Gerrit Jan Broekhuis

Barneveld 5 May 1913 – after 9 March 1993

Gerrit Jan BROEKHUIS, baker, of Ede (his marriage, 1940; Ede from the banns)

About: A baker of Ede, married to Jacob Veerman's sister Jansje Maria, and so uncle by marriage to Jacob's children. ◐ Very probably the "uncle Gerrit" at Ede with whom Jopie Veerman was hiding when the SD came for her in February 1945 and took her father instead.

Unit or role: Baker (bakker), Gereformeerd (his Ede card; his marriage, 1940). No resistance work of his own is recorded in anything found.

Where: Born at Barneveld; Ede, Grootestraat 36 (1929–1930); Ede, ◐ Groote straat 48 (1940); Ede, Grotestraat 64 (1947), ◐ Grootestraat 64 (1946); Ede in 1963 and 1993.

Evidence: ✓ his birth, his Ede card, his wife's death and his second marriage; ✓ his first marriage and his sister's; ✓ De Standaard, 1936, engagement; ✓ banns and marriage, 1940; ✓ Trouw, 1947; ✓ Trouw, 1963; ✓ Trouw, 1993; Digitaal Monument Neuengamme, quoting José Huurdeman's history of the local resistance; Jopie's son Jacques Vanhaelen's account of the family, October 2026 (family knowledge).

He was born at Barneveld on 5 May 1913, the son of Jan Broekhuis, a clog-maker (klompenmaker), and Heintje van Wessel (his birth). A baker, Gereformeerd, he came to Ede from Barneveld on 3 May 1929, two days before his sixteenth birthday, to Grootestraat 36, and went back to Barneveld on 13 August 1930 (his Ede population card).

His sister Wilhelmina, a daughter of the same parents, married Jacob's brother Leendert Jan Veerman at Barneveld on 29 May 1931 (the records). So when he married Jacob's sister nine years later he became Leendert Jan's brother-in-law a second time. ◐ Wilhelmina is very probably the "Veerman - Broekhuis, Wilhelmina 24-11-1908" printed beside "Veerman, Leendert J. 03-05-1907" in the 1985 register of bearers of the Verzetsherdenkingskruis, the cross for those who took part in the resistance (the register, p. 227): matched by the surname and by a birth in November 1908 fitting the bride of 22, born at Barneveld, in the marriage record of 1931 (the records). The register gives names and dates of birth only, nothing on what she did (Leendert Jan's page).

✓ An engagement was announced in De Standaard of 15 February 1936: "Verloofd: G. J. BROEKHUIS J.zn en J. M. VEERMAN", with "Barneveld ( „De Hof", ( Stationsweg 1." below (the notice; read from the page image). The "J.zn" means son of Jan, as on his birth record. When the banns were published in July 1940 he was "Gerrit Jan Broekhuis, 27 jaar (Ede)" (Utrechtsche Courant, 29 July 1940). On 1 August 1940 at Barneveld he, a baker of 27, married Jacob's sister Jansje Maria, 26 (the records); she was born at Lunteren on 2 October 1913 (her birth). ◐ That the J. M. Veerman of the 1936 notice is Jansje Maria rests on the initials and Barneveld, backed by the banns and the marriage of 1940; if she is, the engagement lasted four and a half years, February 1936 to August 1940.

The Utrechtsche courant of 10 August 1940 has the marriage under "Gehuwd: ... G. J. Broekhuis en J. M. Veerman" (the report), and the Arnhemsche courant of 31 August 1940 lists among the arrivals at Ede "J. M. Veerman, z. b., Groote straat 48, van Barneveld" (the list). ◐ That is his wife, coming to him at Ede after the wedding (z.b. is no occupation): the initials, the surname and Barneveld agree, but it does not name him. The two 1940 items and the 1936 notice were read from the page images. Groote straat is the street of his Grootestraat 36 of 1929 and 1930, in the spelling of the day. Here and below, J. M. Veerman is his wife Jansje Maria, who had the same initials as her niece Jopie (Johanna Maria).

The Arnhemsche courant of 19 February 1943 printed in its births list for Ede a son of G. J. Broekhuis and J. M. Veerman, with no date of birth (the list); he may be living and is not named here.

No source puts him with Murphy. His part in the story is his niece Jopie; ◐ the revolver Murphy carried was probably his brother-in-law Leen Veerman's, not his (The revolver).

The form filled in for Jacob Veerman for the L.O.-L.K.P. foundation's book of the fallen, in February 1946, has a courier from Amersfoort, who was arrested, give the name of Jopie Veerman, who was a courier for the R.R. (the form). She went into hiding with an uncle at Ede:

• José Huurdeman's history of the local resistance, Ondergronds in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (2019), has "ondergedoken bij haar oom Gerrit in Ede" (in hiding with her uncle Gerrit at Ede) (the Neuengamme online memorial, quoting it).
• Her son Jacques Vanhaelen's account of the family, sent in October 2026, has "her uncle Gerrit Broekhuizen in Ede" (family knowledge).

When the SD came to the farm on 24 February 1945 (⚠︎ Huurdeman has 24 January) and did not find her, they took her father, and let it be known he would be released if she gave herself up. She heard, gave herself up, and was sent to Westerbork; her father was not released, and died on the Cap Arcona on 3 May 1945 (Huurdeman, the Neuengamme online memorial; the dates are set out on Jacob Veerman's page).

◐ The family's "Gerrit Broekhuizen" is very probably Gerrit Jan Broekhuis:

• her son gives the first name and a surname one letter from his;
• he was the husband of her father's sister, so her uncle by marriage (the records);
• he lived at Ede in 1940, and at Grootestraat 64 by May 1946, where "Broekhuis, Grootestraat 64, Ede" advertised for a maid (Trouw, 14 May 1946).

Where he lived in February 1945 itself is not recorded in what has been found. The two Gerrit Bakkers in Ede's registers were checked as possible uncles on her mother's side and are not her family (the records).

⚠︎ Murphy, in two passages of his notes of about 1998, says the revolver he carried came from a policeman in the family, who gave him his own revolver as they left: "Jo Veermans uncle", "Mr Veermans Brother, who was in the Dutch Police" (p.6; the typed copy; Banwell page). ◐ Hardy, in his MI9 report of 13 January 1945, says Jacob Veerman gave it (Hardy). A son of Jacob's, who is living and was about eleven at the time, told Jacques Vanhaelen in October 2026 that he and his father fetched it from Jacob's brother Leen (Leendert Jan), a bicycle repairer; it is his own memory as the boy who carried it, and Jacques wrote that he "still remembers very clearly" the pistols in Leen's tool cabinet (Jacques Vanhaelen's email, 18 October 2026). ◐ The revolver was probably Leen's: Murphy and the son both put it with Jacob's brother, but not independently (the son answered after our question to Jacques Vanhaelen of 16 October 2026 had put Murphy's version to him), the son names Leen, and Hardy, who has Jacob give it, fits if Jacob brought it home; probable rather than confirmed, since no record of the time says so (the reasoning in full). Gerrit Jan Broekhuis was Jopie's uncle, but a baker on every record found, and not Jacob's brother (his Ede card; his marriage). ⚠︎ No record has Leen, or anyone in the family, a policeman in 1944: Jacob's brothers Arie and Leendert Jan were not policemen on paper, though their trades are those of 1924 and 1931 (the records); ◐ after the war Leendert Jan worked for the Politieke Recherche Afdeling, police work but nothing of 1944 (his page). Hardy separately mentions an unnamed Dutch policeman in that network (Hardy), and Jacob's grandson Carel Plantagie wrote "I don't know about a policeman in the Veerman-family" (his email, October 2026). The Broekhuis family has not been asked (His own account, checked, item 6).

His wife Jansje Maria died at Ede on 15 October 1947, aged 34, "wonende te Ede, echtgenote van Broekhuis, Gerrit Jan" (living at Ede, wife of Gerrit Jan Broekhuis) (her death, Ede deed 318). The notices in Trouw came from him and their three young children, and from the Veerman and Broekhuis families, both from Grotestraat 64, Ede; the notice set her funeral for Monday 20 October in the general cemetery at Ede (Trouw, 20 October 1947). The children are named in the notice and are not named here.

On 15 December 1948 he married Adriana de Ru, 33, born at Zeist, at Zeist; the record names his earlier wife as Jansje Maria Veerman (the marriage).

✓ In June 1963 "G. J. BROEKHUIS" and "A. BROEKHUIS-de Ru" of Ede signed, with "W. VEERMAN-Broekhuis" and "L. J. VEERMAN" of The Hague (◐ his sister Wilhelmina and her husband Leendert Jan) and others, the notice, dated Barneveld, 16 June 1963, of the sudden death of "onze geliefde Broer, Zwager en Oom Rijk Broekhuis", aged 55 (Trouw, 22 June 1963, read on the image). ◐ So Rijk was very probably his brother: the notice mourns him as brother, brother-in-law and uncle, and the W. Veerman-Broekhuis who signs first is ◐ Wilhelmina, Gerrit Jan's sister by the records (the records); the notice itself does not say whose brother he was.

His second wife died at Ede on 9 March 1993, aged 77 (born at Zeist on 15 May 1915); the notice in Trouw of 11 March 1993 reads "ADRIANA DE RU echtgenote van Gerrit Jan Broekhuis" and has "G. J. Broekhuis (eerder weduwnaar van J. M. Veerman)" (earlier widower of J. M. Veerman) among the family, at Ede (the notice; read from the page image, the rest of the family's names left out). ✓ He was alive and at Ede when the notice was written, between her death on 9 March and its printing on 11 March, aged 79. That the Gerrit Jan Broekhuis of the notice is this man rests on the name, Ede, and "eerder weduwnaar van J. M. Veerman", his first wife's name, and on the second wife's name and her Zeist birth, which match his 1948 marriage. His own death has not been traced.

• The surname of Jopie's uncle. "Broekhuizen" in her son's account; Broekhuis in every record of Gerrit Jan found. Huurdeman gives only "oom Gerrit" (the Neuengamme online memorial).
• Another G. J. Broekhuizen. G. A. Noorlander of Kootwijkerbroek named "Mr. G.J. BROEKHUIZEN, Essenerweg 70, Essen (district Barneveld)" (the surname smudged on the typed form) as a witness in February 1946, beside "Captain D. KAY" (Noorlander's claim, p. 5). That household is on the Broekhuijzen family's page; nothing found shows he is Gerrit Jan Broekhuis of Ede, or that Jopie hid there.
• His wife's birthplace. Lunteren on her birth record; born Ede in the 1940 marriage record. Her birth record has "Lunteren (Ede)" (her birth; the marriage).

Everyone, A to Z