• The Women's March 1945

Date of birth:

February 13th, 1925 (Zutphen, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

February 14th, 2017 (Oegstgeest, the Netherlands)

Nationality:

Dutch

During the war, she was active in the resistance in Zutphen. As a courier for the Dutch Resistance Forces "Region 5 Achterhoek" under Commander William van den Wall Bake, she relayed messages to Gerhard Wolsink; the radio contact had reached the Allies. For example, about the location of a German ammunition train in Zutphen, which was subsequently bombed a few hours later. She was arrested by the Germans in her parents' home on December 28, 1944. Initially, she was held at the home of her minders in Zutphen, but that same day they transferred her to De Kruisberg, a Sicherheitsdienst prison in Doetinchem. The diary she secretly kept during her captivity reveals that she soon discovered that many of her acquaintances from the resistance, including Edzard Bosch van Rosenthal and William van den Wall Bake, were also imprisoned there. This increased the suspicion that the entire group had been betrayed, especially when the interrogations did not reveal that the Germans had already known everything.

The Women's March 1945.
A total of 116 women are imprisoned in Camp Westerbork, originating from active resistance families from central and northeastern Netherlands. Assembled in Westerbork between 21 March and 6 April 1945 from 4 Sicherheitsdienst (SD) prisons in the country:
• Willem III Barracks in Apeldoorn – approximately 75 women come from here from Putten, Barneveld, Ermelo, Ede, Veenendaal, Utrecht
• House of Detention in Groningen – approximately 20 women, 16 of whom from Groningen or the surrounding area
• House of Detention in Zwolle – 12 women from Zwolle, 3 from Kampen and 2 women from Hellendoorn and Beerzerveld
• De Kruisberg in Doetinchem – most women from the Willem III barracks in Apeldoorn were held here for a few more days, together with a few prisoners from Zutphen, Twello, Lutten aan de Dedemsvaart.
The women have all ranks and ages, ranging from 17 to 63 years. Among them pregnant girls, a baroness, strict reformed people next to a reviled communist, and a fortune teller.
Theodora was one of them.

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• Photo 1: Doetichem herdenkt.
• - DOORN, I. VAN & SENNEMA, H., Vrouwenmars 1945, Stichting Vrouwenmars 1945, 2025.
  - https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacoba_Theodora_van_der_Kun
  - https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-stoffels/I761.php
  - https://doetinchemherdenkt.nl/kun-dagboek
  - https://doetinchemherdenkt.nl/vrouwen-kruisberg