Route of Commemorative Plaques
14. Buys Ballotstraat 11
This was the home of HERMANUS LAMMERS
Murdered in Scherpenzeel on 15/12/1944
Herman Lammers was the eldest son of Jan Gerrit Lammers and Cornelia Breunesse. Herman, born on 27 November 1922 in Amersfoort, grew up in a large family with five sisters and two brothers. His father had a construction company; he was a contractor/carpenter according to his family card. After lower secondary school at Leusderweg, Herman also completed a technical training at the ‘Middelbare Technische School’ in Utrecht.
Herman Lammers
Called up for forced labour
In 1944, the war had been rumbling on for four years and Germany was facing a huge shortage of workers. The majority of working age men had been sent to the various fronts. shortage of workers. The majority of working age men had been sent to the various fronts. In order to keep the German war economy running, the occupier issued a new order, in 1944, for all men between the ages of 17 and 40 to report for employment in Germany. Many men did not want to do so and did not register. They disappeared ‘into hiding’. Herman Lammers went into hiding with his older cousin of the same name, at the farmhouse of Pieter Veenendaal in Achterveld, just under the Glindhorst (municipality of Scherpenzeel).
Odd jobs
Pieter Veenendaal was in the resistance; he was a contact between the national organisation and a local resistance group which operated out of his farmhouse. Using devices, such as broadcast units, they kept the allies updated in relation to German troop movements. The two cousins were probably also used for various odd jobs.
Treason
A loose-lipped evacuee made a fatal error, however, and on 15 December 1944, the German military police, the so-called ‘Feldgendarmerie’ stormed the farm. During the search, two of the young men in hiding attempted to flee. Herman was shot dead and his cousin was taken away along with the other men; they were ultimately transported to the Neuengamme concentration camp.
