'A repulsive figure'

"Perhaps the most repulsive figure who walked around Nijmegen during the German occupation period." This is how the Nijmeegs Dagblad describes policeman Anton Wiebe, at his trial for war crimes.

Anton (Antonius Hendrikus) Wiebe was born in Balgoij in 1897 and married Aleida Heijmen in 1917, with whom he had three daughters. In 1919 he joined the Nijmegen police force. Initially he is a street cop, who likes to help others, also financially. As a result, he regularly got into trouble himself, much to the anger of his wife. His grandparents are of German descent. Wiebe and his wife believed in the Nazis' promises of better working conditions and living conditions. In 1940 he became a member of the NSB, and a year later of the Rechtsfront, the NSB organization for employees of the police, the judiciary and lawyers.

Wiebe was a law-abiding man who joined the Nijmegen police in the "Politieke Dienst". This service was exclusively occupied with tracking down Jews and resistance fighters. He is involved in hundreds of arrests, steals items from deported Jews, engages in black-market trade, and drinks heavily. During his trial in November 1950, the Offi cier of Justice describes Wiebe as "a tree of a fellow," with a small heart, who was completely under the influence of his wife, "who incited him to many evil things and determined his whole doings." The offi cier notes that Wiebe "completely repented" after the war. The suspect makes hundreds of statements, not sparing himself. He also cooperates in digging up "countless corpses" of his victim ers. Anton Wiebe is sentenced to life imprisonment in 1950. In April 1951, the Special Court of Cassation made it twenty years' imprisonment less remand.

Source: Frank Eliëns, For Jews Prohibited, Amsterdam 2021