The name of Gerrit Coelingh from Spier is still on the resistance monument in Baarn in Utrecht. The name of the Drenthe resistance hero was missing from the old name plaque.
Coelingh had been a ‘member of the Baarn underground’ since February 1943. In December 2025, it emerged that the Drent’s name was missing from the monument in Baarn. Thanks to Pien de Lange-Lunenborg, this changed on April 10.
During a family visit to Spier, De Baarn saw that Coelingh does have a memorial place there, she told RTV Utrecht last year. In the municipality of Baarn, where, according to De Lange-Lunenborg, he did an important part of his resistance work, almost no one knew him anymore.
As a result, the municipality of Baarn initiated an investigation and decided that Coelingh meets all the conditions for a listing to add his name.
On April 10, the new name plaque on the monument was unveiled, with the name of Gerrit Coelingh. The municipality of Baarn consciously chose that day as Coelingh was executed in Spier on April 10, 1945.
Coelingh’s name is not written on the old plaque. The municipality would like the names to be in alphabetical order, so a new plate had to be made.
Together with the mayor, De Lange-Lunenborg was allowed to unveil the new name plaque.
It is still not clear why the name of the resistance fighter was never mentioned. At the end of last year, residents of the municipality of Baarn were called upon to find out why Coelingh was removed from the list at the time.
In any case, according to historical research it is clear that Drent was in Baarn during the war and was in the resistance. From Baarn, Coelingh helped Jewish people in hiding find shelter, among others. He also made food drives for resistance members and Jews in hiding.
Just before the liberation, he tried to join French paratroopers, but German soldiers captured him and 13 other men. Not much later they were executed.
After the war, the municipality of Baarn deleted him from the population register and in the long run almost no one in Baarn knew the name of the brave Drent. With the new name plaque, the name Gerrit Coelingh returns to local memory.
