War Memorial Katlijk

The war memorial in Katlijk was erected in memory of three inhabitants of the village who were shot by the occupying forces during the Second World War.

The names of the three victims are:

Jelle Boersma, René Bol and Sjoerd Stoker.

Jelle Boersma was active in the resistance during the occupation. He was arrested as a result of the dropping of weapons above the Katlijker Schar and at the end of the war he was shot with nine others as a reprisal near Doniaga. Boersma was then 35 years old. He was buried in Nieuwehorne.

In September 1944, Sjoerd Stoker and René Bol responded to the call of the Dutch government in exile to join the railway strike. In this way an attempt was made to make the transport of war equipment by the occupier by rail more difficult. The two young men, from Rotterdam and Wijhe/Olst, were in hiding on the Kerkelaan in Katlijk. However, they were betrayed and arrested by the occupying forces. When the resistance sabotaged the track between Heerenveen and Leeuwarden, Stoker and Bol were shot on November 20, 1944 on the railway line near Heerenveen in a retaliatory action by the occupying forces. They were then 23 and 24 years old respectively. They are buried at the church in Katlijk.

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