The Breda Four

The group consisted of Willy Lages, Joseph Kotalla, Ferdinand aus der Fünten, and Franz Fischer.

From the 1960s onward, calls for their release—supported in part by the West German government—were made, and multiple Dutch ministers considered granting clemency.

[1] Willy Lages was head of the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam and therefore responsible for the deportation of Jews to Poland and Germany.

[2] Ferdinand aus der Fünten also worked at the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam and was in charge of daily management, similarly responsible for the deportation.

The other three had submitted clemency requests, which Queen Juliana of the Netherlands refused to deny, as she opposed the death penalty.

Faced with no other option, Minister of Justice Teun Struycken commuted the sentences of Kotalla, Aus der Fünten, and Fischer to life imprisonment, while postponing the execution of Lages.

[3] Minister of Justice Albert Beerman (CHU) attempted to put release on the parliamentary agenda in the beginning of 1963, but failed.

[4] Minister of Justice Ivo Samkalden of the PvdA granted him a three-month suspension of his sentence to receive treatment in Germany.

[3] A motion by Joop Voogd (PvdA), which said the cabinet should not execute their plan to release the prisoners, passed after the debate with 85 votes in favour and 61 against.

[2] Around the same time, 5 July 1988, Korthals Altes and Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers received a letter pleading for the release of the two.

It was signed by nineteen (prominent) Dutch people, including resistance member Bib van Lanschot and former minister Samkalden.

[3] On 27 January 1989, Fischer and Aus der Fünten were released and dropped by an ambulance across the border near Venlo as unwanted aliens.

Public support also grew in Germany, with leaflets distributed at the border and hundreds of thousands of signatures collected in petitions calling for their release.

Protests at the Binnenhof in 1972 against the possible release of The Breda Three.
Protest on 12 October 1952 at the Nieuwmarkt against possibly clemency for Lages.
Protest in Amsterdam on 18 September 1966 against the sentence interruption of Lages.
Hearing on the release of the Three of Breda on 24 February 1972.
Prime Minister Barend Biesheuvel and Minister of Justice Dries van Agt during a debate on 29 February 1972 in the House of Representatives about the release of the Three of Breda.
Minister of Justice Frits Korthals Altes (back) and Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers (front) during the debate on 27 January 1989 about the release.
Germans protesting for the release of the three prisoners during a visit of Queen of the Netherlands Juliana and Prince Bernhard to Bonn .