Date of birth:

April 28th, 1920 (Brooklyn/New York, United States)

Date of death:

September 6th, 1944 (Mauthausen/Upper-Austria, Austria)

Buried on:

Memorial and Grave Victims Englandspiel

Nationality:

Dutch

Gerard John van Hemert lived in Amsterdam. He was born on April 28th, 1920, the son of Gerardus Johannes van Hemert (January 10th, 1880, Hellevoetsluis) and Betje Adelaar (February 7th, 1889, Amsterdam). He was unmarried and worked as an office clerk. As a member of the resistance, nicknamed Jerry, he was a secret agent of SOE/Plan Holland who was parachuted into Holten over occupied Dutch territory on July 23rd, 1942. He was arrested the same day and transported to Mauthausen. Van Hemert was an American citizen. His Dutch parents emigrated to America with their two daughters around 1918. His father obtained American citizenship, so Jerry naturally became an American at his birth in 1920. The Van Hemert family returned to the Netherlands a few years before World War II and settled in Amsterdam. There, Jerry attended MULO (Higher Secondary Education). After graduating, he started working as an office clerk. Meanwhile, his father had returned to the States. The plan was for the rest of the family to follow. The outbreak of war thwarted this plan. Mother Van Hemert and her son Jerry, as foreign nationals, regularly had to report to the SD (Security Service) on Amsterdam's Euterpestraat. Nevertheless, Jerry managed to escape to New York via Spain. There he got a job at a recruitment office for volunteers for the Dutch Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. In 1942, he himself left for England. There he was assigned to the Intelligence Service under the aliases Gerrit van Haaften and Gerrit van Hasselt. After his arrest, Van Hemert ended up in Haaren, Brabant, and then in Assen, from where he was transported to Rawicz, Poland. In early September 1944, he was deported to Mauthausen (prisoner number 96539) and executed. The concentration camp card states: "Shot during an escape." His remains were cremated in Mauthausen, so he has no known grave.

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Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Burger (Civilian)

Unit:

N Section, Special Operations Executive (SOE), British Government

Awarded on:

May 2nd, 1953

Awarded for:

Operation Leek A

Citation:
"Distinguished himself by courageous action against the enemy as an agent of a secret intelligence service which sent him into enemy-occupied territory during the years 1940-1945, where he had to perform a life-threatening task under the most difficult conditions, which ultimately led to his death as a result of enemy counter-action."

Royal Decree No.33
Awarded posthumously.
3466th Award.

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

2e Luitenant (Second Lieutenant)

Awarded on:

June 24th, 1953

Awarded posthumously.

• - OGS Gedenkboek 3 - Mauthausen.
  - ERIK MüLLER, Het Bronzen Kruis, Studiekring Ridderorden en Onderscheidingen.
  - MEIJER, H.G., Bronzen Leeuw, Bronzen Kruis, De Bataafsche Leeuw, Amsterdam, 1990.
  - Awarding certificate OHK
  - Oorlogsgravenstichting
  - Database Dapperheidsonderscheidingen
  

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