March 9: Refusing to Follow Orders

Twelve Dutch police officers refused to participate in the round-up of Jews in Grootegast, Holland on this date in 1943. After hours of pressure they remained steadfast and were disarmed and arrested for incarceration in the Vugt concentration camp in the southern Netherlands. One of them escaped before arrest, however: Henk Drogt, 23, joined a Dutch resistance group that helped to rescue downed Allied pilots and to help Jews in hiding. Caught in August, Drogt was executed in the Oranjehotel prison in Scheveningen on April 14, 1944. After the war, Drogt was posthumously decorated by President Eisenhower, Prime Minister Churchill, and the Dutch government. He and his fellow refusing officers were recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in 1988. Of more than 22,000 people so recognized, nearly 5,000 lived in Holland.

“Dear all, I have to tell you the worst – today I and my friends got the death sentence. It is terrible that we have to part from all those who are dear to us in this way…I always had hope that I could be with you for one more time, but the Lord wanted differently…” —Henk Drogt