Hendrik Koot

Hendrik Evert Koot (5 April 1898 – 14 February 1941) was a Dutch collaborator with the German occupying forces during World War II. A member of the WA, the paramilitary wing of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB), he was beaten up by members of a local knokploeg ("action group") in Amsterdam on 11 February 1941. His injuries were so severe that he died a few days later. His death was seized by the German authorities to start raids in the Jodenbuurt, the Amsterdam Jewish quarters, which in turn led to the February strike. Another element of Nazi retaliation was the installation of a Judenrat in Amsterdam.

Hendrik Koot was born and raised in Amsterdam. He joined the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) in 1935, with his wife, Elisabeth van Groningen, the latter apparently influenced by a speech by NSB founder Anton Mussert in the Concertgebouw. At some point he worked for Asscher, a Jewish diamond cutter. They had eight children; the elder two had gone to sea, to join the merchant navy, but all the others joined various Nazi and fascist organizations. Two joined the SS, one the Dutch Landstorm, and another the Nationale Jeugdstorm, the Dutch version of the Hitler Youth. One of Koot's sisters had married a German soldier, and another married a Dutch SS volunteer. After Koot's death his wife married another WA man.

The Koot family had a winning lottery ticket in 1932, and combined with savings this allowed them to buy a store that sold equipment and supplies for textile manufacture, a store they moved to the Vijzelstraat (no. 88) in 1938, and renamed Hako, for "H. Koot". He moved up in the NSB ranks as well, and quickly rose to the rank of sergeant. By the time of the 1941 events he had attained the rank of opperwachtmeester, the highest rank for an non-commissioned officer.

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