WIMMER: I have heard about that.
M. DEBENEST: There were some hostages arrested in such cases, for example, were there not? There were hostages arrested in those cases?
WIMMER: You call it “hostages.” Do you also use that expression in cases where the individuals concerned did not have to expect that they would lose their lives, that it would cost them their heads?
M. DEBENEST: So far I have been asking you the questions, and you have been answering them.
For instance, did you not receive protests from the Board of the University of Amsterdam against the fact that the wife and children of a professor of that university had been arrested as hostages?
WIMMER: I do not remember that. It is possible, however, that such a complaint came to the Main Department for Education, which belonged to my Commissariat.
M. DEBENEST: In any case, you do not deny the fact?
WIMMER: I could not deny it 100 percent, but I do not know anything about it.
M. DEBENEST: Another question. Following the declaration of loyalty which was imposed on the students, those who refused, were they not forced to present themselves immediately for work, and were they not deported to Germany without waiting for their group to be called up?
WIMMER: Yes, but not by the Labor Service. Do you mean the Office for the Allocation of Labor?