The publisher, his family, and their German contacts

During the occupation, the news is determined by the Germans and the company finds itself in a fix. To keep the company afloat, Kees Misset made many concessions and donated large sums of money to the NSB and other related organisations. He also buys up empty houses of deported Jewish residents. His wife maintains several intimate relationships with German soldiers, and their only daughter is engaged to a Waffen-SS officer. Consequently, many consider Kees Misset to be ‘Deutschfreundlich’ while his staff are grateful to him for preventing them from being sent to Germany for the ‘Arbeitseinsatz’ (compulsory labor).

The mysterious van

In early 1945, the Germans place a green van in Misset's garden and stretch a camouflage net over it. This does not escape resistance fighters. They think it is a radio van that picks up signals via boxes hanging from the tower of the Catharinakerk. They relay this information via the PGEM telephone to the Allies in Nijmegen, which has now been liberated. So, when British planes drop the first bombs in Kees Misset's garden on 21 March, the resistance is convinced it is a deliberate attack. Flight reports of the planes, however, reveal that the pilots thought they were flying over German Isselburg.

The arrest

On the day the city is liberated, members of the Internal Armed Forces (The amalgamated resistance organisations) capture Kees Misset. He is taken on a cart to the police station and then imprisoned in Detention and Residence Camp De Kruisberg. His wife and daughter are also imprisoned there. Kees is released in December but is placed under house arrest. This is followed by a sentence from the Press Council. This includes a seven-year ban on working in the press. Embittered and lonely, he dies in February 1947 as a result of a brain haemorrhage.