Frederik Willem Kroese

MKroeseW19240508-170829-06.pdf

Title

Frederik Willem Kroese

Description

A memoir about Frederik Kroese's wartime activities. There is a brief biography followed by a portrait of Frederik.

Included are photographs of a number of items: his fake ID card, a permit allowing him to use a bicycle, an official numbered armband, photographs of the 'Old Putten' estate, false military documents, foreword and table of contents of a manual dropped by Allied forces, an article by the Dutch Queen to support Dutch still in occupied territories, an article on Churchill's 70th birthday, Allied propaganda leaflets, his Royal Netherlands Army registration and UK certification, German club for veterans, blank ID card, stamps for ID cards, a cartoon and cigarette packet.

Temporal Coverage

Spatial Coverage

Language

Format

One 18 page typewritten document with colour photographs

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

MKroeseW19240508-170829-06

Transcription

Name: Frederik Willem Kroese
Place of birth: Zwolle (The Netherlands)
Date of birth: 8th of May 1924

Mr Kroese was 16 and still studying when the war started. In 1943, when he was called upon by the Germans to work, called ‘arbeitseinsatz’ in German, he went underground and joined the resistance. He was a member of group ‘Old Putten’, named after the estate where they had their HQ, and was involved in, among other things, making and disseminating fake ID’s, secret and coded messages, transporting arms and ammunition and helping aircrew escape from the Germans and cross the border to safety.

After the war Mr Kroese joined the army and went for basic training to Wolverhampton and returned to the Netherlands after concluding his complete training a year later.

[photograph]
Mr Frederik Willem Kroese (29 August 2017)

All the photos below from Mr Kroese’s collection are taken by me, Ron van de Put, and with consent. The IMG-files are also on the SD memory card.

[page break]

[photograph]
Front of MR [sic] Kroese’s fake ID, Persoonsbewijs’ in Dutch. Name, place and date (year) of birth and occupation are all fake. The document itself, signature, fingerprint and stamps are all genuine, of course.
[photograph]

[page break]

Backside of the fake ID.
[photograph]
Fake statement, in cooperation with city hall, which states both in German and in Dutch that Mr Kruizinga, who actually is Mr Kroese, cannot carry out his work without a bicycle.

[page break]

[photograph]
Another official document stating that his bicycle is not to be confiscated.
[photograph]
Numbered armband to indicate that the person who it was issued to is on official business. Evacuatie means Evacuation and Doornspijk is the municipality.

[page break]

[photograph]
Top is a photo of thee [sic] state ‘Old Putten’. Bottom left and right German troops on parade.
[photograph]
Postcard of the estate.

[page break]

[photograph]
Front of several documents. Top left registration as a member of the Dutch Interior Military Forces. Top right document stating the promotion to ‘Strijder 1e Klasse’. Bottom left registration as volunteer to be sent to the Dutch East Indies and fight in the Dutch Armed Forces over there. Bottom right another document stating that Mr Kroese is a member of the Dutch Interior Military Forces.

[page break]

[photograph]
Backside of the same documents.

[page break]

[photograph]
[photograph]
Foreword and table of contents of the manual that came with the dropped containers. The instructions were in 6 different languages.

[page break]

[photograph]
Original article from Queen Wilhelmina in newspaper ‘De vliegende Hollander’ (The flying Dutchman) to support all those Dutch who were still in occupied territory and all those Dutch who were in the already liberated parts of the Netherlands.

[page break]

[photograph]
Front page of ‘De vliegende Hollander’ with an article on Churchill’s 70th birthday and on the Allies still fighting the Germans and gaining ground.

[page break]

[photograph]
[photograph]
Front and back of flyer as part of psychological warfare by the allied forces.

[page break]

[photograph]
[photograph]
Front and back of flyer as part of psychological warfare by the allied forces. This one is calling on German troops to stop fighting and surrender.
PsyOps (a)

[page break]

[photograph]
photograph]
Front and back of flyer as part of psychological warfare by the allied forces. This one is saying that allied forces have crossed the river Rhine and there’s no sense in fighting anymore.

[page break]

[photograph]
[photograph]
Front and back of flyer as part of psychological warfare by the allied forces. This one is calling on German troops to surrender ‘Ei Sörrender’ (phonetic for German speakers) and stating that they will be treated according to the Geneva Conventions.

[page break]

[photograph]
[photograph]
Mr Kroese’s Army registration and certification of his training in the UK.

[page break]

[photograph]
Old and big German club/society for veterans.

[page break]

[photograph]
Blank ID card also used to make fake IDs for aircrew.
[photograph]
Genuine stamps used for the fake IDs. According to (perceived) class/status Black (for free), Blue (50 cents) or Red (1 Guilder) was used.

[page break]

[photograph]
German psychological warfare. A card in Dutch saying that there is almost no unemployment in Germany. So Germany is faring much better than the USA, UK and France.
[photograph]
Front and back of an empty cigarette package. On the package it says Orange will win and rise again. And made with tobacco from the Dutch East Indies. The Crown and ‘W’ stand for Queen Wilhelmina. Furthermore it’s the V-sign for Victory.

Collection

Citation

Frederik Willem Kroese and Ron van de Put, “Frederik Willem Kroese,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/15095.

Item Relations

This item has no relations.