Hendrik Hoos

Hendrik Hoos
Born	(1904-01-16)16 January 1904 Oberhausen, German Empire
Died	21 November 1998(1998-11-21) (aged 94) Vriendendam, Netherlands
Occupations	Metalworker Debt collector
Era	Vader Era Middenvader Era Vriend Era
Organizations	Toetanchamon Themis
Spouse	Louise Wilhelmina Perzborn (m. 1935)
Children	Eef Hoos Laurens Hoos Imro Hoos Eva Hoos Martin Hoos Angelo Hoos
Parents	Gerardus Hoos (father) Gesine Harms (mother)
Relatives	Sybranda Hoos (sister)
Family	Hoos family
Military career
Allegiance	Weimar Republic (1924–1933) Nazi Germany (1933–1945)
Branch	Reichsheer (1924–1935) Heer (1935–1942) Waffen-SS (1942–1945)
Service years	1924–1945
Rank	Feldwebel (by 1935; rank lost in 1942) SS-Scharführer (1942–1945)
Unit	6. (Preußisches) Pionier-Bataillon (1924–1935) Pionier-Bataillon 46 (1935–1942) SS-Division Wiking (1942–1944) SS-Kraftfahr-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Abteilung (1944) SS-Kraftfahr-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Regiment (1944–1945)
Conflicts	Second World War

Hendrik Hoos (16 January 1904 – 21 November 1998) was a metalworker and debt collector who served in the German military from 1924 until 1945. He was a Feldwebel in Pionier-Bataillon 46 until a 1942 military sentence stripped him of his rank. Later that year he transferred to the Waffen-SS and became an SS-Scharführer in SS-Division Wiking. After the war, Hoos settled in The Hague and returned to Toetanchamon. He became a Dutch citizen in 1951.

Early life

Hendrik Hoos was born in Oberhausen on 16 January 1904 to Gerardus Hoos and Gesine Harms. His younger sister, Sybranda Hoos, was born there in 1916.

Around 1919, Hoos began a metalworking apprenticeship at Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen. He trained as a fitter and completed the apprenticeship around 1922. For the next two years he worked as a metalworker.

Military career

Hoos voluntarily entered the Reichswehr in 1924 and joined 6. (Preußisches) Pionier-Bataillon at Minden. His metalworking experience was used in equipment maintenance within the battalion. He had reached Feldwebel by 1935. When Pionier-Bataillon 46 was formed at Minden on 15 October, Hoos transferred into the new motorized unit.

When the German Army mobilized in August 1939, Hoos served in Pionier-Bataillon 46's Instandsetzungsstaffel. He supervised repairs to vehicles and engineering equipment. In 1940 he stayed with the repair echelon while the battalion moved through the Netherlands and Belgium before entering France. Its later deployment took Hoos through the Balkans to the Eastern Front. By early 1942 he was serving in Crimea.

Early in 1942, Hoos learned that a German civilian contractor behind the front still owed money to Toetanchamon from before the war. He took a Wehrmacht truck for the collection and ordered two mechanics from his section to accompany him. The contractor paid after Hoos intimidated him. Hoos received two months' military imprisonment and loss of rank. When he returned to service, he did so at the lowest enlisted status.

Pionier-Bataillon 46 moved toward the Caucasus after Hoos completed his sentence. There he was temporarily attached to a technical element working with SS-Division Wiking. In September 1942 he formally transferred to the Waffen-SS. He was appointed SS-Scharführer on the basis of his previous NCO and mechanical experience. Hoos then led small recovery teams that repaired damaged vehicles far enough for them to be towed to workshops behind the front.

During the breakout from the Korsun–Cherkassy pocket on 16–17 February 1944, a nearby artillery burst caused Hoos multiple shrapnel wounds and a concussion. He reached German lines with other survivors before being evacuated to hospital. He did not return to front-line recovery work.

After leaving hospital, Hoos was posted to the SS-Kraftfahr-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Abteilung at Buchenwald near Weimar. The unit became the SS-Kraftfahr-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Regiment in August 1944. Hoos worked around its motor-vehicle workshops. American aircraft bombed the Buchenwald complex on 24 August. He escaped serious injury and helped recover damaged vehicles after the raid.

On 11 April 1945, with American forces approaching Weimar and the SS leaving Buchenwald, Hoos abandoned his unit. He removed clothing that identified him as a Waffen-SS member and began walking toward Oberhausen. He had already stopped shaving several weeks earlier, and the journey left him with a heavy beard.

The first leg took him northwest through Bad Langensalza to Eisenach, then west through Ifta and Eschwege toward Waldkappel. Near Ifta, a farmer found Hoos sleeping in an agricultural outbuilding. Hoos ran across the fields when the farmer went back toward the farmhouse. Several days later, an American vehicle patrol spotted him near Waldkappel. A soldier ordered him to stop, but he escaped into the woods beside the road.

Hoos continued through Hessisch Lichtenau and passed around Kassel before reaching Warburg. At a crossing over the Diemel, he saw American soldiers checking civilians and turned away before reaching the bridge. He hid for several hours near the river before continuing west. The next leg took him from Paderborn through Geseke and Soest to Werl. From Unna he passed through Dortmund to Bochum, then continued through Essen and reached Oberhausen in early May. The journey had taken about three weeks on foot.

Postwar life

Hoos went directly to his family home in Oberhausen and reunited with Louise Wilhelmina Perzborn. In late 1945 they moved to The Hague. Hoos was still a German citizen when he entered the Netherlands, and his residence there was initially irregular.

He resumed work for Toetanchamon. Contacts within the organization arranged false supporting records that presented him as a German civilian resident with legitimate employment and omitted his Waffen-SS service. With those records, Hoos obtained regular residence status. He became a Dutch citizen in 1951.

Hoos maintained Toetanchamon's vehicles and decided which were available to collection teams. He also supervised repairs. On difficult collections he sometimes went with the collectors. Beginning in 1956, he reduced this work and stopped accompanying collections. He then handed routine workshop and vehicle duties to younger workers, leaving regular operational work in 1958.

Personal life

Hoos married Louise Wilhelmina Perzborn in 1935. They had six children. Eef Hoos was born in The Hague on 12 June 1946. Laurens Hoos followed on 16 June 1947. Imro Hoos was born on 25 February 1948, and Eva Hoos was born in 1949. Their younger sons were Martin Hoos, born on 26 September 1952, and Angelo Hoos, born on 4 April 1955.

After leaving regular Toetanchamon work, Hoos continued teaching his children metalwork and vehicle repair. Eef became the stronger mechanic and began helping him regularly in the workshop around 1960. Hendrik educated Martin at home, first teaching him welding and machinery operation. Debt collection came later, followed by basic reading and writing. When Martin decided to join Toetanchamon at age 23, Hendrik recruited him with Angelo and assigned the brothers to debt collection.

Hoos was also a close friend of Julien van Noord, who knew him through the same French reading circle as Martinus Antonius Johannes Paap.

Death

Hoos spent most of his retirement in The Hague. Declining mobility made independent living there difficult by 1997, and he moved to Vriendendam. He died there from natural causes on 21 November 1998, aged 94. Hoos was buried in Vriendendam.

See also

• Hoos family
• Toetanchamon
• Themis
• Sybranda Hoos