Journalist documented Russian POWs at Camp Amersfoort

MOSCOW – It is not a well-know fact that there are Russian soldiers buried in Dutch soil nor that there is a Russian war cemetery in the Netherlands as the resting place of over 800 soldiers who died in German captivity in Camp Amersfoort during World War II. A local daily sent one of its investigative reporters to Russia some years ago for research in Russian archives and a story about the forgotten men, in the late 1990s. Now 13 years later, Remco Reiding recently released his book about these Russians buried in Dutch soil. In the intervening years, Reiding took a systematic approach to his research, documenting the soldiers and even tracing surviving family members. Reiding’s contacting them was usually the first time they heard what had happened to their grandfather, father, uncle or brother. Some people had not heard a thing in over fifty years and were now experiencing closure. To date, Reiding was able to locate next of kin of 187 of the 865 men who perished in Camp Amersfoort. The Germans used the Russians as propaganda tools against Dutch communists, Reiding discovered.