On December 9, the Soviet War Cemetery Foundation commemorates the 7 Soviet soldiers who were executed by the Germans at the Havenhoofd (jetty) in Middelharnis on December 9, 1944. After the war, these soldiers were reburied at the Soviet War Cemetery. For eighty years they lay there anonymously, and for a long time their families did not learn what had happened to their loved ones. We welcome you to reflect on this together with us.
Program to follow
Location
Monument at the Havenhoofd, 3241 LD, Middelharnis (Goeree-Overflakkee)
The Foundation is also holding a commemoration on December 9 in Leusden.
Registration is required; please include your name and the number of people.
More about these war victims
Central to the commemoration are seven Soviet soldiers who were executed by the Germans in Middelharnis on December 9, 1944.
They were initially part of the Red Army, which fought against Nazi Germany alongside the Western Allied armies. In doing so, the soldiers contributed to our eventual freedom.
After the men were taken prisoner, they became victims of dehumanization and lawlessness (three of the five million captured Soviet soldiers died in German camps). Faced with the choice of putting on a German uniform or facing certain death in the camps, many ‘chose’ the former.
Thus, thousands of Soviet soldiers ended up in the Netherlands, where they were supposed to guard the coast in the service of the German Wehrmacht, but many did their best to sabotage the Germans as much as possible.
Seven of these soldiers, who belonged to a resistance group in an Armenian battalion, attempted to sail to the liberated part of the Netherlands to persuade the Allies to assist in a planned uprising against the Germans. They were caught in the process, sentenced to death, and executed at the Havenhoofd in Middelharnis.
The seven men were reburied at the Soviet War Cemetery after the war. For eighty years they lay there anonymously, and their families never found out what had happened to their loved ones.
In recent years, researcher and journalist Joris Versteeg has delved into the fate and identity of these soldiers. The identities of three of them have been established, and their relatives have been traced and informed. For instance, Versteeg discovered that one of the seven was not Armenian, but a Jewish man from Belarus and Ukraine who had posed as an Armenian to escape his fate as a Jew during the war.
The grandson of soldier Ruben Melkonyan went to the Netherlands last year and visited the execution site and his grandfather’s grave on behalf of his entire family. The Soviet War Cemetery Foundation organized the trip to the Netherlands for him. The Foundation is also organizing commemorations in Leusden and Middelharnis on December 9.
