A few months ago, I received a follow-up email from Dutchman Ivar B. who has been digging away at accessing files on Harm Knol Bruins and his second wife, Anna Lilian von Vaupel-Klein. But before we get to that… a recap.
As some readers might remember, I did a post on Bruins about three years ago. I came across his story while perusing the Guy Liddell diaries. Bruins’ case was intriguing because even though he was equipped with a wireless transmitter when he was captured by the French Sureté in May 1940, he escaped execution. Liddell noted that there “is no doubt what ever [sic] that BRUINS [sic] was a German agent and very little doubt that he was operating against us. He was certainly operating against our allies.” Liddell said the only question was whether Bruins was a shooting case. Indeed. And yet, somehow Bruins managed to escape execution while his second wife, Anna Lilian von Vaupel-Klein would not be so fortunate. While both Anna and Bruins were apprehended on the 12 May, Bruins was sent to England while Anna was executed on 27 May. A bit of a mystery.
Special Judiciary Council Documents
Ivar received permission to view special judiciary council documents relating to the Harm Knol Bruins case. Naturally, with Covid throwing a monkey-wrench into everything, it took a while before Ivar could view the documents in person at the National Archives (Netherlands).
The folio contained three different files with a large array of documents, ranging from simple confirmation memos to in-depth interrogations and even letters written by Bruins himself. Ivar has not yet had a chance to peruse the documents in any great depth but sent me an update on information pertinent to Bruins’ pre-war and espionage activities. Much of this seems to be derived from interrogations of Bruins who went to great lengths to paint himself in a favourable light.
Personal Life
Harm Knol Bruins studied to be a civil engineer but from what Ivar discovered, it sounds like Bruins was not an easy person with whom to work. He moved around to several different jobs, sometimes staying for a few months or a few years, but no longer. He also left several workplaces because he disagreed with his superiors.
From 1907 to 1909, he worked for a company in Germany, as well as around late 1913 to 1914/15. This would be interesting given the First World War. I never was able to confirm if Bruins served in the Dutch Armed Forces during the Great War. Perhaps Ivar will find out more when he does his deep dive into the documents.
At some point, Bruins’ father, a wealthy farmer, passed away, leaving Bruins with a significant inheritance. He was able to live off of the inheritance for several years. By the early 1930s, however, he realized that the money would not be sufficient for him to retire permanently. Bruins moved to Belgium because it was cheaper and his future second wife, Anna Lilian, followed him around the same time. Despite the cheaper cost-of-living in Belgium, Bruins had difficulty finding employment.
In December 1938, Bruins wrote to the German consulate in Brussels requesting their assistance in finding suitable work. He had worked in Germany before and hoped that they would be able to help. I have to admit that this smells a bit fishy to me. Perhaps his “work” for the Germans during the First World War was espionage related?
Recruited for Espionage
In January 1939, Bruins received a letter which asked him to come to Rotterdam the following month and visit a certain café. Once in the café, he was to put a specific Brussels newspaper on the table for identification. A man met him there and told Bruins that they had no work for him. On the other hand, he was told that if he sent weather reports from his home in Belgium to Germany, then he would be paid for his work. Bruins asked a few questions but ultimately agreed to do the job. His decision would have far-reaching consequences.
In order to send weather reports by radio, Bruins needed to learn Morse code. After practising at home for a while, he travelled to Germany to demonstrate his ability but was told that his skills were not up to snuff. He returned home for more practice and, on his second trip to Germany, passed with flying colours. He was told that someone would bring him a wireless transmitter to his home.
In February 1940, a man named Sturm delivered a wireless transmitter to Bruins but the two men soon discovered that the radio was defective. Sturm came back in late April with part of the new radio and said that the rest of the parts would be delivered soon thereafter. This is interesting as other information, noted in my earlier blog post, indicated that Sturm had been stopped enroute to Bruins and questioned by the authorities, at which point he told them all about Bruins. Perhaps Sturm was arrested on his third trip to Bruins with the remaining radio parts?
Betrayed and Arrested
On 12 May, Bruins and his second wife, Vaupel-Klein were arrested at their house, likely their place in de Panne on the Belgian coast, just across the border from France. The radio parts and a cypher were discovered in the basement of their home, damning evidence indeed, or so one would think. After their arrest, the couple were taken to a place where Sturm was being held. Sturm confirmed that it was he who had delivered the radio parts to Bruins. According to Bruins, Sturm was to have been shot not long after this.
Bruins and his wife were initially taken to Fort de Seclin, on the outskirts of Lille (France), about 60 km southeast of de Panne. A few days later, the pair were tried before an Allied court in Lille. They were found “not guilty” because there was no evidence that either one of them had done anything wrong. The radio part was still in its original packaging and had not been used. Indeed, they didn’t actually have a functional radio, since the first one had been defective, and Sturm had only delivered one of the parts for the new set. According to Bruins, no other evidence existed with which to find them guilty. This seems a bit odd given the discovery of a cypher in their basement. Despite the “not guilty” verdict, both Bruins and von Vaupel-Klein were ordered to remain interned for the duration of the war. The burden of proof may not have been enough to secure a guilty verdict for espionage, but there was obviously something fishy going on.
Bruins and his wife were to have been transported to a camp in the south of France but, by that point, the Germans had invaded France and cut off the railway to the south as the Battle of the Lys raged. The French decided to send Bruins to England via Dunkirk and Dover. After his arrival in England, Bruins was sent to Camp 020 on 10 August, 1940. After a month under Stephens tender care, Bruins was transferred to Camp 001 (HM Prison Dartmoor) on 19 September 1940. Interestingly, Stephens makes no mention of Bruins in his history of Camp 020. Bruins file was destroyed by MI5 in 1960. The Dutch archives files note that Bruins was interned on the Isle of Man for the duration of the war, and it is possible that he was transferred from Dartmoor at some point.
As for von Vaupel-Klein, she was to have been sent elsewhere, perhaps because she was a woman. During her transport, she was shot and killed by the guards, the exact circumstances being unclear. [N.B. 2024 09 21 – One genealogy suggests she was killed on 27 May, 1940, near Bailleul in France.] A Red Cross document used a word that would suggest she was executed as part of a judicial verdict but the new files suggest otherwise.
A few months later, in July 1940, Bruins received word of his wife’s death. One wonders if he mused his foolhardiness in approaching the Germans for a “job”. He had lost his home, his wife, and very nearly, his life.
Bruins was released at the end of the war and returned to Rotterdam where he was promptly arrested by the Dutch authorities. He was sent to Camp Vught, formerly the Herzogenbusch concentration camp under the Germans. After a time he was released from the camp, rearrested and then released again. In the end, the Dutch authorities found Bruins “not guilty” and a non-revocable confirmation of this verdict was issued in 1951.
N.B. 2024 09 21 – Ivar B. found a third marriage for Harm Knol Bruins. On 14 July 1956 (when he was 76 years old), Bruins married Melanie Francisca Hubertina van Laarhoven (born 1898). The location of the marriage is unknown. In 1962, Bruins was living in The Hague. By 1964, however, he was apparently living in Utrecht. He passed away on 13 January 1966 in Utrecht. Bruins was buried on 17 January, 1966, at Westduin Cemetery on the outskirts of The Hague.
Revisiting Liddell
All of this is quite fascinating although… one wonders at Bruins’ protestations of innocence. Liddell noted the following (bold emphasis added):
August 21, 1940: […] A German named H. K. BRUINS who came over here in the guise of a refugee from Belgium and Holland, is a self-confessed German agent. He had been in possession of a wireless set with which he had been communicating weather reports and other information to the Germans. He had also been instructed to give them early intimation of the advance of British troops into Belgium. This I gather he had done. He was working for RANTZOW [sic – this should be Rantzau and was a code name for Abwehr spy handler Nikolaus Ritter]. The question now arises whether this is a shooting case. There is no doubt what ever [sic] that BRUINS [sic] was a German agent and very little doubt that he was operating against us. He was certainly operating against our allies.
According to Liddell, Bruins was a self-confessed German agent. On top of that, Liddell stated that Bruins had actually communicated weather reports to the Germans. Mind you, Liddell also claimed that Bruins was working for Nikolaus Ritter although this seems unlikely since Bruins did his training in Cologne, and Ritter worked out of Hamburg. Perhaps the truth about Bruins got a bit jumbled in transit.
One could wonder if there are French documents regarding the case given that Bruins and his wife were arrested by the French Sureté. For now, we have to be content with what we have. The most recent documents do at least explain how Bruins and his wife met such very different fates.
N.B. 2024 09 21 – Ivar B. kindly let me know that the French do indeed have a file on Bruins’ second wife, Vaupel-Klein, in Caen, but one needs to visit the archive in person in order to access the file. Perhaps one day we will learn more about her execution.