If you walked across the Grote Markt today between 5 and 6 p.m., you will not have missed the eleven women with white masks. The eleven represented women such as Judith Leyster, Elizabeth Schmitz, Cobi Schreijer and Suzanna Dumion: women from Haarlem history who, according to the action group, are underexposed. The statues stood near the statue of Coster. That location was not chosen at random.
“Laurens Jansz Coster did not invent the printing press at all, it probably did not even exist,” says Jacqueline van Kampen, spokesperson for the Dolle Mina’s.
Yet another man on a pedestal, who may not even have earned this honor, while the countless women who, according to the group, did mean something have remained statueless. Van Kampen was also there today and took on the role of Cor Hamelink: according to her, a good example of a woman who could have occupied that pedestal on the Grote Markt much better.
‘Honor to portray her’
“Cor Hamelink was the wife of Jaap Hamelink, the JJ Hamelinkstraat in Haarlem is named after him,” says the spokesperson. “He was the leader of the resistance during the Second World War. But his wife Cor had people in hiding at home and kept the police at a distance, while those people in hiding were hidden under the floor.”
Van Kampen’s family was also in hiding during this war, so the choice of the resistance woman was not a guess. “Portraying her was an honor,” she says.
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