The house was built in the period 1878-1881 in an eclectic style on behalf of the Groningen industrialist Willem Albert Scholten (1819-1892). WA Scholten was born in Loenen, Gelderland. Around 1837 he started manufacturing potato flour with an uncle. In 1841 he founded a potato flour factory in Foxhol, Groningen province. Afterwards he also founded other factories, including a potato flour syrup factory in Hoogezand. He was also active in that field as an industrialist abroad, including in Imperial Germany and Poland. After his death, his son Jan Evert took over the management of the company. The house is known and infamous because of the events there during the Second World War.
A villa in style
WA Scholten was a successful and therefore wealthy businessman, a man of rank. In that position he wanted to live in a suitable villa, on a high street, on the Grote Markt in the city of Groningen. However, there were already three houses on the site that seemed ideal to him in that respect. And its owners, including Mr. Alberda van Ekenstein, had no intention of selling the properties. Scholten then moved into a house not far away and waited patiently until he could make his move. When the three owners died, he bought the buildings in question, had them demolished and built his city palace in their place.
The German occupier used the building as a headquarters
After the German invasion in May 1940, the occupying forces looked for a suitable building in the north of the Netherlands that could serve as headquarters for that region. The Scholten family’s villa was just what they were looking for. The members of the family who lived there at the time, JE Scholten’s widow and her son, were unceremoniously evicted. The building now became the regional headquarters of the German Secret Service (SD). The ‘Sicherheits Polizei’, special commando units of the SS and the ‘Beauftragte’ of Seys-Inquart in the north, Hermann Conring, were also housed there.
The staff of the Scholtenhuis had to monitor the implementation of the measures taken by the occupier. This included deporting the Jews from the region to the extermination camps (via Westerbork), supplying forced laborers to work in Germany and also executing resistance fighters.
Action Silbertanne
Silbertanne was a code word for commando units consisting of Dutch SS men. They were given the authority, in response to, for example, the liquidation of NSB members, to liquidate suspected persons during raids without further judicial investigation. During these raids, men were also arrested who disappeared into labor camps.
Niedermachungsbefehl
After the assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944, Hitler issued the Niedermachungsbefehl. This made it possible to liquidate resistance fighters upon arrest without trial. This order made the Silbertanne murders unnecessary (in the literature these murders are therefore placed in the period September 44 September 45).
Crazy Tuesday
Increased resistance and hardening of the German occupier’s actions also resulted in increased activities in and around the Scholtenhuis. The situation also changed for the worse in connection with Mad Tuesday, July 5, 1944. The rumors that the Allies were rapidly advancing towards the Netherlands caused many NSB members and other pro-German people to flee to the eastern Netherlands or Germany. When the rumors turned out to be untrue and many who fled returned from where they had come, detectives from Amsterdam and the surrounding area were seconded to the Scholtenhuis in Groningen. There they could really use the reinforcement of the experienced detectives department. And indeed, under the leadership of Abraham Kaper from Zaandam, these people arrested many resistance fighters in Groningen and the surrounding area.
House of Nazism and Sadism
The Scholtenhuis has disappeared. It was destroyed during the liberation of the city in April 1945 and never rebuilt. The designation of a house of horrors is not an exaggeration when it is considered what actions were performed there to force arrested suspects to confess. Many died or were shot near the city or in the Drenthe forests.
Perpetrators
In M. Brinks, the Scholtenhuis 1940-1945, the crimes that took place in the infamous house are described in detail. A number of perpetrators distinguished themselves from colleagues by showing more than average violence. Commander at the Scholtenhuis was Georg Haase from November 1942 to March 1945. In his policy it must be remembered that Haase was limited in his powers. He had to implement the policy determined by the Order of the SD and SS (BDS) in The Hague and the BDS received the orders again from the Reich Security Office in Berlin (see Brinks p. 16). Johannes van Efferen acted as leader of several Silbertanne Kommandos.
And then there was a group of Dutch and Germans who did administrative work. A number of the perpetrators distinguished themselves by using more than average violence. The so-called V-Leute (confidential men and women) provided information about resistance fighters for a fee. They were often NSB members, especially land rangers.