- Florentine Rost van Tonningen
Florentine Rost van Tonningen (born "Florentine Sophie Heubel",
14 November 1914 ,Amsterdam -24 March 2007 ,Waasmunster ) was the wife ofMeinoud Rost van Tonningen , 2nd leader of theNational Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) and President of the National Bank during the German occupation (1941-1945). Because she continued to support and propagate the ideals ofNational Socialism afterWorld War II and the death of her husband, she became known in the Netherlands as "The Black Widow".Youth
Florentine Heubel was the youngest daughter of Gustav Adolph Heubel, banker at the firm Jan Kol & Co. and the aristocrat Cornelie van Haren Noman. There were three more children in the family, daughter Annie (born in 1906) and sons Dolf (1904) and Wim (1910). Florrie Heubel grew up in
Hilversum , where the family stood in high regard. When the youngPrincess Juliana paid a visit to Hilversum, Wim and Florrie were asked to play a game of tennis with the princess. In the 1930s, Florrie and Wim Heubel became active in the "Nationale Jeugdstorm", the youth organization of the NSB designed after theHitlerjugend . She studied biology at the University of Utrecht, showing a special interest inethology .In connection with her studies, Heubel stayed for some time in Berlin during the summer of 1936. She was impressed by
Adolf Hitler and the "camaraderie, discipline and commitment" of the National Socialist movement. A year later she made a trip with Wim to theDutch East Indies , where her oldest brother Dolf worked as agricultural engineer. When she came back to the Netherlands, she left the NSB because she thought that the party was not adhering closely enough toeugenic s ideals and that party leaderAnton Mussert did not share her concerns. In 1939, her brother introduced her toMeinoud Rost van Tonningen , who already was an important and influential man in the NSB. During the German invasion of the Netherlands onMay 10 1940 , Heubel was in Berlin.Marriage
On
December 21 1940 , the day of the Winter Solstice, Heubel married Meinoud Rost van Tonningen [ [http://www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/9/4/Rost427-438.html A speech by van Tonningen] : For Holland and for Europe:The Life and Death of Dr. M.M. Host van Tonningen] . Upon request,Heinrich Himmler , the German SS-Reichsführer, had approved their genealogy, following which their wedding became the first SS marriage. The Rost van Tonningen family would have three sons with the unusual names of Grimbert (1941), Ebbe (1943), and Herre (1945). Her children would openly distance themselves from their mother's political views in the 1980s [ [http://217.170.53.59/node/175 In memoriam my mother] personal weblog of Grimbert Rost van Tonningen, 24 March 2007 (Dutch)] . The youngest son was bornApril 28 1945 , onTerschelling on the day her brother Wim Heubel fell in battle fighting with SS forces nearElst . She soon fled viaCuxhaven toGoslar in Germany, where her parents, who owned local property, were also staying. Her husband Meinoud was captured and imprisoned on May 8 by Canadian invasion forces.Immediately after the war, Meinoud Rost van Tonningen died in the
Scheveningen prison while awaiting trial. He allegedly jumped over the balustrade of a staircase. Rost van Tonningen-Heubel always contented that her husband had been murdered and that this was supported by testimony from fellow prisoners. The motive would have been that her husband, as President ofDe Nederlandsche Bank , knew too much about illegal money transactions by prominent people. The formerRIOD (National Institute of War Documentation) employee, AJ van der Leeuw, supported her version during the television show "Het zwarte schaap" (The Black Sheep) and suggested that her husband may have been driven to commit suicide in prison.In her book, "In Search Of My Wedding Ring", Rost van Tonningen-Heubel accused
Prince Bernhard of bearing the main responsibility for her husband's death, as he had been head of the Domestic Forces, claiming that her private archive contained evidence of this. This archive is only accessible through her private secretary and archivist, F.J.A.M. van der Helm, who assisted her from 1980 by storing and managing the archive. In 1997, he explored the Rost van Tonningen genealogy and placed it amongst the Dutch Patriciate. Shortly before her death, Van der Helm also received her solid gold wedding ring, which had been kissed by Adolf Hitler inBerlin at her wedding celebration in 1940 and which she subsequently had considered sacred.Postwar period
After the death of her husband, Rost van Tonningen-Heubel remained active in several far-right movements. Initially, she was placed under state supervision, like many former National Socialists. Her supervisor, Clerk of the Senate Anton Leo de Block, put her three sons under the guardianship of her brother-in-law Nico Rost van Tonningen, who was in the service of Queen Juliana. Her son Grimbert would later leave his mother and move in with the Fentener van Vlissingen family.
In 1952, she moved from
The Hague to Villa "Ben Trovato" inVelp . She considered the villa's name a sign "from above", as "rovato" would correspond to ROst VAn TOnningen. By now she had a private company making heating equipment. In 1968, she appeared in a documentary portrait of Anton Adriaan Mussert by directorPaul Verhoeven , the first time she made a nationwide public appearance. Several times she was convicted of distributing Nazi literature and organizing National Socialists meetings. The widow's home was repeatedly searched by the police, always without result, and was more than once targeted by arsonists. "House searches, broken windows and arson often took place", she writes in her book, "In Search Of My Wedding Ring".Personalities
She maintained lifelong contacts with many prominent ex-National Socialists and National Socialist sympathizers, such as the French professor
Robert Faurisson , historianDavid Irving ,Arthur Axmann ,Gudrun Himmler (daughter of Heinrich Himmler),Ilse Pröhl (widow ofRudolf Hess ),Erich Priebke ,Miguel Serrano ,Matt Koehl , commander of the The New Order,Thies Christophersen ,Leon Degrelle ,Ernst Zündel , GeneralOtto Ernst Remer ,Udo Walendy ,Horst Mahler , members of theVlaams Blok and many others. From 1990 she had extensive contact with the journalistWillem Oltmans .Pension
Until her death in 2007, Rost van Tonningen-Heubel received a modest widow's pension from the Dutch state, as her husband had once been an MP. This caused much commotion when it became known in 1986. After a hearing in the Lower House, she retained this pension. In 2000, the "Black Widow" appeared in the VARA television show "The Black Sheep". In that broadcast, the 85-year-old widow defended herself so fiercely that the broadcaster considered dropping the broadcast. She planned to move from her villa to an apartment in nearby
Arnhem , but legal objections prevented her from doing so. Shortly afterwards, she sought asylum inBelgium , claiming that her life had become impossible in the Netherlands. Until her death, she defended the ideas of National Socialism.Death
Florentine Rost van Tonningen-Heubel died of old age on
March 24 2007 , in her home inWaasmunster . She was 92. A week later, she was buried inRheden . As early as 1996, she had bought a gravesite and a headstone with her name, date of birth and the inscription, "The truth makes free". The site is controversial, and local residents fear that the grave could become an attraction for what they considerright wing extremist s.References
Link
* [http://www.derlebensbaum.com/index.php The Consortium Levensboom - Der Lebensbaum] - Website of FS Rost of Tonningen-Heubel which they maintained until her death.
Literature
"Op zoek naar mijn huwelijksring" ("In search of my wedding ring") (1990) van FS Rost van Tonningen, De Krijger, Erembodegem (B) ISBN 90-72345-14-2
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