Stumbling Stone Oude-Hoofdvaartseweg 39

STOLPERSTEIN / STUMBLING STONE
for:
Member Resistance:
Henry Bennick.

Bennink was born in Assen on August 20, 1921 as the son of Hinderikus Bennink and Egberdina Mulder. At the time, he lived in his parental home at 53 Hoofdvaartsweg in Assen. In the photo he is at that address in the garden. Bennink was unmarried, sailor by profession and Dutch Reformed by faith.
He belonged to the KP Sappemeer, also known as the Wardenaar group and operated under the pseudonym Zwarte Henk. He took part in a robbery led by Blonde Henk on the NSB group leader in Winsum, with the aim of acquiring weapons. In the spring of 1945, Bennink went into hiding at the Doornbos butcher in Hoogezand. There he was shot at in an unclear context, as a result of which he was injured. With a lung shot, he was transferred to the academic hospital in Groningen, where he underwent surgery. In the hospital he was guarded by Germans, but also by Pieter Drent.
After some time he was transferred from the hospital to the Scholtenhuis and later to the House of Detention in Groningen. Although Bennink was still recovering, he was unceremoniously lifted from his sickbed and put on a transport to Bonhagen, dressed only in a white linen shirt. Other prisoners had to support him there to his place in front of the firing squad. Bennink died in Bonhagen at the age of 23. After the war he was reburied with his father at the Zuiderbegraafplaats in Assen, where his mother was later also buried.

The story executions in the woods of Norg contains more information about the killing of Bennink and other resistance fighters, just before the liberation.

The German artist Gunter Demnig started placing the first Stolpersteine in 1997 in the Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
Meanwhile there are Stolpersteine in many countries.
It reminds the Holocaust in World War II.
A Stolperstein is a concrete stone of 10 x 10cm, with a brass plate on top, in which the name, date of birth and decease and also place of decease is punched into.
The Stolperstein gets a place in the pavement in front of the former house of the victim.
By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives a private memorial to each victim.
His motto is: 'A HUMAN BEING IS FORGOTTEN ONLY WHEN HIS OR HER NAME IS FORGOTTEN'.

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Source

• Text: Gerrit Hazenberg
• Photos: Gerrit Hazenberg