Memorial Window Auditorium University Hall Window

The memorial window in the Academy Building in Groningen was erected in memory of the student and resistance woman Anda Kerkhoven who was shot dead on 19 March 1945 on Oosterbroekweg near Haren by Dutch accomplices of the Sicherheitsdienst.

Anda (Mélisande Tatiana Marie) Kerkhoven was born on April 10, 1919 in Saint Cloud, France, as the third daughter in the family of eight children of Adriaan Kerkhoven and Constance Bosscha.
After completing her education at the Christelijk Lyceum in Bandoeng, she went on to study medicine at the Medical College in Batavia. Because she could not obtain dispensation for the vivisection practicals here, Anda left for the Netherlands in 1938 to continue her studies at the University of Groningen (which did grant dispensation). Driven by idealism, Anda wrote her first article in the student magazine Der Clercke Cronike in November 1938 about the 'moral value of science and the place of man'. This first contribution showed that Anda, unlike many fellow students, closely followed events in Germany. She called 'the persecution of the Jews (in Germany) approved by the majority of the population' a consequence of 'mass madness'. She ended her article with a sentence that would determine her later actions: 'What is not allowed, is not allowed, whatever the price!' Just before the outbreak of war, Anda wrote her last article in the magazine, which ended with an almost prophetic sentence: "Whoever can risk his life for the military defense can also risk it for the pacifist."

In early 1945 Anda joined the resistance group 'De Groot'. The socialist and pacifist character of this movement was in line with its own convictions. The group was mainly concerned with forgeries of ration cards and identity papers for people in hiding. Anda was responsible, among other things, for the distribution of these forged papers. She also wrote illegal pamphlets about charity and morality, which she reproduced herself and distributed through the letterboxes. A surviving letter testifies to her love of nature, but even more to her personal sense of responsibility for all living beings: 'I would like to spend endless hours in the paradise of untouched nature, but I cannot and must not leave the victims there to fend for themselves. . Then I will go back to the city and protest against the poverty, the oppression and the petty mutual envy and aggression.'

On December 27, 1944, the Sicherheitsdienst arrested Anda Kerkhoven in the home of the Hendriks family. Anda was subjected to severe torture in the Scholtenhuis in Groningen, but remained silent. On March 19, 1945, she was shot dead together with Dinie Aikema on the Oosterbroekweg near Harenermolen and buried there. On June 22, 1945, her exhumed remains were interred at the Noorderbegraafplaats. In 1967 she was reburied at the Loenen cemetery.

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Source

• Text: Bert Deelman
• Photos: Bert Deelman
• Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei