Willem Theodorus Schermacher – Willem

* Amsterdam  October 11 1879
† Amsterdam  May  7 1945

schermacherwwwWillem died at age 65 on May 7, 1945 at 3 pm of shots that perforated his lungs. He was buried on May 11 at the “Nieuwe Ooster” cemetery.

Willem lived at Govert Flinckstraat 156 with his wife Theresia Telman (1878-1960).

 

His great-granddaughter Angela tells us:

“About my great-grandfather’s death I know that he was shot at the Dam. As far as I know he was there to buy cigarettes. After he was wounded he hid in an entrance way and called out for help, knocked on a door, it is not known where exactly. In the end all help arrived too late …

Great-grandfather Schermacher was – as far as I know of course – a strict but honest man; he was called ‘Opa (grandpa) Schermacher’. The Schermacher family came from Amsterdam where Willem married in 1907. He and his wife lived in Germany for a couple of years where a couple of their children were born. By way of Dinxperlo (1931) and Apeldoorn the family moved back to Amsterdam in 1937.

 

The war must have been difficult for him as well. He must have been very happy when we were liberated; the famine during the winter of 1944 also hit their family. 

On May 7 ‘grandpa’ Schermacher left their house saying he was going to the Dam to get something and watch the crowd. When he didn’t return home and the rumors were slowly reaching the family, panic broke out and they went looking for him. In the end they found him in the hospital, where he had succumbed to his wounds.

As so many others my great-grandfather was an innocent bystander who was brutally killed by the Germans. He couldn’t get to safety in time and when he was wounded he crawled to an entrance way for cover. He banged on the door and shouted out but it came to nothing – understandable, everybody was scared.

When they finally took him to the hospital he had probably lost a lot of blood already. And that’s how he died, during the liberation, after a gruesome war.

My great-grandmother did not remarry. I never knew her.”

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