Narda van Terwisga

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meinarda Maria Klasina "Narda" van Terwisga (born August 24, 1919 in Apeldoorn , † May 31, 1997 there ) was a Dutch resistance fighter against the German occupation of her country during the Second World War .

biography

In resistance

Narda van Terwisga was the elder of two daughters in a Reformed family of teachers . After graduating from school, she did secretarial and commercial training as well as typing and shorthand in Dutch , English , German and French . She then held various jobs and also ran an institute for teaching shorthand and typing.

In 1943 Narda van Terwisga founded the resistance group Vrije Groep Narda and operated under the code names mejuffrouw Jansen, mejuffrouw van Laar and mejuffrouw de Beer . The group provided courier services, helped Jews and other people in hiding as well as the crew members of downed Allied planes, forged identity cards and ration cards.

Memorial stones for the executed resistance fighters, the two Allied aviators and for Juliana Bitter in Apeldoorn

At the beginning of July 1944, Willem l'Ecluse, a 21-year-old accountant from Amsterdam , took writing lessons at the Terwisga Institute. At van Terwisga's instigation, he removed the names of people who were eligible for a work assignment from the lists of the Dutch labor administration. However, he also noted the addresses and names of the resistance fighters and the number of van Terwisga's firearm in a notebook. After L'Ecluse was seen with Germans and had a relationship with a girl who was a member of the NSB , van Terwisga didn't let him do any more tasks for the group. On September 29, 1944, he betrayed the members of the Vrije Groep Narda to the German Security Service (SD). During a house search in van Terwisga's parents' house, the SD officers found weapons and ammunition. They arrested Narda van Terwisga and other resistance fighters, as well as 65-year-old Juliana Bitter van der Noordaa, in whose house two Allied pilots were hiding. Bitter's son Joop was a member of the group, managed to escape and survived the end of the war in hiding.

On October 2, six resistance fighters from the group and the aviators discovered were executed by the Germans on the premises of Het Apeldoornsche Bosch . Their corpses, with signs reading "Terrorist" around their necks, were displayed in public in various places in Apeldoorn in order to intimidate the population.

Narda von Terwisga herself spent some time in the Bentheim prison . She was later deported to various concentration camps and most recently to Ravensbrück , together with Juliana Bitter , where Juliana Bitter died on January 6, 1945.

After the war

At the beginning of April 1945 Narda von Terwisga was one of the prisoners who had been brought to Sweden by the Red Cross before the Ravensbrück camp was liberated . When she returned to Apeldoorn, a plaque was erected in her honor. In August 1945 she visited Willem l'Ecluse in prison, who confessed his betrayal to her. He later tried to exonerate himself with contradicting statements. He was sentenced to death by the Bijzonder Gerechtshof in Zutphen ; the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and he was released after 13 years in prison. After his release, he is said to have opened a drugstore with his wife in Zutphen.

For the rest of her life, Narda von Terwisga suffered from the physical and psychological consequences of her stay in the concentration camp, during which she was also tortured; she was considered severely disabled. She felt guilty for the deaths of the eight executed men, as well as that of Juliana Bitter, for bringing the traitor into the group. From 1946 onwards she spent some time in Switzerland every year and between 1946 and 1953, with the support of foundations and from her own resources, she ensured that other resistance fighters could also travel there to relax. After all, she needed constant care and from 1988 lived with her sister in Apeldoorn. Towards the end of her life, she increasingly suffered from suspicion, depression, headaches and heart problems and saw other people as enemies. In 1994 she even broke off contact with her fellow inmates from Ravensbrück. She died on May 31, 1997 in a nursing home in Apeldoorn. She was buried in the Heidehof cemetery in Ugchelen .

Honors

After the end of the war, Narda van Terwisga received numerous awards and honors. Because of her rescue from Allied pilots, she received the US Medal of Freedom and the British King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom . As an “intrepid woman” she was awarded the Dutch Order of Bronze Lion and the Verzetsherdenkingskruis .

On April 22, 2016, a memorial to Narda van Terwisga was unveiled in the Verzetsstrijderspark in Apeldoorn. On October 31, 2017, the city council of Apeldoorn decided to name a street in a new residential area after her.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Narda van Terwisga. In: apeldoornendeoorlog.nl. Retrieved January 18, 2020 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Terwisga, Meinarda Maria Klasina van (1919-1997). In: resources.huygens.knaw.nl. Retrieved January 18, 2020 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ Alsnog eerbetoon voor oorlogsslachtoffer Bitter. In: destentor.nl. October 1, 2011, accessed January 20, 2020 (Dutch).
  4. ↑ 75 jaar bevrijding - Terreur in Apeldoorn: lijken verzetsstrijders achtergelaten. In: nos.nl. Retrieved January 18, 2020 (Dutch).
  5. ^ Mevrouw Juliana Bitter. In: apeldoornendeoorlog.nl. September 30, 1944, accessed January 18, 2020 (Dutch).
  6. ↑ Veroordeling Willem l'Ecluse. In: apeldoornendeoorlog.nl. Retrieved January 20, 2020 (Dutch).
  7. ↑ Apeldoorn en de Tweede Wereldoorlog.pdf (pdf). Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  8. ↑ Raadselvader. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Terwisga, Narda van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Terwisga, Meinarda Maria Klasina van (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Apeldoorn
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1997
Place of death Apeldoorn