# Stichting Herengracht 401

H401, in full Stichting Herengracht 401 is a cultural foundation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1957 as Castrum Peregrini, and changed name in 2019 after a report on structural sexual abuse in the organisation. H401is located in a building on the corner of Herengracht and Beulingstraat in Amsterdam.

## History

In 1940, artist Gisèle van Waterschoot van der Gracht moved into a studio in the building at Herengracht 401. Together with the German poet Wolfgang Frommel, she hid two Jewish art students here during the war years, who continued to live with her after the war. For her help in going into hiding, she received the Yad Vashem Award in 1998. The hiding place had the Latin name 'Castrum Peregrini', which means 'Fortress of the Pilgrim'. After the war, the Castrum Peregrini foundation was established, financed by van Waterschoot van der Gracht and Selina Pierson.
On July 27, 1959, van Waterschoot van der Gracht married Arnold d'Ailly, the mayor of Amsterdam. Arnold d'Ailly had another two years in office to complete his second term as mayor, but the commotion caused by their extramarital affair forced him to resign early. For eight years the former mayor Arnold d'Ailly lived at Herengracht 401. In 1967 he died at the age of 65.

### Wolfgang Frommel

Wolfgang Frommel was a German who played a central role in the history of Castrum Peregrini. He arrived in the Netherlands in 1939 and obtained a residence permit with the help of friends such as the Dutch writer Adriaan Roland Holst. He started working at the Quaker school in Eerde and became the leader of the circle of Friedrich Buri and Billy Hilsley. Roland Holst introduced Frommel to van Waterschoot van der Gracht after which he went to live with her at Herengracht 401 in Amsterdam.
Before the war Wolfgang Frommel had been a member of the Sturmabteilung, the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party in Germany. A researcher from Castrum Peregrini later tried to cover this up but instead revealed a document himself which showed that Frommel belonged to the 'Stab der Hitlerjugend Frankfurt' in 1937. After the war, Castrum Peregrini published several untruths about the wartime past of both Frommel and his relatives, including Percy Gothein.
Frommel died in 1986.

## Child Abuse

In 2013, the book Entfernte Erinnerungen an W. by Joke Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, was published. Joke Haverkorn van Rijsewijk was married to Frommel's cousin. In her book she bescribes the method of structural sexual abuse by Wolfgang Frommel in detail. Frommel was inspired by the poetry of Stefan George, which describes intimate relationships between boys and older men. In Frommel's interpretation 'Eros' became a methodology to charter and turn boys into 'companions' for older men with an explicit sexual component.
In 2016, the documentary Herengracht 401 by Janina Pigaht was released, in which the new residents - Michaël, Frans and Lars - of Castrum Peregrini try to give the building a new purpose after Gisèle's death. While they are cleaning up and renovating to open the house to the public, director Janina Pigaht begins to dig into the past. She wants to capture the story of the house. But is there actually a clear story to tell?
In 2017, Dutch scholar Frank Ligtvoet wrote a personal story about his time at Castrum Peregrini in Vrij Nederland. Ligtvoet was a member of the movement for many years and was one of the pallbearers of Frommel's coffin at his funeral in 1987. He confirmed the previously sketched image of Haverkorn and provided a glimpse into the circle around Frommel, which operated like a sect. He describes frequent forced sexual contact and pedophilia by several people in the circle, with Frommel clearly as the leader. He also pointed out many parallels with the well-known abuse case in Germany surrounding the Odenwald School in Heppenheim.
In 2018, a new publication presented evidence off structural sexual abuse spanning several years off a group of young men led by Wolfgang Frommel. The group was described in the Dutch media as a cult. The 2018 biography of Gisèle d'Ailly-van Waterschoot van der Gracht described how she looked away from these abusive practices in her own house.
In 2019, an investigation by an independent committee led by former judge Frans Bauduin confirmed the sexual abuse. Due to the statute of limitations on prosecution, the abuse practices at Castrum Peregrini had no legal consequences. Several of those involved, including Wolfgang Frommel, had since died. The foundation adopted all the recommendations from the report, including the abandonment of the name Castrum Peregrini. Under a new name, the group continued as a cultural organization in the same composition at the same location.

### Boarding schools

Two boarding schools operated for years in the Castrum Peregrini child abuse network. The first generation of victims during and after the war consisted mainly of (former) pupils of the Quakerk boarding school in Eerde Castle near Ommen, mainly populated by Jewish teachers and children who had emigrated from Germany. Friedrich Buri - 'recruited' by Frommel in Frankfurt in 1933 when fourteen years old - was taken from Eerde to the hiding place on the Herengracht in 1942, as was Claus Bock, who was sixteen at the time, in 1943.
Another victim and accomplice was the Jewish Billy Hilsley, born in London as William Hildesheimer. Seduced by Frommel in Berlin in the 1920s as a thirteen-year-old, he fled to the Netherlands in 1937; his English passport offered protection from the Nazis. He became a popular music teacher at the Quakerkostschool and later at the International School in Beverweerd Castle in Werkhoven (closed in 1997), where he lived in a tower room from 1959 until his death in 2003. One of his conquests, pupil Ian Gulliford, became a notorious perpetrator as a teacher in Ommen. There are several indications that serial abuser Hilsley, reportedly like Frommel, administered alcohol and other intoxicants to the victim prior to the abuse. As a teacher at the boarding schools, Billy Hilsley had easy access to boys and was able to recruit many younger friends into Frommel's circle. Frommel and his intimates visited regularly.

### The Pool Club

In 2019, the Amsterdam daily newspaper Het Parool devoted extensive attention to the publication 'Forbidden Photos' published in 2010. The book contains memoirs of George Gantzert, written under the pseudonym Helmut van de Berg. The article in Het Parool traces the history of sexual abuse of young boys and girls in an entourage of "people with a lot of money", "well off people people from higher circles", and "resistance fighters", "notable people from the city canals, a museum director and his deputy director, a nobleman from a well-known Amsterdam noble family, members of artist Sociëteit de Kring, and a teacher at the Nicolaaslyceum."
In 2023, Annegriet Wietsma interviewed George Gantzert for Radio 1 podcast De zwembadclub. Gantzert describes how a photographer took nude photos of young boys in his tudio and in the swimmingclub at the Heiligewegbad and the AMVJ pool in Amsterdam where private guests where watching children swam and abused the children in the changing rooms. The patroness of the society Castrum Peregrini, artist Gisèle d'Ailly-van Waterschoot van der Gracht, seemed to play a key role in this closed society for child abuse.

## The building

The public area, which also serves as an exhibition space, is located on the ground floor of the building at Herengracht 401. This space is a 'white cube' in a building full of historical interiors, an office floor, guest rooms, Gisèle's studio and various archives. It has been a national monument since 1970.
* ↑ Denise, Het toch niet zo dappere oorlogsverleden van Castrum Peregrini. Vrij Nederland (3 mei 2018). Geraadpleegd op 23 september 2023.
* ↑ Denise, In de schaduw van de meester: seksueel misbruik in de kring van Wolfgang Frommel. Vrij Nederland (10 juli 2017). Geraadpleegd op 23 september 2023.
* ↑ Vrij Nederland: In de schaduw van de meester: seksueel misbruik in de kring van Wolfgang Frommel, 10 juli 2017. Gearchiveerd op 21 maart 2023.
* ↑ NRC.nl: Meesteres én gevangene van een sekte, 28 september 2018. Gearchiveerd op 20 mei 2022.
* ↑ Parool.nl: Commissie onderzoekt misbruik Castrum Peregrini, 28 december 2018. Gearchiveerd op 13 april 2019.
* ↑ NOS Nieuws: 'Jarenlang misbruik bij Amsterdams herengenootschap', 6 mei 2019. Gearchiveerd op 25 september 2022.
* ↑ H401: Een nieuwe naam en een nieuw logo.
* ↑ Chattel, Marc van Rossum du, Omvangrijk seksueel misbruik op Internationale School Beverweerd in Werkhoven. www.rtvutrecht.nl (6 mei 2019). Geraadpleegd op 2 oktober 2023.
* ↑ Slachtoffer Paul Visser wil seksueel misbruik muziekleraar Hilsley uit doofpot trekken. www.wijksnieuws.nl (28 september 2019). Geraadpleegd op 23 september 2023.
* ↑ https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/getuigenis-kindermisbruik-in-zwemclubs-in-de-jaren-vijftig~b9b38c09/
* ↑ Annegriet Wietsma, NPO Radio 1- Podcast 'De zwembadclub'. myprivacy.dpgmedia.nl. Geraadpleegd op 23 september 2023.