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. He became widely known around 1960 as the interviewer of Adolf Eichmann.

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 to study 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. Because of Sassen's political activities pro Nazi Germany, the authorities expelled him from Belgium, so he could not finish his law studies.

In 1938 Sassen became a recruit in the Dutch army and was trained as an artillerist. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on the 10th May 1940, Sassen was a member of the 7th field artillery regiment and was taken Prisoner of war by the Germans for a short time.

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'.

Nazi- and SS-Career up to 1945

On the 22nd of June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), and Sassen volunteered for the german east front. He became a member of the first Netherlandish PK ("Propaganda Kompanie"). Because he had been working for Radio Bremen for some time already, he could start his work as a war correspondent after a short cut training. He was a "Wort- und Funkberichter" with the SS-division "Wiking" in the southern sector of the front and in the spring of 1942 witnessed the offensive in the Caucasus. On the 26th July 1942, Sassen was wounded near Rostov and during the following eight months restored in hospitals in Kraków, Munich and Berlin. In April 1943 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer (the lowest rank of non-commissioned officer comparable to a Corporal) and assigned to an SS armoured division near Kharkov. In the summer of 1943, he followed another training course on war correspondence and propaganda together with dutch colleagues in Villach, Austria.

From August 1943 to June 1944 together with his flemish colleague Jef Desseyn, he formed the permanent editor team of radio Brussels ("Zender Brussel"). The team was also responsible for training courses for war correspondents. On the 6th of June 1944 (D-Day), Kriegsberichter Sassen was at the front in Normandy reporting the battles around Caen, Bayeux, St. Lo, Avranches, Falaise and Lisieux. On the 1st of September 1944, "Zender Brussel" was ordered to be evacuated to Germany. Sassen remained in the Netherlands, reported the airborne landings around Arnhem and became the editor of the newspaper "Het Nieuws van den Dag" in Amsterdam. On the 23rd of October 1944, Sassen in his newspaper called the hungry and cold of Amsterdam to go robbing food and fuel in the districts of the more rich and wealthy people; this was too much even for the Germans, and on pressure of the Sicherheitsdienst, Sassen was dismissed.

Escape to and Second Career in Argentina

In the 1970's, Sassen 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