• Den Haag in de Tweede Wereldoorlog

Date of birth:

May 4th, 1905 (Sneek/Friesland, Netherlands)

Date of death:

May 20th, 1944 (Wassenaar (Waalsdorpervlakte), Netherlands)

Buried on:

Dutch Honorary Cemetery Bloemendaal
Plot: 41. 

Nationality:

Dutch

Lived in IJmuiden-Oost (municipality of Velsen), Zanderstraat 22. Son of Johannes van der Zwaag and Hesseltje Woudsma. Married to Maria Hellings. Owner of a window cleaning company since 1929. No church. Resistance fighter and member of the Dutch Communist Party (CPN), banned by the Germans. Van der Zwaag also acted as liaison between the Kennemerland district leader of the CPN and company cells in the IJmuiden-Velsen industrial area. He also distributed pamphlets, posters, manifestos and the illegal magazine De Vonk. In January 1943, Van der Zwaag was appointed liaison between the national CPN leadership and the Kennemerland district. He took over that position from Johan Hissink (28 February 1911, Deventer). As a result of betrayal, he was arrested by the SD on 17 May 1943 when he arrived by ferry in Velsen-Noord. A thousand copies of the illegal pamphlet Radiodiefstal! (Radio Theft!) were discovered on his body. The mimeographed pamphlet railed against the compulsory surrender of radio sets. He was transferred to the prison in Scheveningen (Oranjehotel) and severely mistreated there. On 10 March 1944, he was sentenced to death by the German High Court for sabotage, along with Hissink and printer Johannes Hoogendoorn (21 December 1898 Haarlem). According to a report in the conformist press, the death sentence was ‘punishment for the communist subversive activities of these three convicts.’' Van der Zwaag was executed on the Waalsdorpervlakte along with Hissink, Hoogendoorn, Willem Jorritsma (born 10 December 1920 in Leeuwarden) and nine others.

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• Photo 1: Eerebegraafplaats Bloemendaal
• Photo 2: Jeroen Koppes
• Heere en Vernooij; site Erepeloton; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, historische kranten - Eerebegraafplaats Bloemendaal
  

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