One strategy Ans van Dijk used to gain information was dubbed “cell espionage.” She would be put into a holding cell together with other prisoners who were suspected of knowing the locations of Jewish people in hiding. After falsely claiming to have been severely tortured during interrogation, she would convince her cellmates that the SD was releasing her and offer to warn any of their friends or relatives to relocate. She said that there was always the risk that the prisoners might be forced to give up information if the torture became too unbearable.9
Like all V-people, Ans van Dijk used a combination of chance, contingency, and betrayal to do her job. Vince recounted an extraordinary story about van Dijk that he had learned from Holocaust survivor Louis de Groot, whom he’d been able to interview at his Washington, DC, apartment in May 2018.10
De Groot said his parents had owned and operated an appliance store in Arnhem. His father, Meijer de Groot, was friendly with the policemen in the area, who promised to warn him of any Nazi raids about to happen. His family went into hiding on November 17, 1942, after they were warned of an upcoming raid. They were split up and placed in different locations in Amsterdam. De Groot and his parents hid in a house at Prinsengracht 825, but in December 1943 he was relocated to the countryside by a Dutch detective whom his father knew. His older sister, Rachel de Groot, was in hiding at a different location in the city.
In the early evening of April 8, 1944, the day before Easter, Ans van Dijk, Branca Simons, and her husband, Wim Houthuijs, were strolling through the Prinsengracht neighborhood, where De Groot’s parents were hiding. Van Dijk recognized Israel de Groot, Louis’s uncle, walking alone on the street. She approached him, mentioning that she could arrange safe passage to Spain. Israel told her that he didn’t need her help and kept walking.
Van Dijk, Simons, and Houthuijs followed Israel and watched him enter the building at Prinsengracht 825. From a nearby bar, Van Dijk made a phone call to the Zentralstelle and relayed the tip to SS Lieutenant Otto Kempin, who ordered Grootendorst and several other Dutch SD detectives to the address. The V-people waited nearby and pointed out the location to the raid team.
Israel de Groot had left the Prinsengracht address just prior to the arrival of the Dutch SD men. Sadly, Louis’s sister Rachel was at that moment visiting her parents, and all three were taken away. While still in hiding, Louis was told that his parents and sister had been captured, but only after the war was over did he learn that they had all perished in the camps. His uncle Israel, who was working with the resistance, was never captured and survived the war.
Louis discovered that his mother, Sophia, and his sister were sent to a jail in The Hague. Though it cannot be proven, he suspects that after the arrest of his family, Van Dijk was put into the cell with his sister to gain information on other Jews in hiding. His father was taken to a jail in Amsterdam where, by chance, his jailer was known to him, and he was able to convince the man to allow him to write a note to his brother Israel recounting the details of the arrest. The jailer passed on the note, which was how Louis eventually learned who was involved in the arrest and betrayal of his family. From the note he also learned that his father, Meijer, knew the arresting officer, Grootendorst; they had played marbles together when they were children.
As it was becoming evident by the fall of 1944 that the Allies had won the war, Van Dijk turned to Otto Kempin and asked for help to get a visa to travel to Germany. Kempin refused. However loyally she may have worked as a V-Frau, she was not to be rewarded.11 She then moved with her lover, Mies de Regt, to The Hague, where she made her living from black-market trade.
After the liberation, Van Dijk was arrested and tried by the Special Court of Justice. She was convicted of twenty-three cases of betrayal involving sixty-eight people and sentenced to death. Her CABR file is massive and suggests a much higher number, probably closer to two hundred betrayals, but many cases simply couldn’t be proven because so few witnesses had survived.
Launching an appeal, Van Dijk’s lawyer asked for a psychological investigation, claiming that both her parents had died while suffering from mental illnesses; his attempt to suggest that her behavior was a result of some inherited condition did not impress the judges. On January 14, 1948, Ans van Dijk was executed at Fort Bijlmer after having been baptized a Catholic the previous day.
Van Dijk had the distinction of being the only woman sentenced to death and actually executed in the Netherlands. The other women she had worked closely with, Miep Braams and Branca Simons, were also sentenced to death, but their sentences were commuted to life in prison. It has been argued that part of the reason Van Dijk was executed was that she was an outspoken and openly homosexual woman.