Dutch War Graves General Cemetery Bloemendaal

The first Lt.-vl. P.J.B. Ruys de Perez flew on May 10, 1940 in a Fokker D-XX1, no.222. He was above the Westland attacked and shot through his arm, so he had to make an emergency landing. In the landing the D-XX1 was lost, but Boy survived the crash landing. Later Boy joined the Dutch resistance and in attempt to flee to England, he was arrested. He was executed on 08.15.1942 in the dunes near Bloemendaal. After the war, he was posthumously awarded the Flying Cross and later also the Resistance Memorial Cross.

On 29 March 1943, Gerrit Dirk Hellewaard was forced to work at the Fokker factories in Amsterdam. It is unclear whether Hellewaard experienced the famous bombing raids on the Fokker factories or whether he was already being transported to Germany at that time.
Gerrit Hellewaard was imprisoned in the Holländerlager Alpenrose in the hamlet of Peres, about ten kilometres south of Leipzig. Their main task was to clear the rubble around Leipzig caused by numerous bombings. The work was hard and there was little food.
It is therefore not surprising that many of the forced labourers died of hunger, exhaustion or disease. Gerrit Dirk Hellewaard was one of these many victims. He died on 22 February 1945 from the effects of diphtheria. Gerrit Dirk Hellewaard's remains were eventually transferred to the General Cemetery in Bloemendaal in 1952.

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Source

• Text: Lammert Melk + TracesOfWar
• Photos: Lammert Melk (1, 2, 3), Arjo Eijgelsheim (4)