Gerrit Cornelis Huig
In 2018 appeared in the Netherlands the film “The Resistance Banker” about the banker Walraven van Hall during World War 2. This movie puts several people in the spotlight, but one is missing. That’s Gerrit Cornelis Huig.
Gerrit Huig (1906–1973) lived the last 6 years of his life with his wife Aagje Huig Bolding in the house “Elsoo” on the Duinweg in Hoorn, Terschelling, the Netherlands. Few know that the printer Gerrit Huig from Zaandam played a crucial role in the Zaan resistance.
From 1942, men were chartered in the occupied territories to work in the German factories. In 1943, this was even made mandatory for all men between the ages of 18 and 35. In the night of 20 to 21 May 1943, the Regional Employment Office in Zaandam was blown up by the Zaan resistance group in which Gerrit and Aagje Huig were involved.[1] This explosion can be seen in the movie “The Resistance Banker”. Because the entire employment office was burned up, a large part of the personal registration and addresses of men also disappeared, so that they could no longer be called up for the labor service in Germany.
The explosion was carried out by the former Employment Office employee Frans van Os and
Douwe Soepboer, police officer and chief of the Zaandam artillery. They entered the building with eighty kilograms of light ash, a fast-burning detonator. A fire was made of paper and the gas tap was turned on. After the fuse was lit, the building was ablaze in five minutes. Gerrit and Aagje Huig lived diagonally across from the Employment Office — the explosives had been stored there — and stood on the lookout with a pistol. Aagje Huig herself called the police to report the fire.
The entire project was set up to resemble a gas explosion. After this action something seemed to go wrong, people were concerned that it had been leaked that employees of the artillery facilities were involved in the attack. On the advice of Douwe Soepboer, Gerrit Huig contacted Walraven van Hall. It is not stated exactly how Walraven van Hall solved it. The actual cause of the explosion was not discovered by the Germans and no reprisal measures were taken.
After this, a close collaboration between Gerrit Huig and Walraven van Hall started.[2] Van Hall brought him into contact with the well-known identity card forger Gerrit van der Veen. With the growth of the resistance, there was a greater need for false identity cards, stamps and all kinds of documents.[3] Together with Dirk Kleiman of Litho Zaanlandia, who employed draughtsmen, typesetters and cliché makers, and Gerrit van der Veen, who made the forgeries, these were printed at the Huig printing house. As a result, Drukkerij Huig was an important supplier of illegal newspapers and false identity cards. Due to betrayal, part of the group was arrested, Huig initially managed to escape thanks to a warning from the draughtsman Ernst Felder.[4]
From 1941, Walraven van Hall had started financing the so-called Zeemanspot, which made clandestine payments to families of merchant marine crews. The Dutch merchant marine was offshore and had no intention of returning to the Netherlands after the capitulation, depriving their families of income. Walraven van Hall had sailed himself — he had been to the nautical school on Terschelling — and he was concerned about the fate of the merchant navy seamen.[5]
Following on from the Zeemanspot, during a meeting at Gerrit Huig’s house with Walraven van Hall, Jaap Buys and Jaap Boot, there was discussion about aid to people in hiding, to the resistance and to Jews, all financed through the National Support Fund.[6] This fund was set up by Walraven van Hall and Iman J. van den Bosch. During the hunger winter of 1944/45, approximately 50,000 people would receive money through the National Support Fund. In total, almost 110 million guilders were collected for the resistance in the Netherlands.[7]
In October 1943, the Kleiman group was betrayed and some of them were arrested, including the Huig couple and their associates. The staff and Aagje Huig are released, but Gerrit Huig remained captive.[8]
More than a year later, Walraven van Hall would be arrested. On New Year’s Day 1945 he had visited Aagje Huig to encourage her. The same month of January, Walraven van Hall was arrested and executed a month later in Haarlem.[9]
Gerrit Huig is transported to concentration camp Vught in January 1944. At the registration he was asked about his profession, to which he said: printer. To this the German replied:
“Das kann man besser nicht sein”[10] (You better should not be that)
after which Gerrit Huig gave up the profession of bookseller. The German knew that printers in the concentration camps were short-lived. After several months of printing in the camp, they were executed for knowing too much. The German had saved his life by this remark. Gerrit Huig stayed in camp Vught from 28 January 1944. The medical file of Gerrit Huig from camp Vught shows that he was admitted to the camp hospital from March 2, 1944 to March 23, 1944. On March 27, 1944 he was transferred to the German Untersuchungs- und Strafgefängnis on the Wolvenplein in Utrecht. He is then transported to the Siegburg penal prison near Cologne.[11] Many did not survive the stay in Siegburg, but fortunately Gerrit Huig did. In April 1945 he was liberated by the Allies.
Shortly after the war, Drukkerij Huig published the commemorative book “The Zaanstreek in sad and happy days” with many photos from 1940–45. Gerrit Huig writes the foreword with a tribute to his fallen friend Walraven van Hall.[12] Later Gerrit Huig wrote about Walraven van Hall:
“He always had an open ear for my difficulties and plans. His concern for my well-being was remarkable. Every time I went to see him, he warned me to be careful.”[13]
Possibly because of his Jewish contacts, Gerrit Huig traveled to Tel Aviv in 1948 where he was present at the proclamation of the state of Israel by David Ben Gurion.[14]
Gerrit Huig was again active in his printing business in the following years. In 1957, Drukkerij Huig was renovated and reopened by Queen Juliana, a clear token of appreciation for Huig’s role in the Zaan resistance.
In 1967 Gerrit Huig decided to retire. The Huig couple settled on Terschelling. Gerrit Huig died in 1973, his wife two years later. They are buried in the cemetery of the Reformed Church in Hoorn.
Djurre Buiskool
Dirk Buiskool
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The original version of the article about Gerrit Cornelis Huig was published in Dutch in the Autumn 2018 edition, in Schylge myn Lantse, Magazine for the cultural history of the island of Terschelling, the Netherlands.
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Literature
- Boot, J. Na 50 jaar. Herinneringen aan de tweede wereldoorlog in de Zaanstreek, Zaandam 1995.
- Sanders, P. Het Nationaal Steunfonds. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van de financiering van het verzet, 1941–1945. ‘s Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhoff, 1960.
- Schaap, E. Walraven van Hall. Premier van het verzet (1906–1945) Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland, Wormer, 2006.
- Walraven van Hall. Februari 1906, 12 Februari 1945. Diverse auteurs.
-1940–1945 De Zaanstreek in droeve en blijde dagen. Uitgever en samensteller G.C. Huig. Drukkerij C. Huig, maart 1946.
-The Resistance Banker trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7bKkoT3p4I
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Endnotes
[1] Boot 1995:35, 36.
[2] Schaap 2006:23, 24, 25.
[3] Schaap 2006: 67, 68.
[4] Boot 1995: 24.
[5] Walraven van Hall attended the Willem Barentsz nautical school on Terschelling from 1922. In 1925 he passed his exam at the Maritime Academy. In 1925 he is a helmsman's apprentice, and in 1928 third helmsman. Walraven van Hall sailed in the 1930s as an officer of the merchant marine.(Schaap 2006: 23,24, 25, 52–59)
[6] Boot 1995: 36.
[7] Sanders 1960. Cover.
[8] Schaap 2006: 67,68.
[9] Boot 1995: 36; Schaap 2006: 145, 164; G.C. Huig in: Walraven van Hall. Diverse auteurs: 33.
[10] Memory Dirk Buiskool of conversations with Gerrit Huig between 1968-1973.[11] Gerrit Huig most likely ended up in the penitentiary in Siegburg. It is in any case certain that a number of other Dutch nationals who stood trial together with Huig were transferred to Siegburg. Information from the Institute for War Documentation with thanks to René van Heijningen.
[12] 1940–1945 De Zaanstreek in droeve en blijde dagen. Uitgever en samensteller G.C. Huig. Drukkerij C. Huig, maart 1946.
[13] Schaap 2006: 111; G.C. Huig in: Walraven van Hall. Diverse auteurs: 33
[14] Memory Dirk Buiskool of conversations with Gerrit Huig between 1968-1973..
