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Information Panel Resistance Fighter Willem Johannes Dercksen

INFORMATION PANEL RESISTANCE FIGHTER
For:
Willem Johannes Dercksen

After the arrival of the Germans, Willem Johannes Dercksen got involved in the resistance early on. First with his own resistance group, who helped people in hiding find a safe address, a forged identity card or food. They also issued ration cards and false distribution cards so that people in hiding could find food more easily.
In the summer of 1943, his group joined the LO, the National Organization for Aid to the People in Hiding.
In August 1944, as a result of treason, the Germans arrested a number of important resistance fighters across the country. Dercksen was the victim of this wave of arrests. He was arrested in Gouda on August 8. After several weeks in prison he was taken to the German concentration camp Sachsenhausen (near the city of Oranienburg). Not much later, on October 3, 1944, Willem Dercksen died in the concentration camp. He was sixty years old at the time.

The information panels in the Resistance Fighters District in Gouda are memories of important Resistance Fighters who helped many Dutch people during World War II.
To these Resistance Fighters, 16 streets are named to in Gouda.
On 10 april 2014, they finally got a face. Memory boards with photographs and information about these Resistance Fighters were revealed.
These are the streets:

Walraven van Halllaan
Van Roijenstraat
Rutgersstraat
Johannes Poststraat
Helena Rietbergstraat
Dobbestraat
Dercksenstraat
Brandsmastraat
Boelhouwerstraat
Bleysstraat
Willem Idenburgpad
Nieuwenhuisenpad
De Rijkestraat
Teldersstraat
Wiarda Beckmanhof
De Kortestraat.

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Source

  • Text: TracesOfWar
  • Photos: Arie van Wijngaarden