Three soldiers who have been anonymously buried at the Soviet War Cemetery in Leusden for nearly 80 years have been identified. Their families have been notified.
Feelings of relief and sorrow battled for dominance among the traced relatives, for whom decades of waiting had finally ended with the confirmation of their loved one’s fate. However, it also meant the definitive end of any hope that he might have survived World War II.
“It is enormously important for me and my family to finally know what happened to my grandfather and where he is buried,” said Ruben Melkonjan, grandson of one of the soldiers. In early December, at the invitation of the Soviet War Cemetery Foundation, he and his wife will visit his grandfather’s grave.
The search for the soldiers’ relatives is the result of years of investigative work by journalist Joris Versteeg into an Armenian battalion of the Wehrmacht that was stationed in the Netherlands during the war. Versteeg also discovered that one of the identified soldiers was not Armenian but a Jew from Belarus and Ukraine who had posed as an Armenian.
The soldiers were part of a resistance group within the battalion. Seven men attempted to sail to the liberated part of the Netherlands to persuade the Allies to support an intended uprising against the Germans. They were captured, sentenced to death, and executed on December 9, 1944, at the Havenhoofd in Middelharnis.
The soldiers had originally been part of the Red Army. After being taken prisoner, they became victims of dehumanization and lawlessness (an estimated 3 million of the 5.7 million Soviet prisoners of war died in German camps). They were given the chance to save their lives by donning a German uniform.
This is how thousands of Soviet soldiers ended up in the Netherlands. There, they were forced to serve in the German Wehrmacht, guarding the coast—but many did their best to sabotage the Germans as much as possible.
The seven men executed in Middelharnis were reburied at the Soviet War Cemetery in Leusden after the war. The Soviet War Cemetery Foundation keeps their memory alive.
Commemoration of the seven executed men from the Armenian battalion in 2023 at their graves at the Soviet War Cemetery.
