ANNEXURE VIII.
HUNTEMANN's ACCOUNT OF HIS VISIT TO ORANIENBURG.
After hearing from Krim.Rat. SCHREIEDER in Driebergen about the 10th September 1944, in reply to my question, that LAUWERS and JORDAAN had been taken to the Oranienburg Concentration Camp. I reported this news to the Kommandoführer. As their detention there was contrary to every promise made by the SD, GISKES instructed me to propose to the SD that they should be immediately released from the concentration camp; if necessary I was to go myself to Oranienburg and arrange for the release on the spot. I then returned to Driebergen, where Krim.Rat. SCHREIEDER gave me highly reassuring explanations concerning the treatment of the two prisoners. They were accommodated in Stufe I, i.e. they were well treated and looked after and lived the same as every free worker in Germany except that they were accommodated in the Camp.
© Denis Apel.
I thereupon explained to SCHREIEDER that I was commissioned to procure the release of the prisoners. In consequence, after waiting for two days, I received from SCHREIEDER a document, signed by him, from the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei and the SD in The Hague, to the Oranienburg Concentration Camp, in which the Concentration Camp was instructed to deliver to me the two prisoners for my disposal. SCHREIEDER added verbally that the Reichsicherheitshauptamt in Berlin and the Concentration Camp in Oranienburg had been advised in advance by teleprint. On the evening of the same day SCHREIEDER again rang me up and said that a telegram had just arrived from the Reichssicherheitshauptamt in Berlin stating that under no circumstances could the two prisoners be placed at the disposal of FAK-307.
In spite of this, I went to Oranienburg where the release to me of the two men was flatly turned down, on the grounds that LAUWERS and JORDAAN had been engaged in work on secret weapons and thus knew official secret and their release could only take place at the end of the war. On the pretence that it was urgently necessary to interrogate them on an Abwehr matter, I finally managed to arrange for the two men to be brought before me the next. When I went again to Oranienburg the next morning it turned out that LAUWERS was nowhere to be found. It was presumed that he had been sent off to Rathenow as a worker. JORDAAN was thereupon brought before me. The "interrogation on an Abwehr matter" was naturally a pretext to see for myself that JORDAAN was actually there and what was his state of health; I also wished to hear his own story concerning his position there and find out any new possibilities for getting him out of the camp. JORDAAN appeared very badly cared for and extraordinarilly depressed. Concerning LAUWERS whereabouts, he only knew that he was working with a Arbeitskommando outside the camp. As things stood, I could give JORDAAN no hope of imminent release from the camp through our intervention, as we too were completely at the mercy of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. JORDAAN then said that he and LAUWERS knew ell, from their own observation, to what an extent the Sipo were always frustrating any effort on their behalf made by III-F. However, he had arranged with LAUWERS that as soon as the war was over, provided he lived till then, he would report to the HQ in London all that had happened. Further, he wished, and LAUWERS did too, to see me again after the war in happier circumstances, and for this reason he gave me his home address in Haaksbergen, Huis de Bleek.
As understandable, I too desired to know that after the war JORDAAN was at home again and well, as my inability to improve his position at that time depressed me greatly. When I left I had the impression that my visit had at least convinced him that he was not entirely abandoned.
On my return I reported to the Kommando on the result of my journey. The Kommandoführer now also sar no furter possibility of undertaking anything in this matter which would lead to a positive result.
On my first interrogation by the USA Military Authorities (MIC) on 24th April in Göttingen, I reported to the American Interogation officer that in the Oranienburg Campp were two English agents, called LAUWERS and JORDAAN, who belonged to the Dutch Section of the British Intelligence Service who therefore should be taken over to London immediately after the liberation. The same officer told me two days later, in the Schwarzborn Camp, that JORDAAN had been found by the Americans. He had been taken to an American hospital as he was very weak and had to recuperate. There was no trace whatsoever of LAUWERS.
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In spite of this, I went to Oranienburg where the release to me of the two men was flatly turned down, on the grounds that LAUWERS and JORDAAN had been engaged in work on secret weapons and thus knew official secret and their release could only take place at the end of the war. On the pretence that it was urgently necessary to interrogate them on an Abwehr matter, I finally managed to arrange for the two men to be brought before me the next. When I went again to Oranienburg the next morning it turned out that LAUWERS was nowhere to be found. It was presumed that he had been sent off to Rathenow as a worker. JORDAAN was thereupon brought before me. The "interrogation on an Abwehr matter" was naturally a pretext to see for myself that JORDAAN was actually there and what was his state of health; I also wished to hear his own story concerning his position there and find out any new possibilities for getting him out of the camp. JORDAAN appeared very badly cared for and extraordinarilly depressed. Concerning LAUWERS whereabouts, he only knew that he was working with a Arbeitskommando outside the camp. As things stood, I could give JORDAAN no hope of imminent release from the camp through our intervention, as we too were completely at the mercy of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. JORDAAN then said that he and LAUWERS knew ell, from their own observation, to what an extent the Sipo were always frustrating any effort on their behalf made by III-F. However, he had arranged with LAUWERS that as soon as the war was over, provided he lived till then, he would report to the HQ in London all that had happened. Further, he wished, and LAUWERS did too, to see me again after the war in happier circumstances, and for this reason he gave me his home address in Haaksbergen, Huis de Bleek.
As understandable, I too desired to know that after the war JORDAAN was at home again and well, as my inability to improve his position at that time depressed me greatly. When I left I had the impression that my visit had at least convinced him that he was not entirely abandoned.
On my return I reported to the Kommando on the result of my journey. The Kommandoführer now also sar no furter possibility of undertaking anything in this matter which would lead to a positive result.
On my first interrogation by the USA Military Authorities (MIC) on 24th April in Göttingen, I reported to the American Interogation officer that in the Oranienburg Campp were two English agents, called LAUWERS and JORDAAN, who belonged to the Dutch Section of the British Intelligence Service who therefore should be taken over to London immediately after the liberation. The same officer told me two days later, in the Schwarzborn Camp, that JORDAAN had been found by the Americans. He had been taken to an American hospital as he was very weak and had to recuperate. There was no trace whatsoever of LAUWERS.
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