Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dear guests,

For the towns along the Nieuwe Waterweg - Vlaardingen, Schiedam and Maassluis - the 13th of March is a date which is deeply engrained in our shared historic consciousness. This is the day on which 15 Geuzen and 3 other resistance fighters who took part in the

February strike were executed by firing squad on the Waalsdorpervlakte in The Hague.
Sadly, these 18 were not the only ones to die. On the 9th of January, Ko Boezeman was tortured to death during his interrogation at Scheveningen prison. In March 1941, probably more than 200 Geuzen were locked up in Scheveningen prison, the Orange Hotel.

One of these was Abraham Samuel Fernandes. Bram Fernandes lived in Vlaardingen, on Sportlaan. On the 24th of February 1941, he was arrested by the Germans and taken to Scheveningen prison. At this time, the Geuzen trials were in full swing there.

Let me take you back to 1941. The 24th of February also marks the start of the trial against the Geuzen fighters. The Germans have decided to turn it into a show trial. The Dutch people, who are becoming increasingly unwilling to accept the ‘blessings’ of the Third Reich and who are starting to show more resistance, need to be reminded who is in charge. 43 Geuzen are on trial. The cross-examinations last five days. Many of the Geuzen realise the futility of their situation, that this trial is little more than a formality, merely intended to present a veneer of justice to the outside world. They realise that their fate is already sealed.

Then, after five days, the cross-examinations are completed. On Saturday, the 1st of March, the indictment is read. The sentences demanded are dreadful. Four death sentences for Geus IJzerdraad, four death sentences for Kijne, three death sentences for Kop, four death sentences for Keesmaat …. And so it goes on. The arrested Geuzen react resignedly to the sentences. They return to their cells. They wait the rest of Saturday, all Sunday. Until Monday morning, the 3rd of March, when they return to The Hague to hear the defence. They enter the courtroom, take their places. Keesmaat is covered in blood with severe injuries to his face. The previous evening, a guard found him with a pencil stub. Four death sentences were demanded against him. He has been beaten with a bunch of keys, his face is in shreds, a painful reminder of what life was like in that Scheveningen prison in that week.

And this was the week that Bram Fernandes arrived in Scheveningen. A week of violations to human dignity, of shocking jurisdiction which had nothing to do with justice, of degrading torture against prisoners, of brutal violence. In the dreadful week of the trial also Bram Fernandes is a victim of this mindless violence. He shares the fate of Ko Boezeman and is killed on the 4th of March, probably after being tortured during his interrogation.

The death certificate states that Fernandes “was found dead at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of the 4th of March”. In his wonderful book, Fernandes, een vergeten Vlaardingse Geus (Fernandes, a forgotten Geus from Vlaardingen), Siebe Idzinga says: ‘It is remarkable that the Germans tried to categorise Fernandes’ death, like that of Boezeman, as suicide or hanging, which would thus clear them of torture.’

The Germans sentenced 18 people to death on 4 March. On 11 March, the death sentences of three Geuzen minors were commuted to life in a house of correction. The executions were scheduled for 13 March. On that day, 15 Geuzen and three leaders of the February Strike in Amsterdam were executed by firing squad on the Waalsdorpervlakte.

Uncertainty awaits the other arrested Geuzen. Will there be a new trial? Will more of them be condemned to death? Then, suddenly, on the 8th of April, most of them receive their answer. A major transport operation is organised. 157 Geuzen leave Scheveningen for Buchenwald concentration camp. 157 Geuzen, varying in age from well on in their fifties to just under twenty, disappear into the Nazi camps. 54 of them will not survive to witness the liberation of their country.

Bram Fernandes, Abraham Samuel Fernandes, was born on the 4th of November 1906, a Surinamese Jew in Paramaribo. He married Mies Alblas and lived in Vlaardinger-Ambacht. They had two daughters. Bram worked for the BPM, now Shell. His Jewishness played no role in his arrest in 1941. In my opinion, he was part of the second wave of arrests which hit the Waterweg municipalities at the start of 1941, resulting from the Geuzen resistance. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the second wave of arrests is now firmly placed in history.

For the Fernandes family, Bram’s arrest was a terrible drama. Mother Mies took Paula and Jetty to Halfweg and then to Amsterdam. She never returned to Vlaardingen.

In October last year, I was standing with my colleague Tjerk Bruinsma and our respective wives on the Onafhankelijkheidsplein on the Waterkant in Paramaribo. We were in front of a monument bearing the names of 63 Surinamese who had given their lives for their fatherland in the Second World War.

That same monument also bore the name of Abraham S. Fernandes, just below Anton de Kom. We could never have dreamed that just six months later we would be intensely confronted with the descendants of Bram Fernandes at the memorial of the Geuzen Resistance in Vlaardingen.

Ladies and gentlemen, young people, imagine yourselves in such an oppressive situation facing the need for resistance. A situation which could cost you your life. Did all those Geuzen realise that too in 1940 and 1941?

I don’t think so. What they did know is that freedom cannot be bought, that you have to want it passionately. The same applies today in 2009. At the moment the Middle East is in the midst of a major international conflict, heavily burdened and politicized. Yet both camps have self-appointed organisations monitoring the rights of the individual, of ordinary people. Because ultimately, that’s who we all are. 

Today we focus on B’Tselem and Al Haq as organisations which support these ideals. The Geuzen in the Second World War did that too. It’s a good thing that there are still people fighting for justice and freedom. We must follow their example, with passion and energy.

Thank you.