* Zwolle 30 Juni 1896
† Amsterdam, may 8 1945
This newspaper clipping assumes that death occurred on 8 May 1845. Various statements, the population register and the medical certificate of death (issued by a medical practitioner) state that the death date was 7 May 1845.
Willem, the son of Piet Cieraad and Gerritdiena Hermina Arends, was born in Zwolle on 30 June 1896. On 9 August 1923 he married the 21 year old Antje Smit there. After they had moved to Amsterdam, Willem found a job with a bailiff. Their second child died immediately after birth, but the couple would have 4 more children, all sons. Their address in Amsterdam was Langestraat 78-I.
William’s youngest son Gerard relates:
“As a 4 year old, I had gone to the celebrations on Dam square together with my parents. My mother thought that it was too crowded and decided to leave with me. My father was shot in front of the portal of the Nieuwe Kerk (“New Church”). Afterwards his body was laid out in the Nieuwe Kerk where my mother and I went to view him.”
Signed Gerard H. Cieraad
On 7 May 1945 Willem died as a result of gunshot wounds according to both the medical certificate of death (issued by a medical practitioner) and the police report. However, the data on the registered death certificate contains incorrect formatting with the date of death listed as 8 May 1945 which was subsequently copied onto the death notice.
Willem is buried at the Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats.
In 1948 Antje Smit remarried Gerrit Jan Nooteboom who passed away 5 years later.
The family also told us about the resistance work of their brother Piet(1923-1998),the eldest son of Willem.Piet has been betrayed by one of his own people and was maltreated by the SS. As a political prisoner he has been locked up for 3,5 years in several concentration camps.He was captured in Amsterdam,house of detention, and transferred to Vught and Amersfoort. He arrived in Natzweiler-Struthof on July 10 1943 and from there he was transferred to Dachau were he arrived on September 16 1944.After the liberation of Dachau he was admitted in a American and Dutch hospital. On Saturday July 14 1945 Piet returned home. Afterwards Piet worked by the police. Piet was carrier of the resistance memorial cross.
