Wow, I didn’t realize it until too late in the day, but yesterday was the 66th anniversary of the inciting incident in my WWII novel. On that day, in Dronrijp, Netherlands, 14 men were marched along the streets to the edge of the canal by the Nazis and shot in retaliation for the Dutch Resistance sabotaging railroad lines further north near Leeuwarden, causing a Wehrmacht train to derail 26 cars. In groups of 3, the men were brought to the water’s edge and executed. The Germans were very nervous because Allied planes were in the air when they arrived in Dronrijp. Gerard de Jong survived by playing dead. Later, my cousin Johan Feitsma came and found him and took him to my aunt Hiltje’s house where she nursed him. From the best I can gather, Dronrijp was liberated five days later.

The men who were killed includedHeinrich Harder

Dirk De Jong

Hendrick Jan de Jong

Jan Nieuwland

Henry Joseph Spoelstra

Douwe Tuinstra

Egbert Mark Wierda

Hyltje Wierda

Klaas Wierda

Sijbrandus van Dam

Also, Ruurd Kooistra (I can’t find a picture for him) and Johannes Marinus Ducaneaux and a Mr. van Dijk.

The last two are not on the monument at the spot and not usually included in the account. Ducaneaux apparently was spying for the Germans and van Dijk was a deserter from the German Waffen-SS service. The Wierdas are all brothers and are buried together at the Resistance cemetery in Leeuwarden, along with several of the other men.

This is a picture of Gerard de Jong taken at the site of the executions in 1955.

This is a picture of my aunt Hiltje (sp ?) Feitsma. I don’t know the date of this picture.

And finally, a picture of Johan Feitsma, the young man who brought Gerard de Jong to my aunt. My dad is on the left, my grandmother on the right. The other woman is Johan’s wife.