Monument Sijbren Lautenbach

A portrait of Sijbren Lautenbach hangs in the meeting room of the Kruiskerk.

Siebren (Sijbren) Lautenbach was born on November 5, 1919 in Donrijp. He was an unmarried farmer in Berlikum. During the Second World War he was an employee of the National Organization for Help to People in Hide in his hometown. During and after the May Strike in 1943, he helped various people in hiding to find a safe hiding place. After Lautenbach noticed that the occupying forces suspected him of illegal work, he left for The Hague in early September 1943. In this city and in the Westland he operated in the L.O., under the pseudonym 'Koos'. There he distributed, among other things, the illegal weekly magazine Voor God en de Koning and became co-publisher of the weekly magazine Voor God, Nederland en Oranje. This name was later changed to Op Wacht. The magazine was distributed in the provinces of South Holland, North Holland, Utrecht and Friesland.

On August 9, 1944, Lautenbach visited an address in Delft that was occupied by two NSB policemen. Lautenbach managed to jump on his bicycle, but was shot in the back by one of the officers. After a search, during which incriminating papers were found, he was admitted to a hospital in Delft. His back wound was not serious, so that he was transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst in Rotterdam that same day. After interrogation, Lautenbach ended up in camp Vught. Around September 1944 he was deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was later transferred to Neuengamme and on April 18, 1945 to Bergen-Belsen. Seven days later, Lautenbach died of exhaustion.

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