Emsbroekweg 4

After primary school, the young Hendrik Gerrit started working as a farmhand in Eefde, Bathmen and Geesteren. He also helped on the Strookappe farm in Harfsen. During the Second World War, he was summoned by the Germans to go to work in Germany. He did so, as a servant of a German farmer. While on leave, he decided not to return there. He went into hiding and went to work for farmer Ter Meulen on the Deventerweg in Laren.

On March 11, 1944, he was arrested by the Landwacht, presumably because he had been betrayed by the Laren Defense Department (WA), part of the NSB. Farmer Ter Meulen felt so threatened that he revealed Hendrik's hiding place. This one slept in a barn in an unused slurry tank. The farmer tipped Hendrik's mother, who was still being held in Lochem at the time. She brought her son a suitcase with food and clothes.

Hendrik was transferred via Arnhem to Camp Amersfoort where more so-called work refusers and contract breakers were imprisoned. He stayed here for a week and on April 18, 1944, together with 496 other Dutch prisoners, was transported to Buchenwald concentration camp. He was labeled a political prisoner, which was reflected in a red triangle on his clothing.

On June 5, 1944, Hendrik was transferred to Tröglitz subcamp to work in a lignite quarry. On November 11 of that year he returned to Buchenwald only to be moved two years later to Weimar and shortly afterwards to Camp Eichenberg (Camp E) near the town of Kahla. There he had to help with the construction of an underground aircraft factory. The kamo was guarded by SS men and the prisoners were treated badly.

Camp E was liberated by the Americans on April 12, 1945. Hendrik did not experience this anymore. He died less than two weeks earlier – on March 30 – from the effects of edema and exhaustion. He is almost certainly buried in a mass grave in Kahla in the German state of Thuringia. There is a monument there. Hendrik Strookappe's name is mentioned there on an information board. His family in Harfsen was not informed about Hendrik's death until months later and placed an obituary in the newspaper on June 23, 1945.

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