Johan Verhoef

De Glind 3 Mar 1919 – Wöbbelin 7 Mar 1945

About: Johannes Wouterus "Johan" Verhoef, the younger son of Cornelis Verhoef of the Klettersteeg at Achterveld, was taken from the farm by the SD in December 1944 with his brother Jan. He went by De Kruisberg prison at Doetinchem to Neuengamme, and died at the Wöbbelin camp on 7 March 1945, three days after Jan.

Unit or role: A farmer's son working on the farm, unmarried, Catholic: Landwirt on his German death certificate, landbouwer in Barneveld's death register and on Barneveld's form of 1957 (the certificate; the register; the form). The Oorlogsgravenstichting has "Landbouwer, lid verzet" (farmer, member of the resistance) (the page); ⚠︎ no source says what resistance work he did (below, Where the sources disagree).

Where: His parents' farm on the Klettersteeg at Achterveld, in Barneveld municipality, in the hamlet "De Fliert" (the booklet, p. 31), Klettersteeg 14 on the War Graves Foundation's forms; then the Willem III barracks at Apeldoorn, De Kruisberg at Doetinchem, Neuengamme (prisoner 70941) and Wöbbelin (Huurdeman; the effects card; the grave form).

Evidence: ✓ his German death certificate; his Neuengamme cards; the Neuengamme list; the War Graves Foundation's file; Huurdeman; Doetinchem Herdenkt; the Achterveld booklet, pp. 31–35; Digitaal Monument Neuengamme

With his brother Jan Verhoef and their father Cornelis Verhoef; the whole round-up is on Piet Veenendaal's page.

✓ He was born at De Glind, in Barneveld municipality, on 3 March 1919, the son of Cornelis Verhoef, landbouwer, 47, and Rengertje Blom, and registered as Johannes Wouterus (Barneveld births 1919, deed 51) (the birth record, index only). His German death certificate and Barneveld's form of 1957 give the same day and Achterveld as the place (the certificate; the form). His brother Jan was born at De Glind on 7 December 1916 (Jan's birth record). The village booklet gives the family three children, "Jan, Johan en Riek", and has their mother as "Regina Blom" (the booklet, p. 31); his mother called him "mijn jongste zoon" (my youngest son) (the grave form).

In the war the household took in people in hiding. Huurdeman writes that "Verhoef had doorlopend onderduikers in huis" (Verhoef always had people in hiding in the house) (Huurdeman). The booklet's unsigned account has seven of them, "waaronder minstens twee ondergrondse strijders en één Jood" (among them at least two underground fighters and one Jew), most under false names (the booklet, p. 31). Cor van de Burgwal, the son of his sister Rieka, says in the booklet's interview that the family sheltered Jewish people in hiding and resistance men "maar maakten zelf, voor zover bekend, geen deel uit van het verzet" (but were not themselves, as far as is known, part of the resistance) (p. 33).

No source puts him with Murphy. By James Hardy's MI9 report, Murphy and Hardy stayed at Jacob Veerman's farm near Achterveld "for a month", until they were told to move on "At about 1400 hours on 23 Dec" 1944 (Hardy); the Veerman family's own list of 1946 has Murphy there from 25 November (the list, p. 5). Every date given for the raid on the Klettersteeg, 16, 18 or 19 December 1944 (below), falls inside that stay.

Why the SD came. Huurdeman ties the raid to the old billets of a Special Air Service team under the Belgian Gilbert Kirschen ("Captain King") at De Glind. After the SD arrested the RVV leader Jan Thijssen, they found the team's former address, raided Piet Veenendaal's farm on 15 December 1944 and took Veenendaal; "Onder zware druk gaf Piet Veenendaal de naam van Joop Rothuizen door die bij Cornelis Verhoef aan de Klettersteeg bij Achterveld zat ondergedoken" (under heavy pressure Piet Veenendaal gave the name of Joop Rothuizen, who was hiding at Cornelis Verhoef's on the Klettersteeg near Achterveld) (Huurdeman). Huurdeman's text on the Neuengamme memorial says Veenendaal gave "een adres" (an address) of Joop Rothuizen (Digitaal Monument Neuengamme). The SD brought Veenendaal with them:

On 19 December the SD took the heavily bleeding Piet Veenendaal to Cornelis Verhoef. In this raid the farm was surrounded by five men with rifles at the ready, after which two or three of them forced their way into the house. Two people in hiding ran away, and one of them, probably Joop Rothuizen, got away. The other was his brother or cousin Jan Rothuizen of De Glind, and he was arrested. The sons living at home, Jan and Johan, were arrested too. The sick Cornelis Verhoef was not arrested. A few months later, in March 1945, he would die of grief. In the same month, without his knowing it, both his sons died in a concentration camp.

Dutch originalOp 19 december nam de SD de hevig bloedende Piet Veenendaal mee naar Cornelis Verhoef. Bij deze inval werd de boerderij omsingeld door vijf man met het geweer in de aanslag, waarna twee of drie van hen het huis binnen drongen. Twee onderduikers vluchtten weg, waarbij er één – vermoedelijk was dat Joop Rothuizen – kon ontkomen. De ander was zijn broer of neef Jan Rothuizen uit De Glind en hij werd gearresteerd. Ook de thuiswonende zoons Jan en Johan werden gearresteerd. De zieke Cornelis Verhoef werd niet gearresteerd. Hij zou enkele maanden later, in maart 1945, van verdriet overlijden. In dezelfde maand stierven, zonder dat hij dat wist, zijn beide zoons in een concentratiekamp.

— José Huurdeman · Ondergronds in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (2019), via the Oorlogsgravenstichting · the text

Not finding Joop Rothuizen, the SD "arresteerde daarom alle jonge mannen" (therefore arrested all the young men): Jan Rothuizen, the sons Jan and Johan, and across the road Laurens Liezenberg, in hiding at Thiemen Verhoef's (Huurdeman). The Neuengamme memorial's page on Liezenberg calls Thiemen "broer van" (brother of) Cornelis, and Doetinchem Herdenkt's entry on Johan has Liezenberg taken "Bij de boerderij ernaast, bij zijn oom Tiemen Verhoef" (at the farm next door, at his uncle Tiemen Verhoef's) (Digitaal Monument Neuengamme, on Liezenberg; Doetinchem Herdenkt).

The village's two accounts. The booklet the Achterveld parish made in 2025 tells the raid twice (the booklet).

• The unsigned account (p. 31) is headed 18 December 1944, but its text has the raid "tegen het middaguur Maandag 16 December 1944" (towards midday, Monday 16 December 1944).
  • A German car drove into the yard, and five soldiers ran into the house with rifles and revolvers drawn. Of two men in hiding who ran, one dodged the shots fired at him and got away; Jan Rothuizen tried to hide under the hen roost and was driven into the front room.
  • Veenendaal was there, handcuffed, beaten out of the car. The Germans were looking for Joop Rothuizen, who was away on resistance work.
  • "De Duitsers nemen als gevangenen mee Johan en Jan Verhoef, Jan Rothuizen en vijf onderduikers wier namen onbekend zijn gebleven" (the Germans take away as prisoners Johan and Jan Verhoef, Jan Rothuizen and five people in hiding whose names have stayed unknown).
• Cor van de Burgwal's interview (p. 33) dates it 18 December 1944.
  • Veenendaal, "De ernstige gewonde Piet Veenendaal" (the badly wounded Piet Veenendaal), was brought in the car "om de personen te identificeren" (to identify the people); Joop Rothuizen was not there.
  • Everyone in the house, the women too, was driven into the living room. The SD took "de twee zonen Jan en Johan Verhoef, en in ieder geval een verzetsman Jan Rothuizen" (the two sons Jan and Johan Verhoef, and at any rate a resistance man, Jan Rothuizen), with Liezenberg from Thiemen's farm.
  • His mother, his sister and his sick father stayed behind, and the day after the raid the SD came back and took "het paard, voedsel en zelfs de varkens" (the horse, food and even the pigs).

All the men taken on the Klettersteeg went first to the Willem III barracks at Apeldoorn. There the brothers' roads parted: Jan went to Kamp Amersfoort, and "Vervolgens werden Liezenberg, Rothuizen en Johan Verhoef naar de gevangenis De Kruisberg in Doetinchem overgebracht en op 1 februari 1945 op transport gesteld naar Neuengamme" (then Liezenberg, Rothuizen and Johan Verhoef were moved to De Kruisberg prison at Doetinchem and put on transport to Neuengamme on 1 February 1945) (Huurdeman). Cor van de Burgwal has "Johan ging naar de Kruitberg [sic] in Doetinchem. Ze verbleven daar 14 dagen" (Johan went to the Kruisberg at Doetinchem. They stayed there 14 days), and says the family tried to bring the brothers things and food but does not know whether it arrived (the booklet, p. 34). No record held gives the day he was moved from Apeldoorn to Doetinchem.

Doetinchem Herdenkt tells the transport. On 1 February 1945, 94 men were marched under heavy guard from De Kruisberg to Doetinchem station; the train left after midnight, and between Doetinchem and Ruurlo 17 of them got out through a hole in one of the two cattle wagons, among them the Briton Peter Thorne, who was badly hurt and died later, and Peter Whittaker. At Zutphen station the men were given food, and the train went on by Deventer, Almelo and Hengelo to the border. It reached Neuengamme on 5 February, "Daar werden de 77 mannen ingeschreven onder kampnummers 70890 tot en met 70972" (there the 77 men were registered under camp numbers 70890 to 70972) (Doetinchem Herdenkt). The Neuengamme memorial has him at the Kruisberg until 3 February and reaching Neuengamme by train from Doetinchem on 5 February 1945 (Digitaal Monument Neuengamme).

✓ At Neuengamme he was prisoner 70941 (the effects card; the Neuengamme list; Doetinchem Herdenkt). The two men taken with him who went by the same train had the numbers just below his: Jan Rothuizen 70940 and Laurens Liezenberg 70939 (Rothuizen's effects card; Liezenberg on the Neuengamme list; Doetinchem Herdenkt). Jan, who came from Amersfoort, was 70574 (the Neuengamme list).

From Neuengamme the brothers were moved to the Wöbbelin camp in Kreis Ludwigslust (Huurdeman; the booklet, p. 34). No source held gives the day Johan went there; Doetinchem Herdenkt has many of the Kruisberg men sent on 12 February 1945 to build the new camp, which was never finished, with barracks without windows or doors, no sanitation and hardly any food (Doetinchem Herdenkt).

✓ He died at the Wöbbelin labour camp, Kreis Ludwigslust, at 8 a.m. on 7 March 1945, four days after his twenty-sixth birthday. The German death certificate, made out at Hamburg on 7 March 1945 (Nr. XIII/44), calls him a Landwirt, Catholic, of Achterveld, Holland, who died at the Arbeitslager (labour camp) at Wöbbelin; born at Achterveld on 3 March 1919, unmarried, son of Cornelis Verhoef and "Rengertje geborene Blom", both of Achterveld; cause "Dysenterie"; entered on the spoken report of a Kriminalsekretär at Hamburg-Neuengamme (the certificate, read on the image). The same registrar had entered Jan's death the day before, as XIII/7 (Jan's certificate).

The camp's records agree on the day. The camp's death card, filed under the name "Wouterus", has "geb. 3. 3. 1919 / verst. 7. 3. 1945 / Hambg. Neuengamme" (the card). The post-war Neuengamme list of the Dutch dead has him on the line below Jan, "Verhoef | Johannes Wouterus | 03.03.1919 | Achterveld | NL | 70941 | 07.03.1945 | KZ Wöbbelin", the line numbered 399 for 299 (the list). The Dutch Red Cross's typed list of Dutch dead in Kreis Hamburg has "Verhoef | Jahannes Weuterus | 3. 3.19. | 7. 3.45. | X111/44/45" [XIII/44/45], the register number of the certificate (Nationaal Archief 2.19.323, inv. 521, p. 38, read on the image). Huurdeman's list of the dead has "Johannes Wouter Verhoef, lid van het verzet, overleden 7 maart 1945 in Wöbbelin Landkreis Ludwigslust, 26 jaar" (Huurdeman).

Huurdeman has his father die of grief in March 1945, "zonder dat hij dat wist" (without his knowing it) that both sons had died (Huurdeman). ✓ Cornelis Verhoef died at Barneveld on 30 March 1945 (his death record, index only). The booklet's unsigned account says "Huisarts Braun kwam bij de familie Verhoef mededelen dat Jan en Johan in het gruwelkamp waren overleden" (the family doctor, Braun, came to tell the Verhoef family that Jan and Johan had died in the camp of horrors) (p. 31); Cor van de Burgwal says Cornelis never knew, and "Twee maanden later ontving zijn vrouw het bericht" (two months later his wife received the news), without saying two months after what (the booklet, p. 34).

Barneveld registered his death as that of Johannes Wouterus Verhoef, landbouwer, 26, who died on 7 March 1945 "Neuengamme (Duitsland)", deed 208 of 1945 (the register, index only).

In October 1951 the War Graves Foundation asked Barneveld where his family lived; Barneveld answered on 11 October that "De moeder van W.J. Verhoef is genaamd: Rengertje Blom, geb. 28-4-'76, wed.e van C. Verhoef. Zij woont Klettersteeg 14 te Achterveld" (the mother of W.J. Verhoef is Rengertje Blom, born 28 April 1876, widow of C. Verhoef; she lives at Klettersteeg 14, Achterveld) (the answer). His mother filled in the grave form for him and added a note on his brother:

The form has him leave for Germany on 19 December 1944, the circumstances "ondergrondse of verzetsgroep" (underground or resistance group), and die of "Disentrie", buried at Hamburg-Neuengamme (the transcript). Barneveld's questionnaire of January 1957 gives his birth at "Achterveld (gem. Barneveld)", his father as "overleden 30.3.45 te Barneveld", and "Betrokkene is door de Duitsers gearresteerd. Gedwongen naar Duitsland vertrokken" (he was arrested by the Germans and went to Germany by force); the Ministry of Justice's stamp of 18 November 1958 records nothing against him (the questionnaire). In June 1964 the Foundation asked Barneveld for his mother's address again; the reply gives her death in 1960 and names a relative, left out here, and the file ends with a card ordering programmes for the National Remembrance of 4 May 1964 (the Foundation's file, scans 3, 8 and 9).

He is on the war memorial by the Sint-Jozefkerk at Achterveld, "J.W. VERHOEF Czn" among the civilian dead, ◐ Czn being the usual abbreviation for "son of Cornelis", and its register has "J.W. Verhoef Czn. (geboren 3-3-1919, overleden in het Duitse concentratiekamp Heyerhorst op 7-3-1945)" (4 en 5 mei). The Oorlogsgravenstichting's page has him dying at Wöbbelin, "Is 26 jaar geworden" (lived to 26), with Huurdeman's account (the page). The state's roll of honour, the Erelijst, has him with the wrong day of death (below, Where the sources disagree).

◐ A roll of March 1947. The Dutch Salesians' journal for the lay co-workers (Medewerkers) of Don Bosco, in its issue of 20 March 1947, lists among its "Overleden Medewerkers" (deceased co-workers) "Cornelis Verhoef, Achteveld. Joannes Verhoef, Achteveld. Johannes Verhoef, Achteveld." (the issue, p. 35; image-checked). ◐ The last is probably this man, after his father Cornelis and his brother Jan (Joannes); the list gives no dates or places of death, and Achteveld may have had other Verhoefs. Jan has the page and the reading in full.

• The day of the raid. ⚠︎ Not settled. 19 December 1944 in Huurdeman and on his mother's grave form, as the day he left for Germany (Huurdeman; the grave form), and in Doetinchem Herdenkt's entry on him ("Op 19-12-1944 werd hij samen met zijn broer Johan gearresteerd", a slip for Jan) (Doetinchem Herdenkt). 18 December in both of the booklet's accounts, and the unsigned one also has "Maandag 16 December 1944" in its text; 18 December 1944 was the Monday (the booklet, pp. 31, 33).
• The day he died. ✓ 7 March 1945: the German certificate, the camp's death card, the Neuengamme list, the Red Cross list, Barneveld's death register, the Foundation's forms and the memorial card. ⚠︎ The Erelijst has "Verhoef, Johannes Wouterus, Barneveld 3·III·1919, Landbouwer, Neuengamme 4·III·1945" (the roll, folio 732, read by eye; its website record). ◐ That is the day his brother Jan died, on the entry just above his on the same page; nothing says where the roll's compilers took the date from, so it reads as a slip for his brother's, but that is our reading.
• Where he died. ✓ Wöbbelin: the German certificate, the Neuengamme list, the Neuengamme memorial, the Oorlogsgravenstichting and Huurdeman (the certificate; the list; Digitaal Monument Neuengamme).
  • Neuengamme: his mother's form, Barneveld's questionnaire, Barneveld's death register, the camp's own death card and the Erelijst (the Foundation's file; the register; the card). ◐ Wöbbelin was a Neuengamme subcamp, so both name the camp that ran it; the certificate is the primary record of the place.
  • "Heijerhorst in Wôbeling" on the memorial card and "Heyerhorst" in the memorial register (the card; 4 en 5 mei). ◐ Probably the Reiherhorst camp, which Doetinchem Herdenkt describes as the wooden-barrack camp near Wöbbelin where the first prisoners sent from Neuengamme on 12 February 1945 were housed (Doetinchem Herdenkt); the spelling is our reading.
• Where he was born. De Glind, in Barneveld municipality, in the civil birth record; Achterveld on the German certificate, the Neuengamme list, the Foundation's forms, Barneveld's questionnaire ("Achterveld (gem. Barneveld)"), the memorial card ("Achteveld") and Doetinchem Herdenkt; Barneveld on the Erelijst (the birth record; the questionnaire). ✓ The day, 3 March 1919, is the same in every source.
• His name. Johannes Wouterus on the certificate, in the birth record and on the memorial card; Johannes Wouter in Huurdeman's list and "Johannes, Wouter" on the Foundation's forms; "Jahannes Weuterus" on the Red Cross list; "W.J." in Barneveld's answer of 1951; "Wouterus" as the first name on the camp's death card, where the clerk took the second name for the first (the card; Barneveld's answer). The Open Archieven index filed his birth under Wouterus Verhoef by name match (the birth record).
• When he left the Kruisberg.
  • Huurdeman has the transport set off on 1 February 1945 (Huurdeman).
  • Doetinchem Herdenkt has the men marched to the station on 1 February and the train leaving after midnight, reaching Neuengamme on 5 February (Doetinchem Herdenkt).
  • The Neuengamme memorial has him at the Kruisberg until 3 February and arriving on 5 February (Digitaal Monument Neuengamme).
  • Cor van de Burgwal has him put on transport on 3 February and arriving on 5 February (the booklet, p. 34).
  • ◐ A train that left on the night of 1/2 February and arrived on the 5th fits Huurdeman and Doetinchem Herdenkt; the 3 February date is not reconciled with them.
• Jan on the same train. Cor van de Burgwal: "Het cynische is, dat het treinstel met de gevangen uit Amersfoort erachter gekoppeld werd, waarschijnlijk zat zijn broer Jan daarin. Daar kwamen ze op 5 februari aan" (the cynical thing is that the train with the prisoners from Amersfoort was coupled behind it; his brother Jan was probably in it. They arrived there on 5 February) (the booklet, p. 34). ⚠︎ The Neuengamme memorial has Jan arriving from Amersfoort on 4 February and Johan from Doetinchem on 5 February, and their numbers are far apart (70574, 70941) (Jan; Johan).
• The resistance. The Oorlogsgravenstichting ("lid verzet"), Huurdeman ("lid van het verzet") and his mother's grave form ("ondergrondse of verzetsgroep") put him in the resistance; Cor van de Burgwal says the family took in people in hiding but were not themselves, as far as is known, in the resistance (the page; Huurdeman; the grave form; the booklet, p. 33). ⚠︎ Not settled: no source names a group or anything he did, and Huurdeman has the SD take him because they did not find the man they came for.

Everyone, A to Z