Date of birth:

October 9th, 1918 (Winterswijk)

Date of death:

March 9th, 1945 (neuengamme, Hamburg, Germany)

Buried on:

Dutch War Cemetery Cemetery Friedhof Ohlsdorf Hamburg
Plot: BP. Row: 73. Grave: L8.

Nationality:

Dutch

Jan was a sergeant with the Marechaussee by profession and married to Aaltje Dijkstra. They lived at Meerweg 62 in Haren.
The Roelfsema family in Groningen had to go into hiding because of their illegal work for the resistance and in October 1944 the house was assigned to the pro-German couple Spiegelberg-Saarloos who fled after Mad Tuesday on 4 September.

However, the resistance was not yet aware of all this and still sought contact with 'the house'.
Mrs Spiegelberg-Saarloos reported this to SS-Hauptscharführer Lehnhof, because she also wanted her previous house back.

He had an employee of Roelfsema arrested by the SD on 10 November 1944 and a box 'surfaced' with a list of names of people in the resistance. Immediately a raid is carried out on the house Anna Paulownastraat 26.

The PTT man Noorman lives there and Dijkstra, Koopmans (secret agent) and Hoeder are also arrested. The house is kept under close surveillance and the next day, 11 November 1944, Jan Droppers is awaited here.

He is in possession of a list of names of (un)reliable policemen and military police, which he had to deliver here on the orders of Chief Sergeant Pieter Seepma.

On Sunday 12 November 1944 Seepma is taken out of the Reformed Church.
For others this is a sign to go into hiding.

On Tuesday 16 January 1945 a train transport leaves Groningen with approximately 110 men, including Noorman, Dijkstra, Droppers, Hoeder and Seepma on their way to Neuengamme concentration camp.
Koopmans remained imprisoned in the Netherlands.

On Thursday 18 January 1945 the train arrived in Neuengamme.
Everyone was divided into two groups, where Hoeder was in the group of Todeskandidaten.
The others had to go to work.
Pieter Seepma died of hunger, illness and exhaustion on 24 February, Ares Dijkstra on 10 March 1945, Jan Droppers on 15 March and Jannes Noorman on 16 March.

Jan Hoender died on 20 or 21 February by hanging in his prison.
Secret agent Harm Koopmans was transported from Groningen to Apeldoorn on 8 March and shot dead there as Todeskandidat with 116 others at the Woeste Hoeve because of the assassination attempt on Rauter.

On April 11, 2010, five Stolperstenen were laid by German artist Günther Demnig in front of the house at Anna Paulownastraat number 26 in Groningen

In 1951, the death certificate of Jannes Noorman was drawn up, with the date of death as March 16, 1945. According to the certificate of Hendrik Jan Droppers, he died on March 9 and Ares Gerrit Dijkstra and Jan Josephus Hoeder on March 10, 1945.

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• Photo 1: J.Niemeijer "Hoe Groningen streed".
• - https://oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/personen/36266/hendrik-jan-droppers
  - https://www.erelijst.nl/hendrik-jan--droppers
  - https://monument.vriendenkringneuengamme.nl/person/401154/hendrik-jan-droppers
  - https://www.oudwinterswijk.nl/tweede-wereldoorlog/slachtoffers/winterswijkse-slachtoffers/winterswijkse-slachtoffers-d/droppers-jan-26-jaar/jan-droppers-26-jaar/
  

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