Velthuizen Dirk

* 18 - 07 - 1922

in Zeist ↗️

30 - 04 - 1945

in Hohenweiler

He is buried in France: 54 - Montauville - Nécropole nationale Le Pétant

Dirk was a legionnaire in the RMLE during the Second World War.

(Régiment de Marche de la Légion Étrangère) ↗️

His name at the RMLE was: Erich Knopper

He was present at the capture of Ruit (now the municipality of Ostfildern) on April 21, 1945, and met my father and his Dutch friend, who, like my father, also lived in Ruit as a forced laborer.

My father writes about this meeting in his diary:

I asked a high-ranking officer passing by how much longer we had to wait. He replied that if we weren't Germans, we could leave. Pleasantly surprised by this unexpected answer, we left to go to my room together first. As we walked past the tanks and other army equipment, talking loudly like that, someone suddenly called out: “Are you Dutch?” Surprised, we both looked up. Standing on top of a car was a Dutch soldier dressed in a French uniform. Having escaped from German captivity back in 1940, he had ended up in the Allied army and has thus been fighting on the Allied side for five years now. He hadn't heard anything from home since then, so after giving his address, he asked us to come to his house to deliver a message from him. We promised to do so, and he treated us to chocolate, American cigarettes, and gin, of which, naturally, only the former was of value to me. After talking for a few more moments, we parted ways, and the army departed for Stuttgart to force its fall as well.

I searched for this soldier and found it.

Dirk's family has also been found.

Unfortunately, he fell in Hohenweiler 9 days after the meeting with my father and his friend.

It was not until 1949 that his parents heard that he had been killed in action......

My father never knew that Dirk had been killed in action.

Gasthaus “zum Hirsch”, Stuttgarterstrasse 1 , Ruit.

Foto gemaakt in 1953.

Dit Gasthaus fungeerde op 21 april 1945 als commandopost voor het Franse vreemdelingenlegioen. Ter hoogte van dit gebouw ontmoetten mijn vader en zijn vriend de legionair Dirk Velthuizen, die hun sigaretten, drank en chocolade gaf.