Rudolf von Buchholz

Rudolf Dahmen von Buchholz completed the Cadet School in Alkmaar and the Royal Military Academy in Breda. In July 1912, he was second lieutenant of the artillery. During this time, he was considered one of the best Dutch fencers and was selected for the team for the 1912 Olympic Games. He did not start, however.

In 1916, he was promoted to first lieutenant. After a conflict with the director of the Higher Military Academy in Den Haag (The Hague), he was granted honourable discharge at the end of 1924. From 1927-38, he first worked for the company Philips in Eindhoven and later as a civil servant.

Dahmen von Buchholz joined the short-lived “Verbond van Actualisten” (Union of Actualists, VvA) in 1924, the first fascist party in the Netherlands, and became a board member. After the merger with a fraction of the VvA, he became secretary of “Het Vaderlandsch Verbond” (The Fatherland League, HVV). In the 1930s, he joined the “Nieuw Verbond van Nationalisten” (New Nationalist Union) and subsequently of the “Corporatieve Concentratie” (Corporate Concentration), two other fascist splinter parties.

For some time, Dahmen von Buchholz was a member of the Dutch Nazi party NSNAP (National Socialist Party). In 1941, the NSNAP was transferred under the German occupation to the “Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging” (National Socialist Movement, NSB). In the same year, he published a pamphlet against the Freemasonry. In March 1942, Dahmen von Buchholz was appointed police commissioner in Amsterdam, and in June, he was put in charge of the so-called “11th Bureau of Jewish Affairs”, which was responsible for locating and deporting Jews, who were mostly in hiding. When the thefts of Jewish property got seriously out of hand, the department was transferred to the “Sicherheitsdienst” (Security Service, SD) of the SS and Dahmen von Buchholz was assigned to the military training of the police. He was a member of the “Rechtsfront” (Law Front), the unified NS organisation of lawyers, and a supportive member of the Dutch SS.

After the liberation, Dahmen von Buchholz was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later commuted to 20 years, but he was eventually released early. He married Helena Butner in 1918. They had two children, who were also members or sympathisers, respectively, of fascist organisations in their youth. Daughter Tonny became a well-known writer of literature for young people in the 1960s.