Kamp Amersfoort commander named one of Netherlands' worst war criminals

The first commander of Kamp Amersfoort, who mysteriously disappeared, was one of the worst war criminals in the Netherlands, according to researchers of the podcast De Verdwenen SS’er. The German man, Walter Heinrich, was responsible for at least 625 deaths in the Netherlands during World War II, lead researcher Floris van Dijk of the National Monument Kamp Amersfoort concluded after studying the archives, Trouw reports.

Until now, the records showed that under Heinrich’s rule of the concentration camp in Amersfoort, 325 prisoners were killed by starvation, the reign of terror, or deportation. Van Dijk now discovered that he was also responsible for the deaths of 300 Dutch resistance fighters.

After two years as camp commander, Heinrich became a significant figure in the Sicherheitsdienst, where he conducted “secret state affairs.” According to the researchers, in that position, he selected Dutch resistance fighters to be deported to the punishment class “Nacht und Nebel” - a camp in Alsace where they worked themselves to death.

“Until now, we didn’t know who selected the 600 Dutch resistance fighters and sent them to the Natzweiler-Stuthof camp, where 300 died. But that turns out to be Walter Heinrich. Together with his work as a camp commander, this makes him a notorious war criminal. I would rather stay away from comparisons, but I dare to say: one of the biggest war criminals from the war in the Netherlands,” Van Dijk said to the newspaper.

According to Van Dijk, it is important to identify the major “bad guys” of the Second World War. “Giving a face or a name to perpetrators is still essential. Relatives receive a concrete answer to a pressing question: who was responsible for the suffering caused to our family?”