A Dutchman in Russia and Korea Hells

Born on the 4th May 1923 in Amsterdam, John Folmer spent his childhood and youth in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. In the summer of 1939 he returned to the Netherlands in order to complete his schooling. Ehen his country was occupied by the Nazis, he decided to join with Waffen-SS in 1941. After completed his training; Folmer served with SS Regiment ‘Westland, from the 5th SS-Panzer-Grenadier- Division ‘Wiking’. Assigned as a machine gunner, he got a badly wound during the Caucasus campaign. In March 1943, he returned to his unit and served as a dispatch rider in the battalion staff. After further combat duty in the summer of 1944, he was transfer to the Junker School in Bad Tölz and got promoted as a second lieutenant. 

John Folmer ended the war as an officer in a regiment of the 38th SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division ‘Nibelungen’. He surrender in southern Germany and served his sentence as Dutch collaborator in his homeland. In 1951, as a part of the Dutch rehabilitation for military collaborators, John Folmer volunteered to join Dutch military contingent in Korea From an ordinary soldier, he ended the Korean War as a sergeant in the Dutch battalion. In 1955, John Folmer immigrated to the USA and became a successful businessman.


Title                 Waffenbrüder: Ein Niederländer in Russland und Korea
Writer             John Folmer
Pages               248
Publisher       Milizverlag Salzburg (2011)
ISBN-10         3901185429
ISBN-13         978-3901185427