Wilhelmus Petrus Bakker – Willem

* Amsterdam, August 21 1900
† Amsterdam, May 8 1945

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On April 5, 1931 Willem Bakker married Trijntje (Truus) Kint in Amsterdam. They did not have any children.

On Willem’s death certificate the cause of death is listed as a gunshot wound. It is unknown if he died a day later from his injuries or if the date is a mistake. Two relatives confirm that he was shot at the Dam on May 7, 1945 and that this was the cause of his death.

 

 

 

His nephew Henricus Bernardus Vloothuis (1929): “Uncle Willem was indeed a victim of the Dam-shooting; I do not know if he died the day after”. Mr. Vloothuis barely knew his uncle, there was little contact.

Together with his cousin Ben he was also at the Dam and witnessed the shootings: “We heard later that the shootings took place because a German car had been stopped at the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, where the Germans were ordered to leave their car. They were taken to the Groote Club on the Dam and were displeased about that. The shots fanned out over us and we tried to hide, I lost sight of my cousin. I stumbled and people fell on top of me. I thought: ’now there is less of a chance that the bullets will hit me.”

His father worked at the Hotel-Restaurant De Roode Leeuw on the Damrak, to the left of which was a furniture shop. “We all stood pressed up against each other and someone broke a door window so we could hide inside.”

Another nephew of Willem Bakker’s is Willem Kint, his father was Willem’s wife Trijntje’s brother. He was also aware that Willem Bakker was shot at the Dam, but he does not know if he died that day or the day after.

Willem Bakker owned a pub at the Nieuwendijk near the Oude Brugsteeg. Before that he had been a purser with the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland and sailed to Makassar and other places.

Willem’s wife Trijntje lost other family members during the war as well. Jan Benedictus, her brother Piet’s son, was also was a war victim http://www.erelijst.nl/jan-benedictus–kint.

Her sister Sieuwtje, witness at her marriage, and her husband Pieter Leijen are named on the Yad Vashem list http://www.dedokwerker.nl/copy/yadvashem_netherlands.pdf.

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