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Geert was a committee and resistance fighter. During the battle for the Grebbeberg he was a sergeant with the Genie Liaison Service. After the capitulation of the Dutch army, he was appointed as border committees at Glanerbrug and later at Zundert. Geert became involved in the resistance, especially in the assistance to allied pilots who had been shot down over occupied territory and tried to find an escape route to England. At the end of 1943 he was transferred to Twente. There he continued his resistance as a member of the Knokploeg Enschede.
This is how Geert, nicknamed Rooie Geert, came into contact with Johannes ter Horst, the famous resistance fighter in Enschede. They were inseparable until their death. Their resistance group carried out more than 50 armed actions, with no one arrested or killed. Geert Schoonman was actively involved in the liberation of, among others, Frits de Zwerver from the Koepelgevangenis in Arnhem on 11 May 1944 and the liberation of 54 prisoners from the Huis van Bewaring in Arnhem on 11 June 1944. He also took part in the liberation of two sentenced to death - including member of the resistance Piet van Dijk jr. - from the House of Detention in Almelo on March 22, 1944. Geert and his fiancée also played an important role in the resistance.
Geert was arrested when he was an inspector dropping off areas for an arms drop at farmer Evers 'de Paus' in Hezingen. The Jewish family Menco in hiding was also arrested and later murdered. Geert and Bernard Evers, who was arrested at the same time, were shot and wounded and transported to the hospital during their flight attempt. Liberation from the resistance failed.
On October 11 they were taken from the hospital to the prison bunker at Twente airport, where they were subjected to a torturing interrogation. Geert was executed together with Bernard Evers on 12-10-1944 behind this bunker. Near the bunker, they were thrown into a bomb crater that was partially filled.
It was not until three years later in October 1947 that his remains - and that of eleven other executed soldiers, including Bernard Evers - were sent under instructions of the imprisoned S.D. Chef Schöber found.
At the request of his father, the death was registered in Weerselo by means of a judgment of the court in Almelo. The section of the airfield where he was found then belonged to the municipality of Weerselo.
Geert was buried with great interest on November 1, 1947 at the General Cemetery in Zaandam. Many resistance fighters from Twente and the Evers family were also present. The funeral service was led by Pastor Slomp, aka 'Frits de Zwerver', who was liberated by Geert from Arnhem.
Reburied: Dutch War Cemetery Loenen, section C no. 241.
Posthumously awarded with the Resistance Cross.

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