As a young prison guard of 25 years, Ton Mink from Dungen first entered the Breda Detention Center in 1971. He soon came into contact with the “Breda Three”, three war criminals who were serving life sentences there. Over the years, a special relationship developed with one of them, Ferdinand Os der Fonten. “After a while we addressed each other as you and I. I called him Ferdi and he addressed me as Here mink.”

sadism
During World War II, Aus der Fünten led the deportation of more than 100,000 Dutch Jews to extermination camps. Because of his sadistic behavior, he was eventually sentenced to death.

Although he regularly told his jailer that he would have preferred a bullet, he was spared from a firing squad by Queen Juliana who refused to sign the sentence. The former SS officer then spent more than 36 years of his life in Breda’s dungeon. He died in Germany in 1989, three months after his release.

It shines
In the reality TV series, German actor Jacob Diehl plays the Hauptsturmführer like no other. As Aus der Fünten, he maintains the appearance that Jewish Council presidents David Cohen and Abraham Asher can negotiate with him.

In fact, he is not at all concerned about the fate that awaits the Jews. For the SS officer, the Jewish Council was an effective means of registering and deporting as many Dutch Jews as possible.

curious
“I realize that fierce look in his eyes and that persuasive attitude,” Toon says while watching part of the EO series. “In prison we saw another man following the rules. Of course we learned that he was not in custody for stealing a packet of butter. But when you deal with him every day, you don’t think about that all the time. It’s not possible because you won’t be able to do your job. However, in a way What, I always found him schizophrenic.

Toon thinks about the times he went to Tilburg to buy special pipe tobacco for Ferdi, helped him put on support stockings later in life, and the walks he took with him across the city for examinations at the Ignatius Hospital.

“We were certainly not friends but I found a working relationship with him. Strange actually, but at that time less was published about the war than now. I was curious about the man, especially at first.”

“Very drunk”
The former prison guard can recall one conversation in which he confronted Aus der Fünten with his war past. The reason was the photo of the inhumane evacuation of the Jewish psychiatric institution Het Apeldoornish Busch in 1943. The photo showed the Nazi officer kicking a patient on the train to Auschwitz. Ton Mink encountered Aus der Fünten with the picture he discovered in a book in the library.

“How could you do something like that? Doesn’t your conscience bother you?” Ton asked him. “I was drunk,” the former SS man replied in German. “I realized that he had to gain courage for his actions in advance. By doing so, he indicated that he knew he was wrong, while he had never formally expressed remorse. I never understood that. In this regard, this series is another discovery for me.”

The second episode of the Jewish Council can be watched on Sunday, March 17 at 9:20 pm on NPO Channel 1. The series can also be watched on NPO Start and NL Ziet