Annex 2: A Letter from Kees

This letter was the declaration provided by Kees to support Kieks’ application for a pension for her work in the Dutch Resistance.

Letter to Stichting 1940-45                                 6 Sept 1980

District Bureau Zuid-Holland

3014 GP Rotterdam

Westersingel 23                                                    H/sk/797

Dear Sir or Madam

In reply to your letter, I am writing to confirm that Mrs Scott-Okma was a member of the Knokploeg^[45] (KP, Resistance Unit) based in Haarlem-Haarlemmermeer and surrounding area. She personally played a large part in the formation of this unit because she initiated the contact between me and Bob Allink. We stayed in the Biesbosch after the KP in The Hague was betrayed, and after the Atrocity in North Holland.

The people involved were her brother Douwe, Ben van Nat and Gerard Lemmert, and also Cor van Stam and Hein van Staveren.

As a result of her efforts we set up a KP Resistance Unit, building on the foundations that had been put in place by “Yeung Vaumont” (Marinus Vaumont) who was killed at the police station in Heemstede. In addition there were some younger ones who joined this group in Haarlemmermeer.

Mrs Scott-Okma acted as a courier from the very start of spring 1944 until the end of 1944 as far as I can remember. She did everything to keep the group functioning. She was quartermaster for the group that guarded the dyke drainage points in the Ringdijk of the Haarlemermeer around the time of Dolle Dinsdag (6 Sept)^[46] in the Binnendijk of the Haarlemmermeer occupied the dropping points. (Germans had put explosives in those and if England had invaded the Dutch beaches, the Germans would blow up those wells and with that the dyke would have failed, leading to floooding of the entire Haarlemermeer. The risk was estimated to be high and the Resistance guarded them at a distance) She was sent out on reconnaissance missions. She moved weapons and kept contact with many helpers whenever needed.

In this role she was involved in the preparation of a number of raids, such as the one on the Head Office of the Police in Hoofddorp when Karel van Boesnack and Hein van Staveren were set free. She also was also in the raid on the munitions depot of Vogelenzang in Bennebroek.

Prior to that, she had distributed large bundles of illegal newspapers for her brother, taking them down to Dordrecht. She was involved in the helping of Jews. She personally placed a Jewish child in Biesbosch near Dordrecht.

I saw her take part in so many clandestine activities that there are too many for me to mention each and every event, taking into account that it was 36 years ago. She was extraordinarily active, very good at keeping secrets, thoroughly trustworthy, discreet and brave.

If you wish more details I will be pleased to give you any help you require. I am convinced and I know from my own experience that she was an effective underground worker to the extent that if you could capture in words what she did when she was in the Resistance, you would capture the essence of what the Resistance was all about.

Trusting that I have given you sufficient information.

Yours sincerely,

G Krijger (Kees)