During the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, multiple members of the resistance tried to cross the North Sea to England in search of aid. They are called ‘Engelandvaarders’, which translates to ‘Sailor to England’, and are regarded as war heroes. One of them, Ernst Moltzer, was an Olympic sailor, and CEO of the Dutch distillery ‘Lucal Bols’.
He left on a small sailboat on the night of November 14th 1941, together with two of his friends and had been missing ever since. In 2022, author Martin Hendriksma began investigating the disappearance of Ernst.
Martin, together with the Dutch Missing Persons Bureau of the Dutch Police, could locate a distant male relative in the male lineage of Ernst Moltzer after a genealogical search throughout Europe. Through the Dutch Missing Persons Database, an initial link was made with possible remains of Ernst Moltzer.
Following this result, the Dutch Police extended their genealogical search across two continents with success; locating more family members of Ernst Moltzer. Ultimately, a combination of autosomal, Y chromosomal, and mitochondrial DNA, together with dental, anthropological and Police information led to the answer the family had been waiting for since 1941.
This identification serves as a final chapter to both Martin Hendriksma’s book, as well as for the family who can now finally find closure. The remains were buried on one of the World War II cemeteries in the Netherlands.
This case highlights the multi disciplinary nature of missing persons investigations, by combining journalism, police investigations, genealogy, DNA analysis, forensic anthropology and cooperation with the general public.
During the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, multiple members of the resistance tried to cross the North Sea to England in search of aid. They are called ‘Engelandvaarders’, which translates to ‘Sailor to England’, and are regarded as war heroes. One of them, Ernst Moltzer, was an Olympic sailor, and CEO of the Dutch distillery ‘Lucal Bols’.
He left on a small sailboat on the night of November 14th 1941, together with two of his friends and had been missing ever since. In 2022, author Martin Hendriksma began investigating the disappearance of Ernst.
Martin, together with the Dutch Missing Persons Bureau of the Dutch Police, could locate a distant male relative in the male lineage of Ernst Moltzer after a genealogical search throughout Europe. Through the Dutch Missing Persons Database, an initial link was made with possible remains of Ernst Moltzer.
Following this result, the Dutch Police extended their genealogical search across two continents with success; locating more family members of Ernst Moltzer. Ultimately, a combination of autosomal, Y chromosomal, and mitochondrial DNA, together with dental, anthropological and Police information led to the answer the family had been waiting for since 1941.
This identification serves as a final chapter to both Martin Hendriksma’s book, as well as for the family who can now finally find closure. The remains were buried on one of the World War II cemeteries in the Netherlands.
This case highlights the multi disciplinary nature of missing persons investigations, by combining journalism, police investigations, genealogy, DNA analysis, forensic anthropology and cooperation with the general public.
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Netherlands Forensic Institute
Lisa Graaf has an Msc in Forensic Science from the University in Amsterdam and joined the Netherlands Forensic Institute after her graduation in 2015.
She is one of only a couple of experts on forensic DNA kinship analysis in The Netherlands. Together with the rest of the team she works on missing persons and unidentified human remains cases, as well as familial searching in the Dutch DNA database and kinship analysis for immigration cases.
