Beilervaart 80

Stumbling stone for a resistance fighter.

Lammert Zwanenburg was a farmer on a farm near the Drentse Beilen, where he lived with his wife and their children Yntze and Wietske. All were actively involved in the work of the LO. From the farm, illegal magazines and distribution master cards and coupons stolen during robberies were distributed. The building also provided long-term hiding places to various people in hiding, including Nico Polak, who would become a councilor at the Supreme Court after the war. American pilots were received on three occasions in 1943 and 1944.

The NSB minister and former mayor Jacques Louis Brinkerink stayed in a house in Schipborg with his wife in May 1944. Members of the resistance kidnapped the couple. They were then imprisoned on the Zwanenburg farm, after which a cattle-shop sentenced them to death. Their bodies were buried behind the farm. In August 1944, Henk Ridder brought a new prisoner to the farm: Geessien Bleeker. She had been a courier in the Meindert Veldman resistance group, but was suspected of betraying a number of resistance members. There was again a veemgericht, but because Bleeker denied all the accusations, she could not be sentenced to death. It was decided to let Bleeker on the farm as a prisoner for so long.

Bleeker tried to gain the family's trust. She was treated suspiciously in the early days, but relatives dropped their caution over time. As a result, Bleeker learned a lot about the resistance activities in which the family was involved. Later in the war, Bleeker once again betrayed a number of people. During the period at Zwanenburg she behaved exemplary, twice hiding Jewish people in hiding during a raid and did not seize those opportunities to escape.

In October 1944, a person in hiding arrested elsewhere in Drenthe, who received distribution documents via Zwanenburg, called his name under pressure during an interrogation. Then the farm was stormed by Landwachters in the night of October 18-19, 1944. Zwanenburg was arrested, but the people in hiding were not found and were able to escape to the neighboring farm of Jan Oosterveen. During the day, Zwanenburg's farm was thoroughly searched by the SD, with extensive evidence found for the illegal activities. Zwanenburg and his daughter Wietske were taken away, during which he was severely abused under the watchful eye of his daughter. A day later, he was shot dead at Camp Westerbork. He is buried at the New Municipal Cemetery in Beilen.

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