Eighty years after his death, the march that soldier Gerrit Broedersz wrote in a Japanese camp on Java will be performed on May 4 during Remembrance Day. Wervershover Wil Sijm calls it “a world first”, who became intrigued by Broedersz’s story.
While browsing through old newspaper articles and archives, Sijm comes across the story. A soldier from Wervershoof who had graduated as Kapellmeister in the Dutch East Indies. The name sounds familiar to him, because an acquaintance at the gentlemen’s club is also called that. He inquires. “The deceased soldier G. Broedersz turned out to be his uncle,” says Sijm. And so the ball gets rolling.
Simm goes deeper into the story. Broedersz served in the infantry as a conscript. After he went on leave on July 1, 1936, he voluntarily joined the Korps Koloniale Reserve, the training center of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), on April 5, 1937. On 30 June 1937 he left for the Dutch East Indies on the ship the Marnix van Sint Aldegonde for a period of five years. There he was also promoted to junior bandmaster and married a native beauty.
After the Japanese invasion and subsequent capitulation, he was taken prisoner and ended up in a Japanese camp on Java. There he continued to make music and composed the KKK Marsch, named after their camp, the ‘Kale Koppen Kampement’. Finally, Broedersz is deported to Burma. “There he was put to work on the infamous Burma railway line. Here he succumbed to acute enteritis on June 22, 1943. He is now buried in the honorary cemetery of Kanchanaburi, Thailand.”
“One Time Performance”
Miraculously, the written piece of music has been preserved. Sijm: “To top it all off, I discovered that the Museon-Omniversum in The Hague had it. I contacted this Museum and managed to get a copy of this march plus the right of single use.”
And so Sijm approaches the fanfare St. Cecaelia from Wervershoof, where the response is immediately enthusiastic. Even though there is a lot of work to be done. Because the piece that is originally suitable for piano has to be rewritten for the brass band. Two conductors have their hands full with it. “It was a voluminous document of fifty pages. And probably without an instrument available because there were some mistakes in it. We have also left those in for the sake of originality,” describes chairman Ed Meester. Now it’s a matter of studying. “Even though the march, with its cheerful rhythm, is a bit out of place,” says Meester with a laugh.
Remembrance Day
The 4 May Committee from Wervershoof is grateful to Sijm, so there was no doubt about performing the piece during Remembrance Day at the Raadhuisplein. There where also the war memorial is located on which Broedersz is mentioned. “It’s great. I got goosebumps when I heard it for the first time at the rehearsal. Eighty years ago he died and his music is here now, so music is eternal,” says Tiny Berkhout. The Committee has tracked down relatives of Gerrit Broedersz, they will be there on 4 May.
Wil Sijm looks forward with excitement. “It will probably be busy, it will be the final piece of the Remembrance Day. And therefore a world first for Gerrit Broedersz’s march.”