Emigrant backs plan to name streets after resistance men

Alkmaar initiative stirs Sherry Todd

ALKMAAR - A private initiative to name more streets in this picturesque Noord-Holland town after local resistance men killed by the Germans during World War II has resonated well with at least one Alkmaar emigrant, now living in the U.S. Recently, Sherry Todd (nee De Jong) arranged to have flowers laid at a monument in memory of five Alkmaar heroes who were executed in regional neighbour Zaandam on March 10, 1945.

Sherry Todd had been dismayed to learn that authorities in her native town never had placed flowers at the monument to the five, executed as a reprisal for the shooting of a Dutch SD informant in Zaandam, a few days earlier. The Rockford, Illinois woman has been living in the U.S. since the late 1940s, but keeps abreast of local news from her home town through articles forwarded to her by her family in the Netherlands.

One of these articles relayed news of the efforts by Remco Cevat and his grandfather Jan to have Alkmaar streets named after the five men murdered in Zaandam. Remco is the grandson and Jan the brother of one of the men whose names are inscribed on the Zaandam monument. According to the one-metre high black marble memorial, G. H. (Gep) Cevat, A.J. (Toon) van de Kamer, Rens Rèmpt, Johannes P.J. van Roon and Willem Zwart ‘died for freedom.’ The memorial is located near the Bernhard Bridge. Students of Zaandam’s Compaen high school have adopted and care for the monument.

Two streets in Alkmaar have been named after local resistance men Fritz Conijn and Jan de Bie. At least eighteen local resistance workers were killed in action or executed during the German occupation of the Netherlands.