Colonel Harteveld

Born in Surabaya, Indonesia

Served in the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces

Date of interview: 24 August, 1989

Place of interview: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Interviewer: Petro Potichnyj

Length of Interview: 28 min.

DUTCH OFFICERS AS PRISONERS OF WAR

On the fifteenth of May ‘42 I was taken as a prisoner by the Germans and went to Nuremberg and from there we went to Stanislav.

ESCAPE FROM THE GERMAN PRISONER OF WAR CAMP IN STANISLAV

Then I planned to escape. The train went from Stanislav up north and we would escape south of the Dnister. I had to sit down in the first wagon car before the Germans. The German guards were always in the last car. We went through the hole  [the opening on the side of the car] with six people. I jumped just after the bridge and I don’t know how the village was called. But when the train slowed I jumped and Lineman jumped and we hid.

MY FRIEND DIED IN MAUTHAUSEN AFTER AN UNSUCCESSFUL ESCAPE

Here is the photo of the General van Hootegem with me and my buddy. And my buddy died in Mauthausen in the concentration camp, for he jumped too early when the train went too fast.

FINDING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE CARPATHIANS

We tried to cross the Dniester but the borders [banks] were frozen and in the middle it was open. And we had no boat. So we went to the bridge. That man was on duty on the bridge and he gave an order to two men to bring us to the village to the UPA.

MEETING WITH THE UPA

The commander was the UPA man. So he waited and he knew that we were Dutch for we had  parcels of the American and English Red Cross with us. So they knew that we were not the Germans, but the escaped prisoners of war.

IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE UKRAINIAN INSURGENTS IN THE UPA CAMP

I was astonished. The only thing we liked that they were as we against the Germans. And the language was so difficult. The only one I could understand was a guy who said: [says in German]. That’s all.

Interviewer: How did you communicate? In what language?

Harteveld: We didn’t communicate. They only said: “Follow me”, and we followed.

They said “Germansky bffff”

THE UPA HELP DUTCH OFFICERS REACH HUNGARY

We walked by night, ... no we didn’t walk, we were put on the sledges. Two horses per sledge. Three sledges. They only said: “Sit down”, and we went, and they called the horses their “little partisans”.

Interviewer: So did you drive mostly by night?

Harteveld: Yes. Three nights, three or four nights..

Interviewer: Did you have the same escort for the entire trip?

Harteveld: Changed.

Interviewer: It’s changed? Periodically

Harteveld: Yes.

We crossed the waterline [border] and then the UPA people went away.

INTERNED BY THE HUNGARY

The Dutch Government was not at war with the Hungarians. So we were interned by the Hungarians. We were allowed to live freely in Hungary, in Budapest until the 24th of December, 1944.

THE UPA SAVED MY LIFE

The only thing is that the UPA saved my life.