Da Costalaan 53
Rijswijk
Nico was the first child of Nicolaas van der Schaft and Maria Pieternella (Nel) van der Schaft-de Munck. He was born in Middelburg, just like his mother. His father Nicolaas, who was called Niek, was born and raised in Delft. After Nico, three more children were born, Riet, Henk and Anneke. After the birth of two children in Utrecht, the family moved to Rijswijk in South Holland, where the youngest daughter, Anneke, was born. Father Niek was a sculptor and went to work at Monumentenzorg in The Hague, where he became a supervisor.
His eldest son was more interested in technology. He wanted to become a radio operator and chose to study at the Maritime School in Utrecht. When the war broke out, young Nico was not yet 18 and had been entertaining his family for years with all kinds of jokes and pranks. His sister Riet later stated that she often almost wet her pants laughing. Everyone loved Nico, including his future fiancée Jopie. Nico was pleased that the German occupiers mistook his cadet uniform from the Naval Academy for a German uniform and that they saluted him, he actually thought that was appropriate.
Naturally, the atmosphere became grimmer as the war lasted longer, there were raids and there was not enough food. Nico's mother Nel had to cook tulip bulbs. Nico's younger brother, Henk, saw people walking past from the window with pans of soup from the soup kitchen. One emaciated man regularly went to school in the firebreak next to Nico's house, where he desperately took a few bites from the pan before continuing his way home, ashamed and with his head bowed.
Nico's youngest sister, Anneke, who was only about 9 years old, later said that her brother Henk, like everyone else, struggled with the oppressive consequences of the war and that he once started to cry very hard as a result of the above scenes. Brother Nico then also had to swallow back tears and then said grimly to his brother and sisters: I will protect you! Nico didn't want to just watch; he contacted the resistance. Messages had to be passed on, including about the V2 rocket attacks on The Hague and surrounding areas. This happened from the basement of a Rijswijk butcher's shop. These were dangerous activities, because German surveillance vehicles drove around with equipment that tried to pick up signals. But the resistance could use a radio operator and Nico wanted to do something.
On a fateful evening, Nico took a friend to the butcher's shop, Henk Minderman, who also wanted to do something for the resistance. That evening, all resistance members present (possibly after a tip-off) were arrested in the butcher's shop and imprisoned in the Oranjehotel, the prison in Scheveningen. Nico's family heard little or nothing from prison. The liberation came in May '45 and Nico's father went with his youngest son Henk to the Oranjehotel, hoping to embrace his eldest son at the gate. Nico didn't come out of the gate and neither did he the next day. Nico was not reunited with his family and his fiancée.
Nico was shot on March 8, 1945, two months before the liberation, on the Waalsdorpervlakte, together with 37 other prisoners from the Oranjehotel, including his friend Henk Minderman. It was a reprisal following the attack on SS officer Hanns Rauter at the Woeste Hoeve on the Veluwe. Rauter survived, but the attack killed 121 people from across the country. Nico was found months after the liberation, he was excavated from the sand of the Waalsdorpervlakte, at the place where the Rauter cross now stands. His father Niek, together with his son-in-law Jarig, went to identify him. They saw Nico's gold signet ring and watch and there was no doubt. The family was paralyzed with grief. The war was over, but, like in countless other lives and hearts, it had left a wound that would never heal.
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