Samuël Swarts

Op deze foto staat Samuel waarschijnlijk als 2e van rechts.Website: http://www.market-garden.com/2010/NL/pagina10.htmlGedurende de slag worden Nederlandse vrijwilligers gerekruteerd door Lieutenant-Commander Arnoldus Wolters en Lieutenant Maarten Knottenbelt, twee Nederlandse officieren ingedeeld bij de 1st Airborne Division. Slechts vier van de vrijwilligers waren lid van het verzet.Drie actieve vrijwilligers gefotografeerd bij Hartenstein op 19 september in gesprek met Commando Bakhuis Rozeboom. De laatste zou in diezelfde nacht sneuvelen toen hij met een jeep op patrouille ging naar Arnhem met de vrijwilligers Beekhuizen en Diepenveen. Hij werd begraven in park Hartenstein en herbegraven als een onbekende soldaat van een Canadees regiment op de erebegraafplaats in Oosterbeek. Zijn graf wordt in 1996 alsnog geïdentificeerd.De andere 3 mannen op deze foto zijn nooit geïdentificeerd. Er wordt gezegd dat de persoon links op de foto (met pet) een boer is uit Elst of Driel die met het Drielse Veer was overgekomen. Van de tweede man links wordt vermoed dat het een KP lid is uit Arnhem, hij kwam gewapend met een Russisch machinegeweer. Sluiten

The Hotel Schoonoord was immediately distinguishable on the street just beyond the Oosterbeek cross roads with its fluttering Red Cross flags. Outside was the wreckage of a civilian Ford cart hat had been driven up by two Dutch volunteers to deliver water in milk churns. It was hit by a German mortar bomb. H. van Veelen, a Dutch volunteer working inside, saw it immediately transformed in a ball of fire”: “the driver, who was wearing a leather suit, rolled out of the car but he must have been killed instantly. He burned like a torch. Someone else came out through the rear door, also enveloped in flames. One of the RAMC men, who was standing at the front of the Schoonoord as I was, had the presence of mind to throw a blanket over the stumbling man, thus smothering the flames” The suddenness of the catastrophe, the explosion and piercing screams had paralysed van Veelen. “I just stood there as if my feet were nailed to the ground”. Hendrika van der Vlist regarded the same scene much later………………… outside the partly burned body of the driver was still lying in the garden, where a thick chestnut tree had been split in two by shell fire….. Sluiten

Gevallen tijdens Market GardenSamuel "Bill" Swarts was born in Amsterdam. He was a son of Oene Sijke Swarts, a decorator and painter and Heintje Da Silva Curiel. He was married to Jansje Canes. In december 1942 they had a son, Robert Rene, who died within just two weeks. Samuel Swarts was a furniture maker.Because the Germans thought he and Jansje had to many Jewish ancestors they were arrested in Amsterdam. After their arrest they were held in the Hollandse Schouwburg, an Amsterdam theatre located in the Jewish neighbourhood. The Germans planned to send them to the Westerbork transit and concentration camp in north east of The Netherlands. However Samuel and Jansje managed to escape through a toilet window and then calmly walked away. Jansje went into hiding in Amsterdam. Samuel left the city and ended up in Oosterbeek where he went into hiding.On Sep 5th 1944 the three largest resistance groups started working together in what became the Nederlandse Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (Dutch Home Guard). Swarts became a sergeant and section commander in the Nederlandse Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten.When the men of the 1st British Airborne Division landed near Oosterbeek on 17 september 1944 Samuel came out of his hiding place and supported the British. Using an old car (a Ford) Samuel Swarts and Wim Gerritsen helped them with transporting wounded men and supplies to dressing stations. Dutch commando Jakob Groenewoud, who was attached to the British Airborne Division, was their liaison with the British.On the morning of Sep 20th 1944 Swarts and Gerritsen were transporting water in metal milk churns to the Tafelberg Hotel. Their car was just turning into Pietersbergseweg when it was hit by a German mortar bomb. The car burst into flames and Samuel Swarts, who was behind the steering wheel, was killed instantly. Gerritsen was pulled out of the car by some British soldiers, among whom colonel Graeme Warrack, the senior medical officer.Samuel Swarts was posthumously awarded the Verzets-herdenkingskruis (resistance remembrance cross).His wife Jansje Canes survived the war. She lost her parents and sister in Sobibor and Auschwitz. Jansje died on 22 august 1994, age 76.bron: http://www.warcemeteries.nl/Swarts.htmlSources / Bronnen: 1. Martin Middlebrook: Arnhem 1944, the airborne battle, pag 375 en 470, ISBN 978-1-84884-075-1, uitgever Pen & Swords Books Ltd. 20092. Graeme Warrack, Travel by dark (revised & enlarged edition), pag 25 en 26, ISBN 978-90-12703-5-9, uitgever Sigmund Publishing, 20143. Th. Peelen en A.L.J. van Vliet: Zwevend naar de dood, pag. 307-309, ISBN 90-900-0028-3, uitgever / drukkerij te Hoeve, Velp, 1976.4. J.A. Hey, Roll of Honour, Battle of Arnhem September 1944 (5th revised edition), pag. 175, ISBN 978-90-817553-0-6, Uitgever Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum. Sluiten