Interview Henk Veeneklaas door Special Forces Amsterdam.
COPY FOR LT.COL. DOBSON
                                                                                                                                                22 June 45
TO: Lt.Col. Woolrych O.B.E.                                                                                          FROM: Major Burnes




DR X visited at SF HQ in Amsterdam, where he is at present working with Captain HARRATT. He arranged for two London-trained WT-Operators to be present at the interview, and the attached report is the result of questions put to all three agents. The WT-Operators were BACKGAMMON and BOATING.

DR X was very unwilling to divulge his real name, and would not discuss his own cover or the various identities he used. he had worked before the war for approximately 15 years as a specialist in a number of Amsterdam hospitals. He is approximately 40 years old, his wife and two children are still living in Amsterdam where they lived throughout the occupation.

His first contact with the underground activity directed from London was through
DRAUGHTS I (Biallosterski), who met him on his first (?) mission. Wishing to take part in subversive activity, DR X suggested to DRAUGHTS I that he could help, but insisted on remaining in the background and being unknown to anyone already working with DRAUGHTS I's organisation.

The only exceptions to this rule were BACKGAMMON , who was housed by the doctor together with DRAUGHTS I when they arrived in September '44, and BOATING, to whom DR X was introduced later.

At first DRAUGHTS I made the doctor responsible for transporting stores from dumps north of Amsterdam to Amsterdam itself. But later, after the arrest of DRAUGHTS I, DR X took over the organisation, and he and the WT-Operators already mentioned made a very efficient team.

DR X explanation of the arrest of DRAUGHTS I was that the latter attended a reception committee which, in the opinion of the doctor, was entirely unnecessary and extremely dangerous. DRAUGHTS I was wearing at the time a pair of Canadian parachute boots, and when returning from the reception he, together with four other people travelling in the same car, was stopped by a routine control who examined their papers. All five occupants of the car were carrying doctor's papers, which fact was sufficient to arouse the suspicions of the police who controlled the car and the party was interrogated more fully, with results which are already known.

DR X pointed out that his age and experience helped to moderate the enthusiasms of his young assistants, and stated that his contacts with the medical world were invaluable in his work. In 1944 he abandoned his regular commitments at the hospitals and gave out that he was going to do research work in a big way. This enabled him to travel freely and removed any restrictions which the regular work at the hospitals might have placed upon him.

The doctor gave the impression that he had not abandoned his own name when working for resistance, but for certain activities he took false papers and adopted a cover name. He was a prominent member of the Doctors' Underground Committee, formed to resist GERMAN repressive measures, and knowing all the doctors in Amsterdam and the region, he was in possession of a very long list of useful contacts well placed to assist him in his work. He never approached any of these contacts himself on business connected with resistance, but instructed one or other of his assistance to visit a contact and recruit him without mentioning DR X's name. The person sent to recruit a new member did not even know DR X himself, and the potential recruit had no idea that his colleague
DR X had sent someone to recruit him. In this way, DR X succeeded in keeping in the background and becoming known to very few people as agent working for London, although a number of people knew him as a member of the Doctors' Committee.
w.mugge@home.nl


    
29-11-2019