Siet Gravendaal-Tammens

Sietje Gravendeel-Tammens (29 July 1914 – 27 September 2014) was a Dutch resistance leader and teacher. In 1944, she was sentenced to death, but survived because the sentence needed approval from Berlin.

Biography Sietje Tammens was born on a farm near Kloosterburen as the oldest of eight children. At first she wanted to become a Dutch Reformed pastor despite not being raised religiously. Ultimately she chose to study at a training college to become a teacher. In 1939, she left for Groningen as a private teacher for a mentally handicapped son of a professor. During this period, she specialized in speech-language pathology. of which Tammens was the sole female member, and had to vote on liquidations and armed actions. Her authority was never questioned, and she played a decisive role in determining reliability. The executions resulted in the Silbertanne Represailles. In the early morning of 25 April 1944 about 1,000 soldiers and SD surrounded the villages of Zuidwolde, Bedum, Stedum, Winsum, and Middelstum. Six men were shot, and 148 were sent to Nazi concentration camps, Using the false name Martha Oosterveen, she nevertheless continued with her resistance work. however in case of Germanic women a confirmation from Berlin was needed before the sentence could be carried out. Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday), a rumour that Breda had been liberated, caused a massive panic among the Germans, and resulted in a transfer to a work camp on the island of Borkum on 8 September 1944. In late March 1945, she bribed a soldier and managed to escape the camp and island. Later she was arrested in Emden, and taken to Camp Aurich, a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, where she was liberated by the Canadian Army.

After the war Tammens survived, but was unable to bear children after sexual abuse by a German guard in Borkum. In 1947, she left for Curaçao as director of a school for special education. During her stay in Curaçao, she met Cees Gravendaal. In 1964, Tammens retired to the Netherlands, and in 1979 married Cees Gravendaal. In 2000, the Resistance Museum in Groningen persuaded her to document her experiences. Sietje Tammens died on 27 September 2014 in Winsum aged 100. She donated her body to science.