Stumbling Stone Noordsingel 178a

These brass plaques (Stolpersteine or stumbling stones), placed on 28-10-2024, commemorate:

HERMAN VAN COEVORDEN (born 1924, in hiding 1943, betrayed 1944, shot 27-09-1944, airport Twente).

This Stolpersteine is lying here for a Jewish war victim, murdered in World War II.

Herman was an only child. The family moved from Den Bilt to Noordsingel 178a in Rotterdam in May 1938. He was still studying and was a member of the Zionist youth movement.

He became an administrative employee in Loods 24, the Rotterdam collection point for the deportation of Jews from Rotterdam and the South Holland and Zeeland islands. He witnessed everything that happened there. It became clear to him that the Sperre, which was part of his job in the Loods, offered no extra protection and he decided to go into hiding.

Herman had been in hiding with the Smienk family at Spinnersweg 16 in Hengelo since June/July 1943. Jeanette Meijers-Spier, her husband Jacob and Eduard Denneboom had already gone into hiding there. They were betrayed and arrested by the SD during a raid on 7 September 1944. Jacob Meijers arrived at the hospital in a wounded state, from which he managed to escape. The others were taken to the police station in Hengelo. On 27 September they were taken to the S.D. in Enschede. That same evening they were taken, together with three others, to the Twente airfield. Here they were executed on the spot and buried in a bomb crater.

It was not until three years later in September 1947 that his remains – together with those of eleven other executed men – were found at the bunkers on the Weerselo section of the airfield on the instructions of the captured S.D. chief Schöber.

"Stolpersteine” is an art project for Europe by Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of National Socialism (Nazism). Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are small, 10x10cm brass plaques placed in the sidewalk in front of a residence of (usually Jewish) victims of the Nazis. Each plaque is provided with the name of the victim, date of birth and the fate of these people. By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives an individual memorial to each victim. One stone, one name, one person. He cites the Talmud: “A human being is forgotten only when his or her name is forgotten.”

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Source

• Text: Dick de Bruijne
• Photos: Dick de Bruijne
• Herman van Coevorden, oorlogsdodendinkelland
• Herman van Coevorden, joodserfgoedrotterdam