Marinus den Oudsten
14 July 1924 – 29 December 1944
Died in Camp Neuengamme near Hamburg

Marinus den Oudsten
14 July 1924 – 29 December 1944
Died in camp Neuengamme near Hamburg

Went into hiding but was arrested by the land guard
while swimmingMarinus den Oudsten (known as Rinus) is in hiding with D.J. Meinen ‘Seins’ Lintelo 203 (now Seinsdijk 1). He is one of the many who evade the mandatory Arbeitseinsatz. There were several people in hiding in the neighbourhood, who also had contact with each other. Rinus goes swimming almost daily in the “Bombaeke” (the Slingebeek) that flows near the farm, often alone, sometimes with others from the neighborhood. Farmer Meinen is strongly opposed to this, he thinks it is far too dangerous. Time and again he warns Rinus not to do this.

One day a car suddenly turns into the road and stops at the farm ‘de Goosen’ (now Beunkdijk). Two landwachters get out looking for people in hiding. However, they fail there. A little later they walk towards Slingebeek, where they hear some commotion. There they find a group of young men who are swimming. One of the landwachters holds the group at gunpoint, while the other picks up the car. Suddenly the group scatters and runs in all directions. In the end, the loot is one person in hiding and this is Rinus. So it goes wrong after all, he is arrested.

After that, no one heard from him again, until his parents received a message in April 1945 that he had died in camp Neuengamme on 29 December 1944. ‘Todesursache’ is listed as ‘enterocolitis’ (Severe inflammation of the small and large intestines).

Jan Tolkamp writes in his memoirs “How to experience and survive a concentration camp” about Christmas in Neuengamme:

Christmas 1944
The so-called Weihnachten is a big party in Germany. We would also benefit from this. We didn’t have to work and in the afternoon we got a liter of pea soup as fat as bacon instead of half a liter of cabbage soup. We understood that our intestines could not tolerate that. But you are hungry and take a few spoonfuls every time, so that it was gone by the evening. The second day of Christmas we got macaroni, also fat. You get the idea: in no time people became ill, they got severe diarrhea and many people died before New Year’s…

Presumably Rinus was fatal to the ‘Christmas dinner’ in Neuengamme.

Sources:
Erna Wevers-Meinen, granddaughter of D.J. Meinen
Fam. Den Oudsten, Groot-Ammers
Theo Stronks: Farmer, Varsseveldsestraatweg
Tom Visser: Person in hiding at Wevers Beunkdijk
Jan Tolkamp: “How do you experience and survive a concentration camp”
Archive: ©National Hiding Museum Aalten

Marinus den Oudsten
14 July 1924 – 29 December 1944
Died in camp Neuengamme near Hamburg

Funeral card in memory of Marinus den Oudsten

Marinus den Oudsten milking, probably at his hiding place.