Reina Prinsen Geerligs

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Reina Prinsen Geerligs (between 1940 and 1943)

Reina Prinsen Geerligs (born October 7, 1922 in Semarang , † November 24, 1943 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a Dutch resistance fighter during the Second World War . After her death, she was named after the Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs literary prize .

biography

Reina Prinsen Geerligs was born in 1922 in what was then the Dutch East Indies as the older of two children of the chemist Johan Prinsen Geerligs and his wife Helen Carolina Zon and was the granddaughter of the chemist Hendrik Prinsen Geerligs . Shortly after their birth, the family moved to Amsterdam , where Prinsen Geerligs attended Barlaeus Gymnasium . During this time, her literary ambitions also showed and she began to write poetry and prose . With her essay Gerechtigheid she won a competition of the literary magazine Contact . Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, she began studying Dutch with the aim of becoming a writer. As a result of the beginning of the occupation of the Netherlands by Germany, Prinsen Geerligs soon joined the Dutch resistance . In 1941 her parents moved to Laren , but she stayed in Amsterdam, where her house soon became a meeting place for the left-wing radical resistance group CS-6, headed by resistance fighter Gerrit Kastein . For her underground activities she adopted the code name Leentje Vandendriesch.

In the early days of the resistance, Prinsen Geerligs mainly provided courier services for CS-6s, but her involvement in at least two attempted attacks is considered certain. On March 27, 1943, she is said to have participated in the attack on the Amsterdam residents' registration office. On July 2, 1943, she and another CS-6 member received the order to liquidate the police officer Pieter Kaay in Enschede , who had been responsible for the arrest of several members of the resistance in the first-mentioned attack. However, the two did not carry out the job because Kaay had a small child with her at the time of the planned attack. Whether Prinsen Geerligs was responsible for Kaay's shooting the following day is still a matter of dispute. In addition, over a period of several months she participated in the shooting of a total of 24 resistance members who had been exposed as traitors.

Prinsen Geerligs was arrested on July 23, 1943 while trying to smuggle a pistol into a CS-6 hideout. She was then interned in a prison in Amsterdam (the so-called Huis van Bewaring ), where she presumably made a confession about her underground activities and also the murder of Pieter Kaay. A few months later she was deported to Germany , where she arrived in Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg on November 23 , but was not registered as a prisoner. The next morning Reina Prinsen Geerligs was executed together with two other women from her resistance group.

Literature Prize

The monument Vrouwen uit het verzet (in German "Women of the Resistance") in Heerhugowaard , on the base of which the names of Prinsen Geerligs and 21 other killed resistance fighters are engraved.

On the third anniversary of her death in November 1946, Prinsen Geerlig's parents donated the Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs , which was given to young writers between the ages of 20 and 25. The 200 ƒ prize was awarded a total of 23 times between 1947 and 1979. Well-known award winners included Jan Blokker , Leon de Winter and Peter van Gestel .

literature

  • Rob van Olm: Right, al barste de wereld. Reina Prinsen Geerligs en de ondergang of CS-6 . Conserve, Schoorl 1998, ISBN 90-5429-093-5 .

Web links

Commons : Reina Prinsen Geerligs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Een schrijfster in verzet. In: oorlogsgravenstichting.nl. February 15, 2019, accessed May 27, 2019 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ Marjan Schwegman: Januari: Reina Prinsen Geerligs. In: niod.nl. NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies, January 2012, accessed on May 27, 2019 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ De Reina Prinsen Geerligs-prijs. In: schrijversinfo.nl. Retrieved May 27, 2019 (Dutch).
personal data
SURNAME Prinsen Geerligs, Reina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vandendriesch, Leentje (alias)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch resistance fighter in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Semarang
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1943
Place of death Sachsenhausen concentration camp