The fallen resistance people in Limburg

Hendrik van der Ploeg (Herman)

Photo: family archive

Hendrik van der Ploeg left home at the age of 14 (his parents were alcoholics) and lived in Belgium where he became a hairdresser. He was also a member of the SDAP - Social Democratic Workers Party. He was very much influenced then by Troelstra. [6]
He was in behalf of the party on a visit in Amsterdam where he met Sarah (Lientje) Piller (probably 1918-1920) She was employed by the Telephone company. They married and Herman (that is the name he went by) and Lientje moved to Heerlen in Limburg where he opened a barbershop and started a new branch of the party. [1]
After his barbershop, he started a clothing store opposite the railway station in Heerlen under the name Magazijn Utrecht, which was the only one in town to offer clothes on installments. A godsend for working-class families. He also lived there with his family. [1]
From 1927 he was a city councilor for the SDAP. After the war this name would be changed to PvdA, Partij van de Arbeid, because that pre-war name was too similar to NSDAP, the name of the Hitler Party.
In 1929 he founded the SDVP (Social Democratic People’s Party).
Van der Ploeg judged that the undemocratic method of nominating candidates within the SDAP silenced the workers. In 1931, with a view to the Provincial Council elections, the party merged with some other leftist groups under the name Vereenigde Onafhankelijke Democraten. [2]
Thus, 1927-1931 he was a member of the city council in Heerlen, successively for the SDAP and the SDVP. The latters’ list leader in the 1929 Dutch parliamentary elections. List leader Vereenigde Onafhankelijke Democraten at the 1931 Limburg Provincial Council elections. [3]

His wife was a Jew, which of course would strongly influence the rest of his life. Even before the war, he smuggled Jewish families across the border from Germany until he was noticed. [1]
During the war, like some other Social Democrats, he worked in loose association with other helpers of Jews around Father Beatus van Beckhoven. Like him he was a great Resistance networker.
He managed to arrange hiding addresses or new identities for many people. A former employee, who had married a German, got a job as a receptionist at the SiPo in Maastricht and warned them, when danger threatened. Wife and children could leave the house until the coast was clear. They could thus continue to live at home during the occupation. [1]
Cammaert wrote about him among other things: began organizing meetings in his home shortly after the German invasion. Small resistance groups soon emerged. On June 13, 1942, he was arrested as a hostage and taken to Haaren. When he was released four months later, he continued his resistance work despite a lung disease contracted in captivity. His home became the distribution center of the Parool [4] in the region. Regular meetings of workers of the L.O., K.P. and O.D. took place there. Father Beatus stored all kinds of goods in his home, destined for the Jews in camp Westerbork. On April 16, 1944, this Heerlen social-democrat died of his lung disease. [5]

Is Van der Ploeg a war victim or not after all? On the day when he and other hostages were transported to Haaren, the following had happened: An elderly man was cold because the truck was only partially covered and Herman gave him his coat. He was declared for "lagerunfähig" (unfit for the camp) because of his illness and sent home. His final cause of death was lung cancer, ALSO caused by cigars. [1]
Anyway, we must not forget this brave fighter against every form of injustice.

Footnotes

1. Kogel/Piller Site, genealogie Hendrikus van der Ploeg
2. Univeriteit Groningen: Research DNPP Politieke partijen Sociaal-Democratische Volkspartij (SDVP)
3. huygens instituut, Repertorium kleine politieke partijen 1918-1967 H. van der Ploeg
4. Het Parool tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog
5. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   6. De Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers p.668
6. Wikipedia
   1. Pieter Jelles Troelstra • Nederlands • Deutsch • English
   2. Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij • Nederlands • English • Français