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Nieuwveen

1940 – 1945

On 17 February 1945

Willem Pieter Speelman is executed by firing squad at Halfweg, together with nine others, in reprisal for a resistance attack on the Amsterdam–Haarlem railway line. He was 26.
Speelman (Sellingen, 20 January 1919) was a son of the gereformeerde minister of Nieuwveen and read economics at the Vrije Universiteit. Shortly after the German invasion he began writing pamphlets calling for resistance. He was arrested at the end of 1942 but escaped using a hacksaw blade hidden in the sole of his shoe. Early in 1943 he was a co-founder of the underground newspaper Trouw, and became the linchpin of its distribution network. On 29 January 1945 he was arrested again in a raid on the S.J.P. Bakker printing works in Amsterdam; under interrogation he gave nothing away.
He was reburied at the Eerebegraafplaats Bloemendaal, the Field of Honour, and posthumously received the Resistance Cross 1940–1945. His parents were imprisoned several times during the occupation to make them reveal their son's whereabouts, and lived for a time in Noordwijk to escape the occupier's attention.

The memorial on the Teylersplein. The cross carries the names A.H. Kooistra and W.P. Speelman, and the words “Van tyrannie bevrijd” — freed from tyranny — with the dates 10 May 1940 to 5 May 1945. View larger →

Provenance This line was not in the typed document. It was looked up in public sources afterwards and added.

On this spot

Nieuwveen (village centre)

Connected to this

Other events sharing these topics.

c. 1940–1945 approximate

During the war years

Henk Kooistra is killed as well. Kooistra and Speelman were friends from Nieuwveen who both studied in Amsterdam, became involved in the resistance there early on, and were active in the clandestine distribution of pamphlets and of the newspapers "Vrij Nederland" and "Trouw".
Streets in the village were named after both of them after the war; Nieuwveen has a war memorial bearing their names.

The memorial on the Teylersplein. The cross carries the names A.H. Kooistra and W.P. Speelman, and the words “Van tyrannie bevrijd” — freed from tyranny — with the dates 10 May 1940 to 5 May 1945. View larger →
The Second World War war resistance Researched later
1940–1945

Between 1940 and 1945

The Netherlands Reformed manse opposite the Roman Catholic church on the Dorpsstraat serves as a Schreibstube, an orderly room, for the German troops billeted in Nieuwveen.

The Second World War war occupation From the typed document
1940–1945

Between 1940 and 1945

Unlike in the First World War of 1914–1918, Nieuwveen too has a hard time of it. In the winter of 1944–1945 food was very scarce: money got you little, bartering got you further.
Roovers closes with the remark that Nieuwveen was spared any fighting. In military terms that is correct, but the village did indeed lose inhabitants to the occupation.

The Second World War war scarcity From the typed document
1943

In 1943

Three Jewish residents of the Johannesstichting are arrested, deported to Camp Vught and murdered shortly afterwards at the Sobibor extermination camp. Two of them were Mozes Ricardo (born 29 December 1881) and Rebekka Worms (born 21 September 1891).

The Second World War war persecution of the Jews Johannesstichting Researched later
1952

In 1952

The gemeenteraad adopts a bye-law giving every street and road in Nieuwveen an official name — for the first time ever.
On that occasion the names of the two men of the resistance who were killed are fixed: the Stationsweg becomes the W.P. Speelmanweg and part of the Oude Nieuwveenseweg becomes the A.H. Kooistrastraat. That explains the street names Roovers uses throughout without explanation.

After 1945 street names government resistance From the typed document