VERZET IN WEST -FRIESLAND: oorlog en bezetting". In his foreword, DE ILLEGALITEIT IN WESTERLIJK WEST- Leiker mentioned that he would like to FRIESLAND EN IN DE WIERINGERMEER complete the work with a second vol- IN DE JAREN 1940-'45 ume, dealing with western West Fries- Jan van Baar, Paul Koedijk, Sjoerd Leiker, land. That book, already in its third Rein Posthuma and Jacob Zwaam (editors) print and now under review, was pro- May 1991 (third print) duced with Sjoerd Leiker as the propel- Schoor! : Uitgeverij Pirola ling and cohesive force behind its pub- pp 192 lication; and although he passed illustrated away before final completion, it defi- ISBN 90-6455- 112-X nitely carries his mark. price not stated Among other characteristics, this is The Second World War in Europe, manifest in the different design which broke out on 3 September 1939. In the lies at the foundation of the book, early hours of 10 May 1940, the Ger- which is in fact, so different, that one man armies invaded the , can scarcely talk of a sequel to the and the Dutch monarchy and their volume on eastern . In government went into exile leaving the that book a more journalistic ap- Commander-in-Chief, General Winkel- proach was chosen, where interviews man, in control. After a brave attempt with West Frisian members of the Resist- at resistance, the country was forced ance received a prominent place. This to surrender on 14 May 1940. Almost presented the advantage that many of overnight, a Resistance was formed the stories related, were literally "en- throughout the country. counters" (ontmoetingen), wherein the emotions and tensions of the resistance Thousands of men swelled the ranks of were presented by direct and pen- the various movements, which have etrating eye-witness accounts. The b'3en grouped by the English historian limitations of this work method, how- Warmbrunn (in The Dutch under Ger- ever, are obvious. The picture of the mlln Occupation) into three categories resistance presented, was sometimes according to type of activity. 'Passive one-sided and parochial with large resistance' or 'non-collaboration', by hiatuses; and the lack of primary re- Warmbrunn's defintion, included all search was also reflected in the depth activities which did not carry great of the story told. risks. Those activities which did involve risks, but were not of a violent or mili- With this book on western West Fries- tary nature, he categorized as 'militant land, the accent was placed on histori- resistance'. While 'military resistance' cal research based on information embraced such activities as espio- from archives, supplemented with de- nage, sabotage and other actions with tails obtained from 'oral sources' - the military ends. Other categorizations actual living participants. Practically are of course also possible, such as all of the authors approached by 'way of life' and ideology - there were Sjoerd Leiker had experience in histori- Protestant and Roman Catholic, na- cal research. However, each writer tionalist and communist movements. was responsible for the research of his However, it is the Warmbrunn division own chapter and a lack of archival which Verzet in West-Friesland broadly sources is reflected in the references of follows. some of the chapters. This has, unfor- tunately, resulted in a measure of in- Nine years ago a book appeared on congruity in the book. Some chapters the activities of the Resistance move- (including chapters 1, 5 and 8) have ments in the eastern region of the tremendous scope and depth. Exten- Netherlands province of West Friesland sive use was made of material in the during the Second World War. The fi- custody of the Rijksinstituut voor Oor- nal editor of this work - writer, journalist logsdocumentatie (RIOD), including the and former member of the Resistance, archives of the 'Raad van Verzet', and Sjoerd Leiker - described the book "als of the Second World War documenta- een ontmoeting van mensen uit West tion in the Gemeentearchief Alkmaar. Friesland levend onder de druk van A few chapters, however, reflect little

Milifaria 23/3 7993 49 thought and almost no research - only 'Omringdijk', such as with Alkmaar and newspapers and interviews - and lend . Likewise of course, events to superficiality. This is indeed unfortu- elsewhere sometimes had an effect on nate as it is the only drawback of the western West Friesland. For this reason, book. a separate chapter was included on the resistance in the Wieringermeer Without claiming comprehensiveness, area and another on dhr A.C. de the authors tried to cover all aspects of Graaf ("een bezielende verzetsman uit the resistance - help to the under- de Wieringermeer", p.180). ground, church resistance, the drop- ping of weapons and secret agents, A number of people lent their partici- resistance on the part of the profes- patory and advisory support in the sions, military resistance, and the news- making of the book. Special mention papers printed and distributed by the was made of Mrs Trien de Boer-Stam, underground. Here and there one widow of a Resistance hero (p.64), and finds a small amount of overlapping Henk Ranzijn and Kor Korpershoek. The between chapters. Most often this had last mentioned acted as publisher of to do with the nature of resistance the first book, but had to withdraw work, where a relatively small group of once he had got the second book out people had to undertake a variety of of the starting blocks. However, it was activities. Assistance to the under- the late Sjoerd Leiker who formulated ground, the distribution of illegal news- the reasons for the recording and pub- papers, and armed resistance was' of- lishing of the history of the resistance in ten united in one person. It is therefore West Friesland. He saw the book as a inevitable that some of the same duty to fallen and living resistance names often keep cropping up in vari- friends whose memory had to be held ous chapters throughout the book. in honour, and to the youth who had

Betonnen tankversperring aan de duinvoe! bi} b-oerderi} 'De Frallschlllall '. tussell Bergen en Eglllond; 1946.

For the authors, the geographical de- to be informed as to what happened limitation of western West Friesland was in their own community during the war. more of a guide than a rigid boundary. It contains a definite warning against This could also not have been other- Nazism - an ideology, in the words of wise. After all, Resistance activities did Leiker, aimed at the subjugation of the not take notice of any geographical human, at human hunting and forced borders and, indeed, all sorts of con- labour. Like him, a few of the other tacts and mutual activities existed with authors were themselves also part of the Resistance on the other side of the the resistance and, although their per-

50 Militaria 23/3 7993 spectives vary greatly from those born the publication of books such as this, after the war, they all found each has much to recommend it, and is per- other in their points of departure haps something which could be looked (' Voorwoord', p.7). at in this country.

The book has a very striking cover, with All in all, Verzet in West-Friesland is a a black and white illustration of the most agreeable work. It is a valuable monument at Zijpersluis commemorat- addition to the literature on the Sec- ing the reprisal murder by the Ger- ond World War, both from a local his- mans, of ten young Hollanders on 11 tory point of view and as a study of the April 1945. It is firmly bound and is pro- lives of ordinary people under occupa- fusely, yet tastefully, illustrated. The tion. The book is highly recommended. photographs were obtained from inter alia the RIOD, the Algemeen Neder- Major I.J. van der Waag, Documenta- landse Fotobureau, the Fotobureau tion Service SADF, Private Bag X289, and many private collections Pretoria 0001. (one from as far afield as Brazil). The generation of contemporary sources is a curious thing among Hollanders. De- spite the dangers and shortages A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOUTH brought on as a result of the war, AFRICAN HISTORY 1978-1989 many went to great trouble to gener- B.J, Liebenberg, K.W. Smith and S.B. Spies ate and preserve, such items as diaries, (redakteurs) newspapers, correspondence and 1992 photographs, The reviewer's own fa- Pretoria: UNISA ther kept a diary (five volumes), took pp 401 numerous photographs and preserved ISBN0 86981 7493 copies of many of the Underground R68-40 newspapers. The illegal newspapers used for the production of the book, n Hardeband omslag asook bindwerk were consulted at the Gemeente- van goeie gehalte is faktore wat ver- archief Alkmaar and were taken from seker dat hierdie publikasie 'n lang the private collection of dhr C.J. raklewe behoort te he. Schouten, , An arrangement of these newspapers makes attractive il- Soos blyk uit die inleiding is hierdie lustrations for the endpapers. bibliografie 'n uitbreiding op 'n vroeere soortgelyke werk getiteld The page layoLjt is most pleasing - dou- South African History and Historians: A ble column and interspersed here and Bibliography deur C.F.J. Muller ea. there with short, interesting and unob- Gesien teen die feit dat hierdie bib- trusive stories and pieces of biography. Iiografie reeds in 1979 verskyn het is A The work is furnished with a list of ab- Bibliography of South African History 'n breviations (p.8) and a chronicle span- tydige publikasie van die nuutse be- ning the years of the war, which con- skikbare sekondere bronne oor Suid- tains a wealth of information on the Afrikaanse geskiedenis. day-to-day happenings from 1939 to 1945 (pp.184-192). Chapter ten con- Hierdie bibliografie bevat in totaal 4005 tains a table listing all the Allied titels van boeke, tydskrifte, joernale, airplanes shot down over Noord-Hol- verhandelings ens wat georden is in land-Noord (pp,138-142). These prove drie verskillende afdelings. most useful to the reader. It is, how- ever, a pity that the editors did not in- Die eerste afdeling is 'n versameling clude an index and a combined van bronne van 'n meer algemene source list, aard waaronder ander bibliografiee, historiese atlasse, werke oor histo- Verzet in West-Friesland was published riografie en gidse op argivale bronne with the financial support of the 'Dr J.E, tel. Baron de Vos van Steenwijkfonds' and the 'Provinciaal Anjerfonds Noord-Hol- In die tweede afdeling word die bron- land'. The bequeathing of money for ne ingedeel in verskillende tydperke

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