Date of birth:

August 17th, 1912 (Delft, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

June 8th, 1945 (Dordrecht, the Netherlands)

Buried on:

Dutch War Graves Dordrecht
Plot: N. Row: 4. Grave: 9.

Nationality:

Dutch

Jacobus Andreas “Michiel” Beekman served as a reserve 2nd lieutenant in the Searchlight Division of the Luchtverdedigingskring Amsterdam during the German invasion on 10 May 1940. In the course of the war, he joined the resistance. His home on Van Baerlestraat became a gathering place for the resistance. Beekman later became commander of the 1st Company, 1st Battalion BS (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten) SG (Strijdend Gedeelte), Region 14 , Zuid-Holland Zuid, district VI (Dordrecht), partly due to his experience as an army officer.

After the arrest of Lenie Dicke who, as a courier for the resistance, knew the names of many resistance members, he is the originator of Lenie's liberation plan and leads the team that carries out the raid on the house of detention on Doelstraat. Nevertheless, the raid that left one dead and wounded was successful and Lenie Dicke was liberated. After the German retaliated by setting fire to the Dicke family's house, he detonated a bomb in an attempt to kill Georg Bödecker who had interrogated Lenie Dicke. Bödecker escaped, but no more German reprisals followed.

Beekman died shortly after the war while trying to disable a German pantzerfaust. After the war, he was posthumously awarded the Resistance Cross and the American Certificate of Commendation.

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• Photo 1: Regionaal Archief Dordrecht (CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0)
• Photo 2: R. Bronkhorst (2022) (CC Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0)
• - Oorlogsgravenstichting
  - Dapperheidsonderscheidingen aan Nederlanders voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog
  - Schulten dr. C.M., "Zeg mij aan wie ik toebehoor", Het verzetskruis 1940-1945, Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam, 1993

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