At that time, the village of Veenhuizen is only accessible to people who work at the prison. After the war, Menno Walters’ father became commander of the Asylum Watch, the security guard for the prison system. “These were eventful years, but you only realize that later.”
“Fischer was our gardener,” he says. Walters’ father is certainly not happy when he discovers this. “He knew it because of a yellow stripe on the left sleeve.” Only German war criminals in Veenhuizen have that line. “My father said: ‘Damn it, they punched that damn guy in the stomach.'”
As a child of about 10 years old, Walters doesn’t understand much of it. “I thought he was a nice guy, and a bond developed,” he explains. “I also told my father that it wasn’t too bad. Then he shouted: ‘Do you understand? That such a dog of a guy has human qualities.'”
Although Fischer is “quite a nice guy” despite his actions, he does not enter the Walters’ house or barn. “Normally the lady of the house would walk into the garden around 10 a.m. so that the gardeners in the shed could get coffee. But my mother didn’t do that with this guy.”
The German war criminals are therefore given a bit of a cold shoulder. “But overall it wasn’t too bad, because you had prisoners around the house every day,” Walters says. “You weren’t actually interested in what they had done. ‘Something with the Jews’, that’s how it went at the time. But yes, he had enthusiastically tracked down Jews and sent them to Westerbork. He even had the death penalty,” he explains. actions of Fischer.
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