Sennema, Henderika

The Women's March 1945

Date of birth:: July 7th, 1907 (Zuidhorn, the Netherlands)
Date of death:: June 5th, 2003 (Zuidhorn, the Netherlands)
Nationality:: Dutch

Biography

From 1942 onward, the Central Intelligence Service (CID) deployed Riek to the anti-fascist resistance in the Northern Netherlands. She was a courier for the illegal newspaper Trouw. She also smuggled weapons to Buitenpost and Grijpskerk. She drove throughout Westerkwartier on cushion tires. She was stopped more than once by NSB members and Germans, but Riek, quick-witted, always managed to talk her way out of it.
On November 14, 1944, she was arrested by an NSB police officer and two German soldiers, who took her to the infamous Scholtenhuis, the headquarters of the German SD in Groningen. Riek was held for 19 days and interrogated harshly. She remained silent. Afterward, she was taken to the Groningen House of Detention. She was again subjected to harsh interrogation, nearly killing her. Her memory was affected, allowing the Germans to learn something.
After her death she was buried at the Klinckemaburen Cemetery in Zuidhorn.

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.
Riek was one of them.

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