Herman Scheerboom (1912-2010)
Herman Scheerboom in Zaragoza, 2006. Photo courtesy of the Jaily News
Herman Scheerboom, the last living Dutch veteran of the Spanish Civil War, passed away in the second week of September. Born in 1912, he was wounded at Teruel in January 1938 (shot in the head), and captured at Villalba. The next couple of years he spent interned at San Pedro de Cardeña and deployed as a forced laborer. When he was finally freed in 1943, he immediately joined the fight against the Nazis, who had been occupying the Netherlands since 1940. He witnessed the liberation of his home country from the trenches. Click here to listen to an interview with Herman from 2006 (in Dutch), click here for Rop Zoutberg’s obit. Here is a note Herman sent to his mother through the Red Cross to let her know that he was well after being captured. Here is a short bio at the Jaily News.
Herman Scheerboom in 2001. Photo Rop Zoutberg.
