Diever hiding place (Wigwam) - Diever

A lot happened in the forests of the Drents-Friese Wold during the war years. Hiding dens were built in various places by various resistance groups active in Drenthe and Friesland. This particular den, nicknamed The Wigwam, was made by six young men from a resistance group from Diever in the winter of 1943-1944. The den was dug out of a sand mound and reinforced with pine logs. There was a sleeping quarters, a living room and a small kitchen.

The den grew into a centre for underground activities. Here, plans were hatched to counter the German occupiers. Resistance fighters organised raids on distribution offices there to obtain food and voucher cards, with which they could feed people in hiding and provide them with fake papers. The den accommodated several people in hiding who stayed there for weeks in relative safety. In addition to the resistance fighters themselves, these were regularly English or American pilots who needed to be accommodated, for example.

Not only did the hole prove a good hiding place for people in hiding, the population register of Diever was also hidden there for years after a resistance official, together with the mayor and a third accomplice, stole it from the town hall. The less information the German occupier could extract from those registers, the better it was. In milk cans, the registers were buried under the den.

Eventually, the hiding den succumbed to its own success. As too many resistance groups started using it and the den began to become too well known, it came to the attention of members of the local NSB. In the early morning of 22 November 1944, the Sicherheitsdienst began a raid through Diever. All arrested resistance fighters were harshly interrogated and taken away. When they had gathered enough information, they drove on to the hiding place in the woods. Several people still tried to warn the people in hiding, but to no avail. The den was surrounded and all the hiders were arrested. A total of 11 people were arrested that day and eventually transported to German concentration camps. Only one of them survived the war.

The den was destroyed that same day by a German hand grenade. After the war, the den was restored to its former state as much as possible. A memorial stone was placed at the entrance to the burrow in memory of the victims.