Adrian Hoekstra

Additionally, he contributed to the provision of information about airfields, railway lines, mine production and German troop movements, to the Allies in Britain.

After the Dutch capitulation, Hoekstra was recruited to the resistance movement by Mr. Abeelen, an associate of Colonel Jan Somer, and soon became the leader of the OD[1] in Oosterhout.

[2] In that group, Hoekstra coordinated the passing of information regarding troop movements, local airfields, railway lines and so on, through channels to the Allies in Britain.

The boat’s skipper, Kees Zwaans,[4] in conjunction with two other local residents, Twaan Maintz[5] and Frans Kooimans, had set up a group called they named MaZwaKo,[6] initialisms of their surnames, to coordinate the resistance activities in the area.

Around the time Hoekstra arrived on board and became involved Kooimans left the group, though he continued hiding Jewish families and pilots.

MaZwaKo also worked with the Pietab-OXO[7] resistance cell, which operated around Utrecht in the north of the Netherlands, as well as with the remnants of Hoekstra’s original group from the Oosterhout area.

Increasingly he travelled around the Netherlands accompanying fugitives from the Nazis to be dropped off at other safe houses, picking up microfilm, documents and other information, and liaising with the various cells, especially Pietab-OXO.

He sought refuge in St Peter Canisius Church, Duisburg, and was able to stay until the advancing Allied army took control of the area and he could return to the Netherlands.

These were accepted by the Dutch War Archives when he returned to the Netherlands for the celebrations in May 1995 Hoekstra died of cancer at Camden (NSW, Australia) on 7 February 1998.

In September 2024, descendants of the members of the MaZwaKo resistance group and their helpers throughout the war gathered in Born and Schipperskerk in Limburg to commemorate their heroism.

[9][10][11][12] A monument was unveiled in a ceremony attended by representatives of the King, the Army, the Yad Vashem Jewish Holocaust museum, and two of Hoekstra's children.