The municipality of Hoorn must name at least ten streets after resistance fighters from the municipality before 2025. The Hoorn Committee 40-45 calls for this. “What Hoorn has done so far is marginal,” says chairman Eddy Boom.
For 25 years, the committee has repeatedly called for resistance fighters to be named. But it didn’t get any further than six blocks. And that needs to change, says the chairman. “There were 3,000 people in hiding here out of a population of 13,000. There are dozens of names known to us who have performed a heroic deed.”
32 names submitted
As far as the committee is concerned, there will be a neighborhood full of streets with resistance heroes. “They deserve that.” 2025 has been chosen as the date because it will be 80 years after the liberation. A list containing 32 names has been submitted to the municipality.
“Gré Visser, an honorary citizen of the city, had at least 23 people in hiding. Truus Menger, member of the resistance and, moreover, there are statues of her throughout West Friesland. Here, too, she founded the Committee 40-45 in Hoorn Those are some examples of well-known resistance fighters. They don’t have a street, but they deserve it,” said Boom.
‘Honor that my grandparents be named’
The submitted list also contains the names of Jan and Dina Molenaar. They have hidden at least thirteen people in hiding. Including the then 5-year-old Gerry Mok. Dina managed to get him out of the Jewish Quarter in Amsterdam, which was already closed at that time. He survived the war, while his parents died in concentration camps.
It came as a surprise to granddaughter Erika de Lange that the couple, who also had to go into hiding themselves after being betrayed, was posthumously proposed to be named as a street name. “I never expected something like this to happen. But I think it’s a great honor that the committee is working on that.”
If the municipality goes along with the call of the Committee 40-45, there is still a challenge: making choices. Because ultimately choosing ten names from the list of 32 is not easy. “If the municipality asks us to help with that, we will. But I’m glad I don’t have to make that choice for the time being.”
Big plans
The call comes from the upgraded policy plan 2022-2026. And with a partly new board, there are many innovations and also many plans. So is the new website full of information about the Hoornse war years came online.
“The dot on the horizon is 2025, 80 years of liberation. We want to commemorate that on a grand scale. This year we will put up a plaque of resistance fighters Trien and Bart de Haan on the Noorderstraat. And we will organize a liberation meal in the Oosterkerk for the refugees of today Syrians, Ukrainians, they deserve our attention. We try to bring them together and talk about living in a war.”