Willem Sassen

Wilhelmus Antonius Sassen (16th april 1918 at Geertruidenberg, Netherlands – 2001) was a Dutch traitor, Nazi journalist and a member of the SS, where he had the rank of Untersturmführer corresponding to lieutenant.

Private Biography, Family

Willem Sassen grew up in a traditional roman catholic family in North Brabant and went to gymnasium in Neerbosch near Nijmegen and in Breda. His father was impressed by the fascist ideas of "Zwart Front" (literally "Black Front"). Sassen decided not to become a catholic priest but studied laws in Leuven and Gent instead. As a student, Sassen became a member of the german-flemish working group "De Vlag". When Sassen visited the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, his admiration for Hitler and Nazi Germany grew.

Sassen married Paula Fisette in 1940, divorced, and later married Miep van der Voort, with whom he had two children. His daughter Saskia is a well known sociologist and economist. In the 1970's, Sassen married Els Delbaere, and among others worked as a PR-consultant for Chile's dictator general Pinochet and Paraguay's dictator general Alfredo Stroessner.

The Eichmann interviews

In the 1950s, Sassen interviewed Adolf Eichmann, several years after the end of the Third Reich and subsequently Eichmann's reign as head of the Nazi's Final Solution. Parts of the interviews were published in two articles in Life magazine. It is assumed that the transcripts of the interviews are much more realistic and personal than the autobiography Eichmann wrote while in prison in Israel, possibly attempting to place himself in a better light and alter the outcome of the trial. The Sassen documents or Sassen tapes, approximately 600 pages of material from these interviews, have in 1980 been handed over to Eichmann's widow Veronika.

References

• Gerard Groeneveld: "Kriegsberichter", Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941–1945. Nijmegen: Vantilt. ISBN 90-77503-09-9 (in dutch language) p. 356–368

External links

• What to do with Eichmann's memoirs? (note: this is a Holocaust-denier website)
  
• Zionism in the Age of Dictators (1983), Chapter 25
  
• Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solution (hosted by the University of the West of England, Bristol)
  
• Review by Paul de Schipper of the book by Gerard Groeneveld: "Kriegsberichter", Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941–1945. Nijmegen: Uitgeverij Vantilt ISBN 90-77503-09-9 in dutch language