, family
Willem Sassen was born in
Geertruidenberg , Netherlands. He grew up in a traditional Roman Catholic family inNorth Brabant and went to gymnasium in Neerbosch nearNijmegen and inBreda . His father was impressed by the fascist ideas of "Zwart Front" (literally "Black Front"). Sassen decided not to become a priest but to study laws inLeuven andGhent instead. As a student, Sassen became a member of the German-Flemish workers' group "De Vlag". When Sassen visited the1936 Summer Olympics inBerlin , his admiration for Hitler andNazi Germany grew. Because of Sassen's pro-Nazi political activities, the authorities expelled him from Belgium, so he could not finish his law studies.In 1938 Sassen became a recruit in the Dutch army and was trained as an artillerist. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on
10 May 1940 , Sassen was a member of the 7th Field Artillery regiment and was taken prisoner by the Germans for a short time.Sassen married "Paula Fisette" in 1940, divorced, and later married "Miep van der Voort", with whom he had two children. In the 1970s, in his third marriage Sassen married "Els Delbaere", daughter of a Flemish artist, who because of his Nazi past had also fled to Argentina.
Nazi- and SS-Career up to 1945
On
22 June 1941 , Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa ), and Sassen volunteered for the German Eastern front. He became a member of the first Netherlands PK ("Propaganda Kompanie"). Because he had been working for Radio Bremen for some time already, he could start his work as a war correspondent after a short cut training. He was a "Wort-und Funkberichter" with the SS-division "Wiking" in the southern sector of the front and in the spring of 1942 witnessed the offensive in theCaucasus . On26 July 1942 , Sassen was wounded near Rostov and during the following eight months recovered in hospitals inKraków ,Munich andBerlin . In April 1943 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer (the lowest rank of non-commissioned officer, comparable to a USCorporal ) and assigned to an SS armoured division nearKharkov . In the summer of 1943, he followed another training course on war correspondence and propaganda together with Dutch colleagues inVillach ,Austria .From August 1943 to June 1944 together with his Flemish colleague "Jef Desseyn", he formed the permanent editor team of Radio
Brussels ("Zender Brussel"). The team was also responsible for training courses for war correspondents. On6 June 1944 (D-Day ), Kriegsberichter Sassen was at the front in Normandy reporting the battles aroundCaen ,Bayeux ,St. Lo ,Avranches ,Falaise andLisieux . On1 September 1944 , "Zender Brussel" was ordered to be evacuated to Germany. Sassen remained in the Netherlands, reported the airborne landings aroundArnhem and became the editor of the newspaper "Het Nieuws van den Dag" inAmsterdam . On23 October 1944 , Sassen in his newspaper called upon the hungry and cold of Amsterdam to go robbing food and fuel in the districts of the more rich and wealthy people; this was too much even for the Germans, and on pressure of theSicherheitsdienst police, Sassen was dismissed.Escape to and Second Career in Argentina
On
5 June 1945 , Sassen was arrested inAlkmaar by the "British Field Security" and interned in "Fort Blauwkapel" near Utrecht. On Christmas Eve of 1945 inmates performed the one-act play "The Escape" (Dutch: "De Ontsnapping") written by Sassen. At the end, Sassen called out, as the text of his role read: "I go to London, father! The radio calls me! I cannot stay here! Good bye, father! I go!", thereby addressing this very father, who was in the audience, and with two fellow-inmates escaped through a window, the bars of which had been sawed in preparation.In the 1970s, Sassen among others worked as a PR-consultant for Chile's dictator Pinochet and
Paraguay 's dictator generalAlfredo Stroessner .The Eichmann interviews
In the 1950s, Sassen interviewed
Adolf Eichmann , several years after the end of theThird Reich and subsequently Eichmann's reign as head of the Nazi'sFinal Solution . Parts of the interviews were published in two articles in Life magazine. It is assumed that the transcripts of the interviews are much more realistic and personal than the autobiography Eichmann wrote while in prison in Israel, possibly attempting to place himself in a better light and alter the outcome of the trial. In 1980 the "Sassen documents" or "Sassen tapes", consisting of approximately 600 pages of material from the interviews, were given to Eichmann's widow Veronika.References
* Gerard Groeneveld: "Kriegsberichter", Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941–1945." Nijm
External links
* [http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/browning4.htm Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solution (hosted by the University of the West of England, Bristol)]
* [http://afanederland.antifa.net/indexjanuari2005.htm#ss290105 Review by Paul de Schipper of the book by Gerard Groeneveld: "Kriegsberichter", Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941–1945." Nijm
] ISBN 90-77503-09-9 in Dutch language
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